Easiest way to log java.time.Instant (and similar) as strings

[djarnis73]

Hi

I have been googling around looking for at simple way to configure the encoder to log structured objects containing java.time.Instant fields as strings.

For instance if I log like:

log.atInfo().addKeyValue("event", event).log("Event handled");

any java.time.Instant fields in the event object are logged as decimal value like 1724834916.765, and I would prefer an easier human readable form, like for instance "2024-08-28T12:41:30.459867Z".

Can this be done without a custom Decorator?

In a project that uses the ObjectMapper this can be achieved by configuring like:

ObjectMapper objectMapper = new ObjectMapper()
            .registerModule(new JavaTimeModule())
            .disable(SerializationFeature.WRITE_DATES_AS_TIMESTAMPS);

I did search google / issues / PRs / discussions without finding anything.

[djarnis73]

Just to quickly answer my own question. The example in the readme (using a project local ISO8601DateDecorator) works fine. I was just wondering if there was a way to do this without additional classes.

[djarnis73]

Would it make sense to add a net.logstash.logback.decorate.FeatureObjectMapperDecorator where you can enable/disable features on the ObjectMapper? I think I would be able to contribute that if it would be accepted.

[philsttr]

logstash-logback-encoder 9.0 has a DateTimeFeatureDecorator you can use to enable/disable DateTimeFeature.WRITE_DATES_AS_TIMESTAMPS