Easy to use logging class for PHP taken from Chris Valleriani blog article.

Logger.php

<?php

/**
 * +90% based on the article of Chris Valleriani
 * http://chrisvall.com/coding/php-easy-to-use-logging-class-for-your-scripts
 *
 * My changes:
 *
 * - force default timezone;
 * - defines a base dir for log files output 
 *   (sometimes I need to exec PHP through terminal, avoids "lost" log files);
 * - log files name format changed to Ymd_LogName;
 * - date format written to log file changed to H:i:s.
 */

date_default_timezone_set('Europe/Lisbon');

class Logger {
    private $lName = null;
    private $handle = null;

    const BASE_DIR = '/your/logs/path/';

    public function __construct($logName = null) {
        if ($logName) $this->lName = $logName; //Define Log Name!
        else $this->lName = "Log"; //Default name
        $this->logOpen(); //Begin logging.
    }

    function __destruct() {
        fclose($this->handle); //Close when php script ends (always better to be proper.)
    }

    //Open Logfile
    private function logOpen(){
        $fileName = self::BASE_DIR . date('Ymd') . '_' .  $this->lName;
        $this->handle = fopen($fileName, 'a') or exit("Can't open " . $fileName); //Open log file for writing, if it does not exist, create it.*/
    }

    //Write Message to Logfile
    public function logWrite($message){
        $time = date('H:i:s -'); //Grab Time
        fwrite($this->handle, $time . " " . $message . "\n"); //Output to logfile
    }

    //Clear Logfile
    public function logClear(){
        ftruncate($this->handle, 0);
    }
}

PHP_logging_basics.md

Overview

I needed a very simple and easy to use logging class for some PHP scripts I develop/maintain. I found a very straight forward approach on Chris Valleriani blog (here: http://chrisvall.com/coding/php-easy-to-use-logging-class-for-your-scripts). PHP_logging_basics.md

Setup

Just add Logger.php to your project.

Usage

<?php

require('Logger.php');

/* ... */

// init
$log = new Logger('YourLogName');

// add log entry
$log->logWrite('Starting...');

Other minor improvements

• Move base dir to constructor args;
• Create archiving option to compress log files and move them to folder structure like year/month/day/files.