How to create a BaseClass that adds logging messages - selenium

Question

I am using serenity BDD for my automation testing and Page Object Model for my framework. I have created a BasePage class which will be inherited by all the other Pages. I want to minimize the logging messages from the Pages by adding all the log.info messages to a central Base page. Example, when calling the click() method, I will log before click and after click methods as shown below in the basePage class:
public class BasePage extends PageObject{
private static final Logger log = LogManager.getLogger(BasePage.class.getClass());
private final WebElementFacade element;
public static void clickBtn(WebElementFacade btnName) {
log.info("About to click " + btnName + " button");
btnName.click();
log.info("Successfully clicked on " + btnName + " button.");
}
Later I figured that instead of individually trying to figure out in advance what actions the user will perform on the webElements, and write new methods for each action (like the one shown above), just implement WebDriverFacade interface, so that I get all the unimplemented method list in BasePage from WebDriverFacade and then write the log messages inside each of them, like so:
public class BasePage extends PageObject implements WebElementFacade{
private static final Logger log = LogManager.getLogger(BasePage.class.getClass());
private final WebElementFacade element;
#Override
public void submit() {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
}
#Override
public void sendKeys(CharSequence... keysToSend) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
}
#Override
public String getTagName() {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
return null;
}
#Override
public boolean isSelected() {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
return false;
}
.
.
.
.
.
}
This will serve two purposes:
I will not have to create new methods for every action in BasePage class, example the 'clickBtn()' function in the first code
As I mentioned before, I will not have to figure out what method any other person who adds methods to my code might use and having to change the BasePage class to create the new actions. So basically less maintenance in the long run.
The problem I am facing is an error that I receive in the second use case:
The return types are incompatible for the inherited methods WebElementFacade.withTimeoutOf(int, TimeUnit), PageObject.withTimeoutOf(int, TimeUnit)
Now my question is:
How can solve this problem?
Is this the right way to do things or should I be going with the first method and have maintenance overhead.
Just figured that another scenario where this might be useful. To make sure that subclass methods do not use methods from pageObject and are forced to use the methods from BaseClass only. This can be done by wrapping the WebElementFacade and adding the log messages as an added functionality. Any thought on this would be appreciated.
Thank you!

Answer 1

Honestly it is a neat trick and if you get it working you should be proud.
I think I figured something similar out in a dynamic language.
But you are better off just adding the logging entries and learning the following.
How to name functions so you don't feel like they need renaming.
How to log clearly for debugging use.
This is because loggings power is in its flexibility.
When you learn how to dump something complex like a matrix so you can eye it and go uh-oh you are increasing your overall skills.
I apologize for not giving you code but I felt some "chase the other rabbit" advice was better.