Parseable layouts ignore the "format_as" directive.

Since we are already encoding the entire log event as a YAML or JSON string,
it makes sense to just use that encoding for the log message.

lib/logging/layout.rb

@@ -115,17 +115,16 @@ def try_yaml( obj )
   end
 
   # Attempt to format the given object as a JSON string, but fall back to
-  # inspect formatting if JSON encoding does not make sense. This method will
-  # only format Array and Hash objects.
+  # inspect formatting if JSON encoding fails.
   #
   # obj - The Object to format.
   #
   # Returns a String representation of the object.
   #
   def try_json( obj )
-    case obj
-    when Hash, Array; MultiJson.encode(obj)
-    else obj.inspect end
+    MultiJson.encode(obj)
+  rescue StandardError
+    obj.inspect
   end
 
 end  # class Layout

lib/logging/layouts/parseable.rb

@@ -201,6 +201,31 @@ def items=( ary )
       create_format_method
     end
 
+    # Public: Take a given object and convert it into a format suitable for
+    # inclusion as a log message. The conversion allows the object to be more
+    # easily expressed in YAML or JSON form.
+    #
+    # If the object is an Exception, then this method will return a Hash
+    # containing the exception class name, message, and backtrace (if any).
+    #
+    # obj - The Object to format
+    #
+    # Returns the formatted Object.
+    #
+    def format_obj( obj )
+      case obj
+      when Exception
+        h = { :class   => obj.class.name,
+              :message => obj.message }
+        h[:backtrace] = obj.backtrace if @backtrace && !obj.backtrace.nil?
+        h
+      when Time
+        iso8601_format(obj)
+      else
+        obj
+      end
+    end
+
   private
 
     # Call the appropriate class level create format method based on the

test/layouts/test_json.rb

@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ def test_format
       assert_match %r/"timestamp":"#@date_fmt"/, format
       assert_match %r/"level":"INFO"/, format
       assert_match %r/"logger":"ArrayLogger"/, format
-      assert_match %r/"message":"<Array> #{Regexp.escape [1,2,3,4].to_s}"/, format
+      assert_match %r/"message":\[1,2,3,4\]/, format
 
       event.level = @levels['debug']
       event.data = 'and another message'
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ def test_format
       assert_match %r/"timestamp":"#@date_fmt"/, format
       assert_match %r/"level":"FATAL"/, format
       assert_match %r/"logger":"Test"/, format
-      assert_match %r/"message":"<Exception> Exception"/, format
+      assert_match %r/"message":\{(?:"(?:class|message)":"Exception",?){2}\}/, format
     end
 
     def test_items

test/layouts/test_yaml.rb

@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ def test_format
       assert_yaml_match h, @layout.format(event)
 
       event.data = [1, 2, 3, 4]
-      h['message'] = "<Array> #{[1,2,3,4]}"
+      h['message'] = [1,2,3,4]
       assert_yaml_match h, @layout.format(event)
 
       event.level = @levels['debug']
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ def test_format
       event.data = Exception.new
       h['level'] = 'FATAL'
       h['logger'] = 'Test'
-      h['message'] = '<Exception> Exception'
+      h['message'] = {:class => 'Exception', :message => 'Exception'}
       assert_yaml_match h, @layout.format(event)
     end