The log4net Tutorial: Logging in C# (hands-on from beginner to advanced)

[@RalfsBalodis]

0:00 - Intro 2:53 - Getting Started: Creating console application 4:39 - Adding NuGet reference 5:25 - Configuration 18:54 - Assembly reference 20:48 - Creating log reference (instance) for each class or entire application 25:13 - Quick recap 25:27 - Log messages 27:10 - Note on System.Reflection 27:45 - Creating LogHelper 32:40 - Appenders: File Appender - write logs in text file 37:27 - Appenders: Rolling File Appender - control log text file file size and log file quantity 44:01 - Appenders: Ado .Net Appender 54:50 - Appenders: Other Appenders 58:32 - Filters: Log message Levels 1:04:46 - Filters: Level Range filter 1:07:33 - Filters: String Match filter, filter message fall through, filter order 1:10:40 - Filters: Level Match filter 1:12:26 - Conversion pattern 1:14:15 - Conversion pattern: Log Message info 1:20:29 - Log Message length 1:23:51 - Log Message :Custom info 1:29:14 - Log Message: Dynamic variable info 1:33:11 - Summary and concluding remarks I usually don't do these for videos, that already have time codes in the video description, but I figured that this was kinda long video and the time stamps could do with an update, so there... :) P.S. Hello Tim. If you will consider to update the time codes in the video description, I believe that they have to be in chronological order. Meaning that they have to start from zero:zero and there cannot be any other time code before that. That is, if you care for your video timeline to be split up in chapters :) I noticed, that if you have other time stamps before zero:zero mark, KZbin wont do that for you. Example: Your video "Top 10 Hidden Gems in Visual Studio"

[@IAmTimCorey]

I have found the same, the automated chapter function has to start at 0:00 for best success.

[@kepisty]

Great video and tutorial itself. Thanks! For those who look for quick links: Log4net setup 4:35 -> Step 1: Add log4net package 5:25 -> Step 2: Add log4net configuration 18:54 -> Step 3: Add log4net assembly 20:47 -> Step 4: Create log4net log reference 25:30 -> Step 5: Log messages 27:56 -> Creating LogHelper 32:37 -> Appenders 1:04:46 -> Filters 1:14:13 -> Conversion pattern

[@kepisty]

No problem Timothy! Glad to help. :)

[@stani1k]

Thanks!

[@berkanbilgin2287]

IF you go through with this tutorial, it takes about 2 and half hour (by stopping and continue during the video) and it totally worth it. I do appreciate that Tim, its a great tutorial. I couldn't learn more in 2 and a half hour about log4net. Cheers.

[@user-nj4zr8jg6t]

i saw it just because this comment, and it is amazing video!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Excellent. Glad it was worth the time.

[@caspianlouis3109]

Sorry to be off topic but does someone know a trick to log back into an instagram account..? I stupidly forgot the login password. I appreciate any help you can give me

[@chipmitchell9715]

This is one of the most thorough and well taught tutorials I have ever watched. I read the article on Code Project and struggled to implement log4net and all these advanced features. This video really filled in the cracks and was a great time saver. Thank you Tim. I will be subscribing to your other videos and articles.

[@cmukesh19]

One of the best tutorial out there on log4Net. Instead of just teaching on how to make it work by some magic configuration and code, this tutorial went into details on how things work and how to customize it to our requirements. That gives a lot of confidence and comfort in using this framework than copying the configurations from random sites. As others mentioned, the fonts are too small and if you are watching it on smaller device (even my 13" laptop display is small), you will have hard time watching it. I had to zoom my browser to 300%, and since most of the action is in top left screen that worked, but was awkward.

[@STUPIDYOUTUBE_HIDINGMSGS]

Thanks so much Tim, six years old video already, and yet very informative with my code. I never used this Log4Net before, so I needed to get my head around it fast for use in my current role!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Great!

[@ecoldwell]

Timothy, you've done a great job in diving into the details of log4net. One minor comment though, is next time make the text just a bit bigger.

[@edwardarundcosta6799]

Excellent tutorial by Tim: addressing that critical point where the rubber, actually, hits the road ― ie where an end-Developer is indeed getting hands-on with an SDK..and has the VS IDE open in front of him/her to do some coding.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you!

[@DynamoTk]

Bro this is seriously a 200 bucks worth tutorial. Thanks so much for giving it for free. People like you make newbies in the IT community grow and thrive.

[@AshrafSada]

Thank you great illustration, while reading documentation, I came across this "If the BufferSize is set to a value less than or equal to 1 then no buffering will occur. The logging event will be delivered synchronously (depending on the Lossy and Evaluator properties). Otherwise the event will be buffered."

[@IAmTimCorey]

Yep. Not necessarily ideal for production but great for development.

[@wadysawstiepanowicz9541]

killed a day on various guides, but everything was very superficial, like now we’ll make config the whole end of the guide, very cool, thanks

[@IAmTimCorey]

I'm glad this was helpful.

[@MaayanSht]

As a first year student of computer science I must say this was amazing!, a clear and simple explanation . The web is full of information but when you new in the field you find your self opening more and more website for each second term you do not know and lose yourself. I tried to use written tutorials but it was my first time using app.confing and just this little problem made this confusing

[@IAmTimCorey]

I'm glad you found it useful. Tell your friends. ;-)

[@MaayanSht]

IAmTimCorey all ready posted it over study groups!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Awesome! Thanks for the support and the recommendation.

