Simple setup Log4j with GMail and recieve all errors as email

Receive all server exceptions as email, never miss one, easy to share and discuss with the others

Follow these simple steps to configure Log4j to use GMail.


Step 1: Add dependencies

        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.mail</groupId>
            <artifactId>mail</artifactId>
            <version>1.4</version>
        </dependency>
      
        <!-- Log4j -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>log4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
            <version>1.2.16</version>
            <exclusions>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>javax.mail</groupId>
                    <artifactId>mail</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>javax.jms</groupId>
                    <artifactId>jms</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>com.sun.jdmk</groupId>
                    <artifactId>jmxtools</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>com.sun.jmx</groupId>
                    <artifactId>jmxri</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
        </dependency>


Step 2: Sample logging file, inline comments are self explanatory
        https://github.com/intesar/Log4jGmail/blob/master/src/main/resources/log4j.xml

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
    <!DOCTYPE log4j:configuration SYSTEM "log4j.dtd">
    <log4j:configuration xmlns:log4j="http://jakarta.apache.org/log4j/">
       
        <!-- Appends events to console : compliments SMTPAppender -->
        <appender name="Console" class="org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender">
            <layout class="org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout">
                <param name="ConversionPattern" value="[${name}] - %d{ISO8601} - %X{login} - %m%n" />
            </layout>
        </appender>

        <!-- SMTP will only log error events -->
        <appender name="Email" class="org.apache.log4j.net.SMTPAppender">
            <param name="BufferSize" value="1" /> <!-- default is 512, changed for test cases to work -->
            <!-- GMail will not work without this, log4j 1.2.16 is required this why earlier versions required hack-->
            <param name="SMTPProtocol" value="smtps" />
            <param name="SMTPHost" value="smtp.gmail.com" />
            <param name="SMTPPort" value="465" />
            <param name="SMTPUsername" value="<email>" /> <!-- example@gmail.com -->
            <param name="SMTPPassword" value="<passowrd>" /> <!-- passowrd -->
            <param name="To" value="mdshannan@gmail.com" />
            <param name="Subject" value="Zytoon.me Error Log" />
            <layout class="org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout">
                <param name="ConversionPattern" value="[${name}] - %d{ISO8601} - %X{login} - %m%n" />
            </layout>
        </appender>

        <appender name="EMAIL_ASYNC" class="org.apache.log4j.AsyncAppender">
            <param name="BufferSize" value="1"/>
            <appender-ref ref="Email"/>
        </appender>

        <root>
            <priority value="trace" />
            <appender-ref ref="Email" />
            <appender-ref ref="Console" />
        </root>

    </log4j:configuration>


Sample Code

    import org.apache.log4j.Logger;

    public class App {

        private static Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(App.class);

        public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {

            logger.trace("trace message");

            logger.warn("warn message");

            logger.error("error message, a very long error message!");

            Thread.sleep(2000);
        }
    }

Fork it on Github https://github.com/intesar/Log4jGmail