# Options for log collection from client applications

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/options-for-log-collection-from-client-applications/328288>\
**Category:** Logs\
**Created:** [March 22, 2023, 6:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/options-for-log-collection-from-client-applications/328288 "2023-03-22T18:46:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![malliaridis](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/malliaridis/32/118459_2.png) [@malliaridis](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/malliaridis)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2023, 6:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/options-for-log-collection-from-client-applications/328288/1 "2023-03-22T18:46:33Z")

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_tl;dr_

**If I have generated logs on mobile applications / mobile devices and desktop PCs (owned by users) and stored them in files or embedded databases, what options are available and recommended to collect these logs in Elasticsearch?**

_Background_

After learning more about the ELK stack and its capabilities I tried to find information about log collection from client applications (mobile and desktop apps).

However, none of the solutions I could find provide an option for including libraries in applications that are running on end-user devices. The closest I could find was the [Java API Client](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/client/java-api-client/current/introduction.html), but it doesn't look like it is meant for log collection. All other options I found require the installation of additional software on these devices, which is not an option when distributing applications via app stores.

The ideas I came up so far are all based on HTTP requests with file or data upload and manual scheduling of each client to avoid system overloads. The clients would connect and send the data to a Logstash instance that has the [http input plugin](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/logstash/current/plugins-inputs-http.html) installed. But even this approach does not look very straight forward from client-side.

What I am looking for is a library that provides a data shipper for Kotlin Multiplatform or Java applications, handling all the necessary logic and responses from a server.

_P.S. this topic might be related to [How to transfer log files from log collector(client side) to gateway collector(server side) using logstash](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-transfer-log-files-from-log-collector-client-side-to-gateway-collector-server-side-using-logstash/245131)._

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**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2023, 3:41am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/options-for-log-collection-from-client-applications/328288/2 "2023-03-23T03:41:42Z")

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Welcome to our community! 😃

Mobile app shipping is not something that we have anything to do with sorry. You'd need to look at other options to make the app push to somewhere you can use (eg) Filebeat to process them, eg by sending via rsyslog into Filebeat, or by sending to an mqqt broker or some other queue and ingest from there.

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**Author:** ![malliaridis](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/malliaridis/32/118459_2.png) [@malliaridis](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/malliaridis)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2023, 8:10pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/options-for-log-collection-from-client-applications/328288/3 "2023-03-23T20:10:14Z")

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How unfortunate that there is nothing specific from Elastic. I couldn't find any other integration besides direct network logging (which is problematic for mobile devices).

But I guess that's a great opportunity for a community / open-source project once I got some time again. 😄

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 8:10pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/options-for-log-collection-from-client-applications/328288/4 "2023-04-20T20:10:22Z")

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