Log Helper

This highly configurable package offers some functions which help you to understand your console logs by colorizing the output and providing the current date.

Installation

npm i log-helper --save

Usage

There are 6 functions available:

• success(message, config)
• info(message, config)
• status(message, config)
• warning(message, config)
• error(message, config)
• setConfig(config)

Each logged message looks like the following:

currentDate + prependString + message;

All of this output is colored via the chalk package, and the color of the output is the main difference of all this functions.

Example

const logHelper = require('log-helper)';
const http = require('someFancyHttpModule');
 
logHelper.status('Start fetching http data');
http.get('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1').then((data) => {
    logHelper.success('Successfully fetched http data');
    if (data) {
        logHelper.info(`The data is: ${data}`);
    } else {
        logHelper.warning(`Empty data`);
    }
}).catch((error) => {
    logHelper.error(`Oh no! Something went wrong while fetching http data: ${error}`);
});

Configuration

Every function has the following configuration options:

• chalk: This is a string which defines the color of the message output.
• dateChalk: This is also a string, which defines the color of the current date.
• prependString: You can provide a string which automatically gets inserted between the current date and the message.
• dateFormat: This string defines in which format the date of the output gets logged.

NOTE: You do not have to configurate any of this options yourself, only if you don't like the default configuration.

To configurate the chalkor the dateChalk option, you do not have to directly use the chalk package. Instead, provide a string where each chalk option is separated with a dot. For example, if you want your message in a green, bold font, use the following as a config object:

{
    chalk: 'bold.green'
}

To what style options are available, have a look at the chalk package.

The date formatting work is done by the dateformat package. Have a look at the documentation to see the available format options.

There are two ways to configurate this package. You can either provide a config object as a second parameter in each if the five logging functions, or use the setConfig method. But there is a difference between these two ways: The first way will only configurate the message provided as the first parameter, while the second way will overwrite the default configuration.

const logHelper = require('log-helper');
 
// will be logged in the default green font
logHelper.success('It works!');
 
// will be logged in blue font
logHelper.success('It works!', {
    chalk: 'blue'
});
 
// will be logged in the default green font
logHelper.success('It works');
 
// now the default chalk setting for the success function will be overwritten
logHelper.setConfig({
    success: {
        chalk: 'bgBlack.white'
    }
});
 
// will be logged in a white font on black background
logHelper.success('It works');
 
// it is also possible to configurate multiple output functions at one time
logHelper.setConfig({
    error: {
        prependString: 'Oh no, there was an error: '
    },
    status: {
        chalk: 'bgWhite.bold.cyan',
        dateFormat: 'mm/dd/yyyy HH:MM:ss'
    },
    info: {
        dateChalk: 'bold.gray',
        prependString: '(Info): '
    }
})

If you use the setConfig method, the configuration will be used in your whole project:

// firstFile.js
const logHelper = require('log-helper');
 
logHelper.setConfig({
    success: {
        chalk: 'yellow'
    }
});
 
// secondFile.js
const logHelper = require('log-helper');
 
// will be logged in a yellow font
logHelper.success('It works!');

If you want to disable logging, use the setConfig method:

const logHelper = require('log-helper');
 
logHelper.setConfig({
    disableLogging: true
});
 
// will not be logged
logHelper.error('ERROR!');

Default configuration

This is the default configuration of all five logging functions.

{
    disableLogging: false,
    success: {
        chalk: 'green',
        dateChalk: 'white',
        prependString: null,
        dateFormat: "dd.mm.yyyy HH:MM:ss l'ms'"
    },
    info: {
        chalk: 'cyan',
        dateChalk: 'white',
        prependString: null,
        dateFormat: "dd.mm.yyyy HH:MM:ss l'ms'"
    },
    status: {
        chalk: 'gray',
        dateChalk: 'white',
        prependString: null,
        dateFormat: "dd.mm.yyyy HH:MM:ss l'ms'"
    },
    warning: {
        chalk: 'bold.yellow',
        dateChalk: 'white',
        prependString: null,
        dateFormat: "dd.mm.yyyy HH:MM:ss l'ms'"
    },
    error: {
        chalk: 'green',
        dateChalk: 'bold.bgWhite.red',
        prependString: 'An error occured: ',
        dateFormat: "dd.mm.yyyy HH:MM:ss l'ms'"
    }
}