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Pro tip – define your log repository as a Chrome Custom Search Engine

If you have a production app, you should be using some log repository (we use Splunk at Commerce Sciences).

Now, Splunk is great, but it’s causing us a bit of a headache – whenever we access it, we have to go through a few pages of login (not really needed), and a page requesting we upgrade to the latest version (we usually ignore it). All and all, it takes too much time and friction to search for logs.

Today, I had a cool idea – why not configure a Chrome Custom Search Engine and save us the trouble? It turns out it works and it’s awesome (it makes your log just a CTRL-L away). Just add a new Splunk search engine (read the help if you need), enter your favorite keyboard shortcut (I went with “spl”, but you can use “log”) and as a URL enter

http://yoursplunkserver.com/en-US/app/search/flashtimeline?q=search%20%s

That’s it – you just made your logs a whole lot more accessible. If you try this on another log repository other than Splunk, please post your own URL as a comment. Enjoy!

2 Comments

  1. Elazar Leibovich:

    Try logstash and graylog2. I heard splunk could be expensive.

    Also, I’ll fail the integration tests if any warning or error occured during normal uses.

  2. ripper234:

    @Elazar – this post isn’t about choosing yuor log framework (we already use Splunk at CommerceSciences and have no reason to switch – it’s working great for us).

    Also, you always get production errors that don’t show up on integration tests … it’s an entirely different post to discuss “how much integration testing is enough”