Logging Custom, Non-User Events Examples

UserALE.js' API provides significant customization options; you can use it extend UserALE.js' out-of-the-box capabilities and log non-user events.

XMLHttpRequests

For user-workflow segmentation or more comprehensive instrumentation, it may be desirable to capture when the client sends requests to other services.

    req.onreadystatechange = function () {
      if (req.readyState == XMLHttpRequest.DONE) {
        userale.log({
          clientTime: Date.now(),
          type: 'XMLHttpRequest',
          logType: 'custom',
          userAction: 'false',
          details: JSON.parse(req.response),
          userId: userale.options().userId,
          useraleVersion: userale.options().useraleVersion,
          sessionID: userale.options().sessionID,
        });
      }
    }

The example above uses the userale.log API, allowing users to script their own log. However, the same effect is achieve with the userale.packageCustomLog API, which adds custom user field to the canonical UserALE.js schema.

The method above will similarly work with other types of requests (e.g., fetch, websocket, etc..)

Custom Integrations

In the example below, custom UserALE.js logs can be used for integration with other instrumentation packages such as OpenTelemetry. We can grab traceId's created by OpenTelemetry for tracing client requests throughout distributed systems and associate them with UserALE.js Logs. See the index.js for complete example modified from the OpenTelemetry UserInteraction Plugin.

    req.onreadystatechange = function () {
      if (req.readyState == XMLHttpRequest.DONE) {
        userale.log({
          clientTime: Date.now(),
          type: 'XMLHttpRequest',
          logType: 'custom',
          userAction: 'false',
          details: JSON.parse(req.response),
          userId: userale.options().userId,
          useraleVersion: userale.options().useraleVersion,
          sessionID: userale.options().sessionID,
          traceId: trace.getSpan(context.active())._spanContext.traceId
        });
      }
    }