Write to tm1server.log file from Turbo Intergrator (TI) process in Cognos TM1

All TM1 developers often use the TI function AsciiOutput to write to a file.  Most circumstances that lead to using AsciiOutput function is during troubleshooting of a TI process.
 
When the process does not behave as expected, we put the contents of multiple variables in a file at various places in the code, in conjunction with ProcessQuit and troubleshoot an issue.

What if you ever wanted to write something to tm1server.log, say to troubleshoot an issue or to capture information of your TI events?

Option 1: Use AsciiOutput

One of the options we have, is to use AsciiOutput.  Pitfall with this approach is that you will loose all the entries in tm1server.log, prior to the execution of your TI process.  This is not a preferred method to do it anyway!  (Unless AsciiAppend functionality sees light of the day, which hasn’t happened in last few years)

AsciiOutput (GetProcessErrorFileDirectory | ‘tm1server.log’, ‘This is a sample message’);

Option 2: Use Custom script (VB or Java)

Secondly, you could write a custom VB or Java script that accepts string as parameter and you could call the script using ExecuteCommand.  The script can be written in such a way to append to the tm1server.log file.  One thing to bear in mind is that the string that gets appended to the file, has the same column format as the tm1server.log.  This way the messages are standardized and your message doesn’t stand out.

Option 3: Use Java extensions in TI

With the Java Extension support in TI, IBM provides you the capability of writing to the tm1server.log.  Here’s the link to the article, explaining you how to do it.

Option 4: Use the new TI function LogOutput

Please read this completely before trying it out.  With 10.2.2 there are new loggers available.  Among them is TM1.TILogOutput; this logger allows you to write messages directly to the tm1server.log file.
Let’s create a simple TI Process with following lines of code and execute it:

LogOutput (‘INFO’, ‘HELLO WORLD – INFORMATION’);
LogOutput (‘DEBUG’, ‘HELLO WORLD – DEBUG’);
LogOutput (‘ERROR’, ‘HELLO WORLD – ERROR’);

LogOutput (‘info’, ‘Hello World – Innformation’);
LogOutput (‘debug’, ‘Hello World – Debug’);
LogOutput (‘error’, ‘Hello World – Error’);

The output will look like this:

The 1st parameter of the LogOutput function expects the message level – Info, Debug or Error.  It is NOT case-sensitive.  As evidenced by the output, the lines are repeated in the tm1server.log.  The output is tempting for those with curious eyes.  The line for debug (2nd and 4th in the TI) is not printed out.  For the TI to print out debug messages in the log file, we’d need to enable the logger TM1.LogOutput in tm1s-log.properties file.

If you already have a tm1s-log.properties file, then all you need to do is add this line.  If you do not have this file, you can locate one in the directory of each sample TM1 database.

log4j.logger.TM1.TILogOutput=DEBUG

Now re-run your process.  The output will look like this.

Passing Remark on tm1s-log.properties file:

• tm1s-log.properties file should be located in the same directory as that of TM1s.cfg file

• To suspend the logging set the logger value to OFF (log4j.logger.TM1.TILogOutput=OFF)
  

Reference – TM1 Taking a Peek Under the Covers, and Learning how to Troubleshoot (Session #1169 @ IBM Vision 2015)