Spring Boot + AOP + Logging Example (2024)

In this tutorial, we'll see how to use AspectJ (aop advice) to measure method execution time as a logging mechanism in Spring Boot applications to handle cross-cutting problems.

Let's start developing Spring Boot application with AOP.

Project Structure

Maven Dependency

The spring-boot-starter-aop dependency must be included when introducing AOP in spring boot. Spring-aop and aspectjweaver dependencies are imported into the application.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<project
	xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd"
	xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
	<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

	<groupId>com.techgeeknext</groupId>
	<artifactId>SpringBoot-AOP-Logging-Example</artifactId>
	<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
	<packaging>jar</packaging>

	<name>SpringBoot-AOP-Logging-Example</name>
	<description>SpringBoot AOP Logging Example</description>

	<parent>
		<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
		<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
		<version>2.3.1.RELEASE</version>
		<relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
	</parent>

	<properties>
		<project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
		<project.reporting.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.reporting.outputEncoding>
		<java.version>1.8</java.version>
	</properties>

	<dependencies>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
		</dependency>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-aop</artifactId>
		</dependency>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
		</dependency>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.apache.commons</groupId>
			<artifactId>commons-lang3</artifactId>
		</dependency>
	</dependencies>
</project>

Create Aspects

In spring boot, an aspect can be created using the @Aspect annotation and registered with a bean container using the @Component annotation. We can create advices as needed within the aspect class. For example, the following class applies to methods in all classes in the com.techgeeknext package. It logs the overall method execution time in the log file and records the method start and end times.

package com.techgeeknext.aop;

import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
import org.aspectj.lang.ProceedingJoinPoint;
import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Around;
import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Aspect;
import org.aspectj.lang.reflect.MethodSignature;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
import org.springframework.util.StopWatch;

@Aspect
@Component
public class LoggingAspectExample {
    private static final Logger LOGGER = LogManager.getLogger(LoggingAspectExample.class);

    @Around("execution(* com.techgeeknext..*(..)))")
    public Object logMethodExecutionTime(ProceedingJoinPoint proceedingJoinPoint) throws Throwable {
        MethodSignature methodSignature = (MethodSignature) proceedingJoinPoint.getSignature();

        final StopWatch stopWatch = new StopWatch();

        //calculate method execution time
        stopWatch.start();
        Object result = proceedingJoinPoint.proceed();
        stopWatch.stop();

        //Log method execution time
        LOGGER.info("TECHGEEKNEXT - Spring Boot Logging AOP EXAMPLE - Execution time of "
                + methodSignature.getDeclaringType().getSimpleName() // Class Name
                + "." + methodSignature.getName() + " " // Method Name
                + ":: " + stopWatch.getTotalTimeMillis() + " ms");

        return result;
    }
}

We can also use aspectj @Before and @After annotation advice to call before and after method execution.
Refer Spring Boot + AOP + Before After Advice Example

We can also use aspectj @AfterThrowing annotation advice for exception handling in the application.
Refer Spring Boot AOP Exception Handling

Employee Service to test Advice

We'll create simple service so that we can test our AOP logging Advice.

package com.techgeeknext.service;

import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Service;

import java.util.Random;

@Service
public class EmployeeService
{

	private static final Logger LOGGER = LogManager.getLogger(EmployeeService.class);

	public Object getEmployeeById(Integer empId)
	{
		try {
			Thread.sleep(new Random().nextInt(2000));
		} catch (InterruptedException exception) {
			LOGGER.error("Error occurred in business service : {}",exception.getMessage());
		}
        return empId;
    }
}

Create test class to test the AOP Advice.

package com.techgeeknext;

import com.techgeeknext.service.EmployeeService;
import org.junit.Test;
import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest;
import org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringRunner;

@RunWith(SpringRunner.class)
@SpringBootTest
public class LoggingAopSpringBootTest
{
	@Autowired
	private EmployeeService employeeService;

	@Test
	public void testGetEmployeeById() {
		employeeService.getEmployeeById(123);
	}
}

Test the Spring Logging AOP

Now, execute mvn spring-boot run command to start spring boot application. Once application has started, you can notice test class output from the console, which printed the AOP Advice logger statement with method execution time.

  .   ____          _            __ _ _
 /\\ / ___'_ __ _ _(_)_ __  __ _ \ \ \ \
( ( )\___ | '_ | '_| | '_ \/ _` | \ \ \ \
 \\/  ___)| |_)| | | | | || (_| |  ) ) ) )
  '  |____| .__|_| |_|_| |_\__, | / / / /
 =========|_|==============|___/=/_/_/_/
 :: Spring Boot ::        (v2.3.1.RELEASE)

16:10:30.705+0530 INFO Starting LoggingAopSpringBootTest on LAPTOP-S6R44CQL with PID 29016 (started in D:\SpringBoot-AOP-Logging-Example)
16:10:30.706+0530 INFO No active profile set, falling back to default profiles: default
16:10:32.526+0530 INFO Initializing ExecutorService 'applicationTaskExecutor'
16:10:32.845+0530 INFO Started LoggingAopSpringBootTest in 2.681 seconds (JVM running for 3.823)
16:10:34.772+0530 INFO
TECHGEEKNEXT - Spring Boot Logging AOP EXAMPLE - 
Execution time of EmployeeService.getEmployeeById :: 1523 ms

16:10:34.800+0530 INFO Shutting down ExecutorService 'applicationTaskExecutor'

Download Source Code

The full source code for this article can be found on below.
Download it here - Spring Boot + AOP + Logging Example