How do i use my own log4j properties or xml file in JBoss

This article is mainly for those who had a hard time configuring "their own" log4j.properties or log4j.xml within their application on JBoss. For a brief background on this, please read through this JBoss wiki. As explained in that wiki, JBoss uses its own version of log4j.xml and log4j jar, making it difficult to use your own version of the log4j properties/xml files. The wiki also lists down the steps required to configure your application to use its own log4j config file. However, i have seen people complain in the forums that those steps either dont work for them or the steps are too involved and not worth a try.

People at JBoss had taken note of these issues (see the related JIRA) and starting JBoss-4.2.x, the steps involved to configure your own log4j config file in JBoss are pretty simple and straight-forward. In this example, i will try to explain these steps for a EAR file as well as a WAR file. The version that i am using here is JBoss-4.2.2GA (which is the latest stable version at this point). In the examples here, i use a log4j.properties file. The steps are the same even for a log4j.xml.

So here's what is required to get it working in a EAR file:

1) Create a log4j.properties and package it with your application and make it available in the classpath (i placed the log4j.properties file at the root of the EAR file).

2) Also package the appropriate version of log4j jar with your application (this step and the next step are important because you will have to ensure that log4j initializes separately for your application and picks up the log4j.properties file). Place this log4j jar file in the application package so that it is made available in the classpath (i placed it in a folder named lib of the EAR file - remember that any jars in the lib folder of the EAR are by default added to the classpath and made available to the entire application, starting JBoss-4.2.x version).

3) Enable classloader isolation for your application. This is necessary as explained in step#2. You will have to create a jboss-app.xml file and place it in the META-INF folder of the EAR. The jboss-app.xml looks like:

<jboss-app>
 <loader-repository>
   org.myapp:loader=MyClassLoader
   <loader-repository-config>
      java2ParentDelegation=false
   </loader-repository-config>
 </loader-repository>
   
</jboss-app> 

This is how the EAR file would look like:

myApp.ear
  |
  |--- log4j.properties
  |
  |--- META-INF
  |     |
  |     |--- application.xml
  |     |
  |     |--- jboss-app.xml
  |
  |--- lib
  |     |
  |     |--- log4jxxx.jar 

That's it! Your application now will use it own version of log4j config file as well log4j jar.

Steps involved for a WAR file are similar (If the WAR file is part of an EAR file, then you don't have to follow the steps below. The steps mentioned above for an EAR file are sufficient for a WAR inside an EAR):

1) Create a log4j.properties and package it with your application and make it available in the classpath (i placed the log4j.properties file in the WEB-INF/classes folder of the WAR).

2) Also package the appropriate version of log4j jar with your application (this step and the next step are important because you will have to ensure that log4j initializes separately for your application and picks up the log4j.properties file). Place this log4j jar file in the application package so that it is made available in the classpath (i placed it in a WEB-INF/lib of the WAR file).

3) Enable classloader isolation for your application. This is necessary as explained in step#2. You will have to create a jboss-web.xml file and place it in the WEB-INF folder of the WAR. The jboss-web.xml looks like:

<jboss-web>
    <class-loading java2ClassLoadingCompliance="false">
 <loader-repository>
 org.myapp:loader=MyClassLoader
 <loader-repository-config>java2ParentDelegation=false</loader-repository-config>
 </loader-repository>
 </class-loading>
</jboss-web>  

This is how the WAR file would look like:

myApp.war
  |
  |--- WEB-INF
  |     |
  |     |--- web.xml
  |     |
  |     |--- jboss-web.xml
  |     |
  |     |--- classes
  |     |     |
  |     |     |--- log4j.properties
  | 
  |
  |--- lib
  |     |
  |     |--- log4jxxx.jar