Logging From Your Rails Models

update 2010/10/16: RAILS_DEFAULT_LOGGER is deprecated. I’m using ActiveRecord::Base.logger now as in:

ActiveRecord::Base.logger.debug "value of x is #{x}"

read on for the older solution…

I just spent five minutes figuring out how to log from a model class in Rails (or any class that isn’t a controller or view). Y’see, there is no “logger” method on an ActiveRecord for instance.  Once again Robby to the rescue with an oblique mention of the RAILS_DEFAULT_LOGGER global. I love that guy.

Related: I wonder what Jamis circa ‘05 was talking about when he said:

_Note: logging is a bad example here, because Rails already has very good support for logging. Furthermore, recent Rails releases support a _service_ keyword, for declaring and using system-global services in the same manner described here._

Huh? Service keyword?