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title: Using the Logging View

• toc {:toc}

What is it?

The logging view displays events from the Dart runtime, application frameworks (like Flutter), and application-level logging events.

Standard logging events

By default the logging view shows:

• garbage collect events from the Dart runtime
• Flutter framework events, like frame creation events
• stdout and stderr from applications
• custom logging events from applications

Logging from your application

You have two options for logging from your application. The first is to just use stdout and stderr. Generally, this is done by using print statements, or by importing dart:io and invoking methods on stderr or stdout:

stderr.writeln('print me');

The other option for application logging is to use the dart:developer log method. This allows you to include a bit more granularity and information in the logging output. Here's an example:

import 'dart:developer' as developer;

void main() {
  developer.log('log me', name: 'my.app.category');

  developer.log('log me 1', name: 'my.other.category');
  developer.log('log me 2', name: 'my.other.category');
}

You can also pass application data to the log call. The convention for this is to use the error: named parameter on the log() call, JSON encode the object you want to send, and pass the encoded string to the error parameter.

import 'dart:convert';
import 'dart:developer' as developer;

void main() {
  var myCustomObject = ...;

  developer.log(
    'log me',
    name: 'my.app.category',
    error: jsonEncode(myCustomObject),
  );
}

The logging view will interpret the JSON encoded error param as a data object and render it in the details view for that log entry.

Showing network traffic

There is a preview version of a package that you can use to show your application's network traffic in the logging view. To use it, create a pubspec dependency on the logs package:

dependencies:
  logs:
    git: https://github.com/pq/logs

and, in your application code:

import 'package:logs/logs.dart';

final Log httpLog = new Log('http');

void main() {
  httpLog.enabled = true;
  ...

Once http logging is enabled, you should see http calls (those that ultimately go through dart:io's HttpClient class) logged to the logging view.

Clearing logs

To clear the log entries in the logging view, hit the Clear logs button.