In Drupal 7 how do you output array objects to be view able in watchdog error reports?

Question

For some reason I couldn't use devel to debug output object arrays. Is there a way to output the array data to watchdog error reporting? This would also solve the issue of having to install or enable another module.

Answer 1

You can use watchdog but the message part should be translatable, so any variables should use placeholders defined in the variables array. Check out format_string to see how these should work.

watchdog(
  'my_module_name',
  'Here is the printed variable: <pre>@placeholder_name</pre>',
  array('@placeholder_name' => print_r( $my_variable, TRUE)),
  WATCHDOG_INFO
);

Also, convention dictates that the first parameter, $type, should be the module name calling watchdog.

Answer 2

You can do the following to output array data to be viewed in watchdog:

// Directly use values.
watchdog("log_name", '<pre>' . print_r( $my_object, true) . '</pre>');

Then goto /admin/reports and look for "log_name".

Answer 3

If you don't mind enabling another module, though, I wrote Object Log for just this kind of thing:

https://www.drupal.org/project/object_log

It's lightweight, easier to use in code, more user-friendly to view, and doesn't get pushed down the log as other log events are recorded.