A Centralized Approach to the Logging Mechanisms of Distributed Complex ERP Applications

Complex software applications traverse a multitude of running or idling states that depend on their implementation phase (development, testing, debugging, and exploitation). The applications can be monitored by letting them produce descriptive messages, the corresponding data being logged and usually marked according to their meaning or severity (info, debug, warning, error and fatal). Our software platform (Crosweb) provides the generic tools for implementing complex Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications and has its component software modules divided into several levels, the main ones being responsible for the infrastructure, the data management, the business logic, and user interfaces. Any of the mentioned components can produce logging messages, and the reporting methods can vary according to the place they occupy in the software hierarchy. The physical location of each software component can differ, their running environments often being distributed across several computing systems connected via various communication protocols. All these factors add complexity to the logged data inspection process. The current paper presents a solution that centralizes the logging information issued by the Crosweb components for ensuring a better exposure of the associated information and for simplifying the solutioning of the reflected problems.