Basic Parser

The Basic Parser does a simple scan on every entry in your log file and analyses it on a best effort basis.  The Basic Parser works best on log entries that generally conform to the Apache Log4 standard (with fields like date, level, and message).

The advantage of the Basic Parser is that it requires no configuration.  The disadvantage is that it is forced to make assumptions.  These assumptions make the parser slower and more error prone.  For these reasons, we always recommend using the Pattern Parser where possible.

The basic parser looks at each entry and tries to identify three things:

1. The date and time the log entry was written.  This field is required.  If LogViewPlus cannot identify this field, the file will not be parsed successfully (see below). 

2. The level for this log entry. For example, Debug, Info, Warn, Error, and Fatal.  This field is optional.

3. The log entry message.  This is a distinct field which occurs after the date and log level fields.

The Basic Parser uses a number of different techniques to identify the timestamp.  However, in the event that the timestamp cannot be identified, a warning will be displayed stating that the log file was not parsed correctly.  When a timestamp is ambiguous, the Basic Parser will assume an international date format instead of a US date format (such as, dd/MM/yyyy instead of MM/dd/yyyy).

The basic parser requires no configuration and will be used by default if no file mapping is found.


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