Add current user to NLog output

Shahar picture Shahar · Nov 19, 2013 · Viewed 10k times · Source

I want to add a string to each row on my NLog output. The logic stays the same, trying to get the current user and if succeed, add the current user to the output.

I know how to implement it each time, but I want to set this template at one place and not repeat it on each writing.

Answer

wageoghe picture wageoghe · Nov 19, 2013

The WindowsIdentityLayoutRenderer should probably give you what you want. You can choose to log either the Domain, the UserName, or both.

You would configure it something like this (untested) to your NLog.config file:

<targets>
    <target name="file" xsi:type="File" 
        layout="${longdate} | ${level} | ${logger} | ${windows-identity} | ${message}"
        fileName="${basedir}/${shortdate}.log" />
</targets>

This might not work in a low privilege environment.

How do you get the user name now? If you get it something like this:

HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name

Then you can use NLog's "aspnet-user-identity" LayoutRenderer, something like this:

<targets>
    <target name="file" xsi:type="File" 
        layout="${longdate} | ${level} | ${logger} | ${aspnet-user-identity} | ${message}"
        fileName="${basedir}/${shortdate}.log" />
</targets>

NLog's aspnet* LayoutRenderers are in NLog.Extended.sll, so you will need that dll in addition to NLog.dll.