This MuleSoft Meetup will focus on 2 subjects: logging and creating a custom connector and publishing the connector to Exchange.

1. Connect the Dots: Logging and Custom Connectors
April 17, 2019
Denver MuleSoft Meetup Group

2. All contents © MuleSoft Inc.
Agenda
2
• 6:00PM – Doors open
• 6:00PM - 6:30PM – Network, Eat, and Socialize
• 6:30PM - 6:35PM – Introductions
• 6:35PM - 7:00PM – Logging
• 7:00PM - 7:30PM – MuleSoft Custom Connectors
• 7:30PM - 7:45PM – Q&A
• 7:45PM - 8:00PM – Open Floor, Suggestions for Future Topics and
Speakers

3. All contents © MuleSoft Inc.
Introductions
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• About the organizer:
– Big Compass
– Tim Merkel
– Aaron Lieberman
– Linda Gunn

4. What are the 5 different logging levels that the
standard MuleSoft Logger Component uses?
Giveaway!

5. • The importance of logging
• Logging bad practice
• Best practices with logging
• Log4j 2
• Logging to different target systems
• MuleSoft Server Logs
• Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana (ELK)
• Creating Custom Connector
More Than Logging

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Why Log In The First Place?
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• System visibility
• System traceability
• Supportability
• Debugging

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Logging Bad Practice
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• No logging standards
• Hard coding
• Empty loggers
• Beware: CloudHub logs are
limited by size
– 100MB or 30 days, whichever comes
first

8. Demo
Logging Bad Practice

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Logging Best Practices
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• Standards, standards, standards
– JSON
– Key-value pairs
– Other formats
• Informative messages
– Visibility into the system
– Enhance debugging
– Before and after external system calls
• Request identifier
– Trace transaction from end to end
– Ability to calculate latency

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Logging Best Practices Continued
10
• Dynamic error messages
• Persisting logs to a system
– Maintain historical logs
– Allows non-technical users to access
and support applications
• Not too much logging, not too
little

11. Demo
Logging Best Practices

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Logging With Log4j 2
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• Configuration in
src/main/resources/log4j2.xml
• Components
– Configuration
– Appenders
• Use Log4J2CloudhubLogAppender to
continue to log to MuleSoft server logs
– Loggers
• Async Logger
– Log level

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Log4j 2 to ELK Stack
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Logging With Log4j 2 Continued
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• Deploying to CloudHub
– Disable CloudHub logging to allow
log4j2 configuration to take over
– Documentation:
https://docs.mulesoft.com/runtime-
manager/custom-log-appender
• Project code:
– https://github.com/BigCompass/mules
oft-meetup-logging-demo
• Apache documentation:
https://logging.apache.org/log4j/
2.x/

15. Demo
Logging With log4j and Visualizing in Kibana

16. The standard MuleSoft Logger component uses
what framework to log?
Giveaway!

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Creating a Custom Connector
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• Prerequisites
– Install all prerequisites listed here:
https://docs.mulesoft.com/connector-
devkit/3.9/setting-up-your-dev-
environment
• Creating a custom connector
– With Devkit installed, File > New >
Anypoint Connector Project
– Walk through steps documented to
create the Connector:
https://docs.mulesoft.com/connector-
devkit/3.9/creating-an-anypoint-
connector-project

18. All contents © MuleSoft Inc.
Working With A Custom Connector
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• Package structure
– Maven and pom.xml for dependency
management
– Implementation lives in src/main/java
• Implementation
– Source vs. Processor
• Error handling
• Custom icon
• JUnit tests

19. All contents © MuleSoft Inc.
Installing And Using The Connector
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• Right click >
Anypoint Connector
> Install or Update
• Use in a flow in a
Mule Project!

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Packaging a Custom Connector
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• Packaging your connector
for release
– Commands:
• Install the connector into your
local Maven repo: mvn clean
install
• Packaging the connector: mvn
clean package
– Documentation:
https://docs.mulesoft.com/con
nector-devkit/3.9/packaging-
your-connector-for-release

21. All contents © MuleSoft Inc.
Packaging a Custom Connector to Exchange
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• Publish to Exchange using
Maven
– Add your organization’s groupId
to pom.xml
– Add your organization’s
repository to pom.xml
– Add your organization’s
repository to Maven’s
settings.xml including
username and password
– Command: mvn deploy
– Documentation:
https://docs.mulesoft.com/exch
ange/to-publish-assets-maven

22. Demo
Creating a Custom Connector For Standardized Logging

23. All contents © MuleSoft Inc.
References and Documentation
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• Project Code
– Logging project code: https://github.com/BigCompass/mulesoft-meetup-logging-
demo
– Custom Connector project code: https://github.com/BigCompass/custom-logger-
connector
• Logj42
– Apache documentation: https://logging.apache.org/log4j/2.x/
– MuleSoft Documentation: https://docs.mulesoft.com/runtime-manager/custom-
log-appender

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References and Documentation Continued
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• Custom Connectors
– Prerequisites: https://docs.mulesoft.com/connector-devkit/3.9/setting-up-your-
dev-environment
– Creating a custom connector: https://docs.mulesoft.com/connector-
devkit/3.9/creating-an-anypoint-connector-project
– Packaging your connector for release: https://docs.mulesoft.com/connector-
devkit/3.9/packaging-your-connector-for-release
– Publish to Exchange using Maven: https://docs.mulesoft.com/exchange/to-
publish-assets-maven

25. Questions?

26. All contents © MuleSoft Inc.
What’s Next?
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• Share:
– Tweet your pictures with the hashtag #MuleMeetup
– Invite your network to join: https://meetups.mulesoft.com/denver/
• Feedback:
– Contact your organizer aaron@bigcompass.com or linda.gunn@bigcompass.com
to suggest topics
– Contact MuleSoft at meetup@mulesoft.com for ways to improve the program
• Our next meetup:
– Date: June 2019
– Location: TBD
– Topic: TBD

27. See you next time
Please send topic suggestions to the organizer