serialize objects or collections to log

c# .net nlog
Yavanosta picture Yavanosta · Apr 11, 2014 · Viewed 13.2k times · Source

I want save some addtitional info with my error message. For example it should be user query, or something else. How should I do it?

Is there any build it methods for logging collections, structurest or objects? Or I should serialize it myself?

Answer

Sergey Berezovskiy picture Sergey Berezovskiy · Apr 11, 2014

No, there is nothing built-in for serializing objects. When you use formatted methods like Debug<T>(string message, T argument) internally (you can see class NLog.LogEventInfo) simple String.Format is used for creating formatted message (i.e. just ToString() is called on every parameter).

I use Json.NET for serializing objects and collections to JSON. It's easy to create extension method like

public static string ToJson(this object value)
{
    var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings { 
        ReferenceLoopHandling = ReferenceLoopHandling.Ignore 
    };

    return JsonConvert.SerializeObject(value, Formatting.Indented, settings);
}

And then use it during logging:

Logger.Debug("Saving person {0}", person.ToJson());

Related questions

Logger wrapper best practice

I want to use a nlogger in my application, maybe in the future I will need to change the logging system. So I want to use a logging facade. Do you know any recommendations for existing examples how to write …

Read More
Where is ${basedir} located, using NLog?

Unless I'm totally missing it, I'm under the impression that the NLog documentation uses ${basedir} in its examples, without explaining what its location is supposed to be. Where can I find information that lists all possible options with a meaningful …

Read More
Using NLog as a rollover file logger

How - if possible - can I use NLog as a rollover file logger? as if: I want to have at most 31 files for 31 days and when a new day started, if there is an old day log file ##.log, …

Read More