Fixes up README and adds tested support to buffering

README.md

@@ -1,26 +1,55 @@
-logstash-jdbc
-=============
+# logstash-jdbc
 JDBC output plugin for Logstash.
 This plugin is provided as an external plugin and is not part of the Logstash project.
 
-Warning
--------
+## Warning
 This has not yet been extensively tested with all JDBC drivers and may not yet work for you.
 
-Installation
-------------
+## Installation
   - Copy lib directory contents into your logstash installation.
+  - Create the directory vendor/jar/jdbc in your logstash installation (`mkdir -p vendor/jar/jdbc/`)
   - Add JDBC jar files to vendor/jar/jdbc in your logstash installation
   - Configure
 
-Example configuration
----------------------
+## Configuration options
+  * driver_class, string, JDBC driver class to load
+  * connection_string, string, JDBC connection string
+  * statement, array, an array of strings representing the SQL statement to run. Index 0 is the SQL statement that is prepared, all other array entries are passed in as parameters (in order). See example configurations below.
+  * flush_size, number, default = 1000, number of entries to buffer before sending to SQL
+  * idle_flush_time, number, default = 1, number of idle seconds before sending data to SQL, even if the flush_size has not been reached
+
+## Example configurations
+### SQLite3
+  * Tested using https://bitbucket.org/xerial/sqlite-jdbc
+  * SQLite setup - `echo "CREATE table log (host text, timestamp datetime, message text);" | sqlite3 test.db`
 ```
+input
+{
+	stdin { }
+}
+output {
+	stdout { }
+
+	jdbc {
+		driver_class => 'org.sqlite.JDBC'
+		connection_string => 'jdbc:sqlite:test.db'
+		statement => [ "INSERT INTO log (host, timestamp, message) VALUES(?, ?, ?)", "%{host}", "%{@timestamp}", "%{message}" ]
+	}
+}
+```
+
+### SQL Server
+  * Tested using http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/sqlserver/aa937724.aspx
+```
+input
+{
+	stdin { }
+}
 output {
 	jdbc {
 		driver_class => 'com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver'
 		connection_string => "jdbc:sqlserver://server:1433;databaseName=databasename;user=username;password=password;autoReconnect=true;"
-		statement => [ "INSERT INTO filezilla (host, connection_id, timestamp, username, client, command) VALUES(?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?)", "%{host}", "%{connection_id}", "%{timestamp}", "%{username}", "%{client}", "%{command}" ] 
+		statement => [ "INSERT INTO log (host, timestamp, message) VALUES(?, ?, ?)", "%{host}", "%{@timestamp}", "%{message}" ]
 	}
 }
 ```

lib/logstash/outputs/jdbc.rb

@@ -19,11 +19,9 @@ class LogStash::Outputs::Jdbc < LogStash::Outputs::Base
   # [ "insert into table (message) values(?)", "%{message}" ] 
   config :statement, :validate => :array, :required => true
 
-  # This plugin uses the bulk index api for improved performance.
-  # To make efficient bulk insert calls, we will buffer a certain number of
-  # events before flushing that out to SQL. This setting
-  # controls how many events will be buffered before sending a batch
-  # of events.
+  # We buffer a certain number of events before flushing that out to SQL.
+  # This setting controls how many events will be buffered before sending a
+  # batch of events.
   config :flush_size, :validate => :number, :default => 1000
 
   # The amount of time since last flush before a flush is forced.
@@ -83,17 +81,13 @@ class LogStash::Outputs::Jdbc < LogStash::Outputs::Base
     end
 
     begin
-      @logger.debug("Sending SQL to server", :event => event, :sql => statement.toString())      
+      @logger.debug("Sending SQL to server", :sql => statement.toString())      
       statement.executeBatch()
-    rescue Exception => e
-      @logger.error("JDBC Exception", :exception => e)
-
+    rescue => e
       # Raising an exception will incur a retry from Stud::Buffer.
       # Since the exceutebatch failed this should mean any events failed to be
-      # inserted will be re-run.
-      # We're only capturing the exception so we can pass it to the logger, log
-      # it and then re-raise it.
-      raise Exception.new("JDBC - Flush failed - #{e.message}")
+      # inserted will be re-run. We're going to log it for the lols anyway.
+      @logger.error("JDBC Exception", :exception => e)
     end
 
     statement.close()