How to log Apache CXF Soap Request and Soap Response using Log4j?

Question

I am using the Apache CXF Framework. Inside my client program, I need to log CXF SOAP Requests and SOAP Responses. When I used

JaxWsProxyFactoryBean factory = new JaxWsProxyFactoryBean();
factory.setAddress(host);
factory.setServiceClass(MyService.class);
factory.getInInterceptors().add(new LoggingInInterceptor());
factory.getOutInterceptors().add(new LoggingOutInterceptor());

I got these SOAP Request and SOAP Responses in the console:

Nov 9, 2011 6:48:01 PM org.apache.cxf.interceptor.LoggingOutInterceptor$LoggingCallback onClose
INFO: Outbound Message
---------------------------
ID: 2
Encoding: UTF-8
Content-Type: text/xml
Headers: {}
Payload: <soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"><soap:Body><ns4:MYResponse
--------------------------------------

But my actual requirement is, instead of printing them to the server console, I need to have them inside the log file.

When I used log4j directly as shown

log4j(factory.getInInterceptors().add(new LoggingInInterceptor()));
log4j(factory.getOutInterceptors().add(new LoggingOutInterceptor()));

It is only printing true and true inside the log file.

Could anybody please let me know how to configure this?

Answer 1

You need to create a file named org.apache.cxf.Logger (that is: org.apache.cxf file with Logger extension) under /META-INF/cxf/ with the following contents:

org.apache.cxf.common.logging.Log4jLogger

Reference: Using Log4j Instead of java.util.logging.

Also if you replace standard:

<cxf:bus>
  <cxf:features>
    <cxf:logging/>
  </cxf:features>
</cxf:bus>

with much more verbose:

<bean id="abstractLoggingInterceptor" abstract="true">
    <property name="prettyLogging" value="true"/>
</bean>
<bean id="loggingInInterceptor" class="org.apache.cxf.interceptor.LoggingInInterceptor" parent="abstractLoggingInterceptor"/>
<bean id="loggingOutInterceptor" class="org.apache.cxf.interceptor.LoggingOutInterceptor" parent="abstractLoggingInterceptor"/>

<cxf:bus>
    <cxf:inInterceptors>
        <ref bean="loggingInInterceptor"/>
    </cxf:inInterceptors>
    <cxf:outInterceptors>
        <ref bean="loggingOutInterceptor"/>
    </cxf:outInterceptors>
    <cxf:outFaultInterceptors>
        <ref bean="loggingOutInterceptor"/>
    </cxf:outFaultInterceptors>
    <cxf:inFaultInterceptors>
        <ref bean="loggingInInterceptor"/>
    </cxf:inFaultInterceptors>
</cxf:bus>

Apache CXF will pretty print XML messages formatting them with proper indentation and line breaks. Very useful. More about it here.