This guide will walk you through installing the library and setting up a basic logging system in your WordPress project.
WP Simple Logger is designed to be installed as a Composer dependency within your plugin or theme.
composer require wptechnix/wp-simple-logger
After installation, ensure you include Composer’s autoloader in your project’s main startup file:
require_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';
The core of the library is the Manager class, which orchestrates all loggers and handlers. The following example demonstrates how to set up a logger that writes to a file.
Place this code in your main plugin file or theme’s functions.php.
<?php
use WPTechnix\WP_Simple_Logger\Manager;
use WPTechnix\WP_Simple_Logger\Handlers\File_Handler;
// A central function to initialize and retrieve the logger manager.
function my_project_logger_manager(): Manager {
static $manager = null;
if ( null === $manager ) {
// 1. Create the Manager instance.
$manager = new Manager();
// 2. Create a Handler. Let's use the File_Handler.
// It will write logs to wp-content/uploads/logs/my-project.log
$log_file_path = WP_CONTENT_DIR . '/uploads/logs/my-project.log';
$file_handler = new File_Handler( $log_file_path );
// 3. Add the handler to the manager.
$manager->add_handler( $file_handler );
// 4. Initialize the manager. This registers necessary WordPress hooks.
// This step is crucial for ensuring logs are saved correctly.
$manager->init();
}
return $manager;
}
// Hook the initialization into WordPress.
add_action( 'plugins_loaded', 'my_project_logger_manager' );
/**
* Example of how to use the logger elsewhere in your code.
*/
function some_function_that_does_stuff() {
// 5. Get a logger instance for a specific "channel".
$logger = my_project_logger_manager()->get_logger( 'user-actions' );
// 6. Log a message.
$current_user = wp_get_current_user();
$logger->info(
'User with ID {user_id} updated their profile.',
[
'user_id' => $current_user->ID,
'user_login' => $current_user->user_login,
]
);
}
add_action( 'profile_update', 'some_function_that_does_stuff' );
new Manager(): We create a single instance of the Manager, which will be the central hub for our logging system. We use a static variable to ensure it’s only created once.new File_Handler(...): We instantiate a handler. A handler is responsible for taking a log record and sending it to a destination (a file, a database, an email, etc.).$manager->add_handler(...): We register our handler with the manager. You can add multiple handlers to send logs to different places simultaneously.$manager->init(): This critical step registers the shutdown hook with WordPress. The logger buffers records in memory for performance and only writes them to their destination at the very end of the request. init() ensures this happens.$manager->get_logger('user-actions'): We request a PSR-3 logger instance for a specific channel. Channels are identifiers used to categorize logs. You can create loggers for different channels like ‘payments’, ‘api-requests’, or ‘debug’ to keep your logs organized.$logger->info(...): We call a standard PSR-3 logging method. The first argument is the message, and the second is an array of context data. Placeholders in the message (like {user_id}) are automatically replaced by values from the context array.After a user’s profile is updated, a new log entry will appear in /wp-content/uploads/logs/my-project.log:
[2023-10-27 15:30:00] user-actions.INFO: User with ID 1 updated their profile. {"user_id":1,"user_login":"admin"}
Now you have a fully functional logging system! To learn about other destinations and advanced configurations, explore the guides on Handlers and Formatters.