[@vedymin7]

I thought: I need now some logger. I typed: C# logging. I saw: Tim Correy log4net tutorial 1:37h. I smiled :) Thank You Tim! Thanks to that tutorial I was able to find a really annoying bug in my app.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Awesome!

[@davidmagerman4553]

Such a great tutorial! still relevant today. I struggled a little with the database connection string before realizing 3 things I'd done wrong in App.config: (1) the data source, I don't think I have something called "ApplicationDB", instead I was able to use "(LocalDb)\MSSQLLocalDB", (2) the initial catalog - since I created my own database from scratch I needed to supply the name "MyLogger", (3) a series of typos (resulting from copy & paste) meant that my parameter names didn't match the ones in the stored procedure. Persistence was key, and I was rewarded in the end. Thanks Tim!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you for sharing this. I'm sure it will help others! Keep up the great work!

[@banercoehsan]

A very good tutorial. An Excellent job.Just as a tip, please make the font size larger for the next videos since fonts are small and it is a bit annoying.

[@nishant07kumar]

Agree on Font Size point. Awesome tutorial.

[@MZ-uv3sr]

Sooo small. I gave up.

[@cleissonvas9942]

Best log4net content available on the internet. Really good, congratulations!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you!

[@cleissonvas9942]

@@IAmTimCorey Please let me know if you have content related to a transformation using log4net ? Because I need to put it in 3 environments. Development, Approval and Production.

[@zithfrg]

One of the best tutorials in all of KZbin. Does not matter the topic, this is awesome!!!!!!

[@zithfrg]

Yes man! The only thing you need to watch out for is the size of the text. It is very difficult to see!

[@anandmaran2860]

Requires a great amount of patience to explain in detail. Great work! and a big thank you.

[@rajsekharbathula8511]

This is a very good video for those who do not have knowledge on how to use Log4Net. Kudos to Timothy!!!

[@stani1k]

Thanks Tim! Best video covering log4net out here.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Glad it was helpful!

[@pickwick5936]

Again you made something that looks complicated and difficult easy to understand and use. Just what I needed for an application I am writing, great tutorial!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Excellent! I'm glad it was helpful.

[@IchbinChandra]

Already added you in my Favorite playlist. Such an awesome video, cannot be simpler then this . Its already over midnight and I cannot stop myself to finish the tutorial.

[@IchbinChandra]

Sure, time to rest/relax, as I know where to go to find the most satisfying answers, for my unsolved queries. thank you for being ingenious.

[@Getao7325]

Thank you so much! I normally don't comment on KZbin videos, but you deserve one, especially after attentively sitting through the entire video. I'm a visual learner and what you did made all the research I did on my own click. If only you spent time on the SmtpAppender, because that alongside of the AdoNetAppender are the ones my company is using. Either way, you've gotten me 96% of the way there!! Thanks again.

[@SaveTheHedgehog]

great video. finished it. what I especially love is the fact that you made a branch of each section!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks!

[@FEYSCONTROL]

Again - concise and consistent. Do you know that even your Code Project article is mentioned in a Pluralsight course? I got everything I need from your video so no need to watch a 3 times longer course.

[@IAmTimCorey]

No, I didn't know that. Interesting. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.

[@DelLee]

Great tutorial. Thanks for posting! In a future article or video it would be great to see how to use Log4net in a multi-project solution where more than one project can be set as the startup (eg, a project to run as console and another to run as a windows forms, while other projects exist for the data layer, etc.). What I have found so far with this is that I have to duplicate both the LogHelper class as well as the the App.Config settings in each projects that can be set as the startup, which is less than ideal. If I try to relocate into a common project referenced by both, logging does not work at all. I don't know if this is a true limitation of Log4net or something I have not done correctly. Again, thanks for posting and I plan to view some of your other videos as well!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Great suggestion. I'll put that on the list. Thanks for watching.

[@benjaminberger9629]

One nice trick I found: add to your appSettings Tag. Makes it a lot easier to debug eg. the ADO Appender

[@IAmTimCorey]

Nice! Thanks for sharing.

[@achillenicola]

You are very clear in your explanations, without taking anything for granted. Thank you.

[@ibrahimfarah738]

Thanks @ Tim, this video become my reference when ever i have issue in one of the projects i go to this video

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@idahir]

Awesome tutorial, very clear and concise , I learned log4Net in such a short period of time.

[@nfrick1]

Thanks for this great tutorial. Unlike other books and tutorials that dump all the information on the viewer at once, you introduced a concept at a time with clear and easy to understand examples. The only possible thing to complain about is that the text is too small. I was able to watch it on a 21 inch monitor, but not sure if I could do the same on a notebook.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Yep, the font size issue is one I know about but can't change in this video. All videos newer than it have the font size corrected though.

[@ipedros7]

Very complete tutorial and well worth the hour. Even in this day in age. Cheers

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you!

[@kayyelle]

Thank you Tim, for making an excellent tutorial on log4net. Worth my time watching this. Please keep up the good work.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are most welcome. Thanks for watching.

[@vatsalmayer3725]

Thanks for the video. It is simply awesome and useful. I heard of log4net but I don't know anything on how to use it but after watching this video I can simply start using it

[@CyberAbyss007]

Thank you! Great tutorial. Getting the AdoNetAppender properly configured took a little effort including getting it to work with my local SQL server installation. SQL connection type and connection string values were tricky to get right depending on whether specific features were enabled or not. The samples on the Apache Log4net page and some experimentation got me to the finish line.

[@IAmTimCorey]

I'm glad you got it to work.

[@moihawk666]

rick, I'm having the same issues can you share connection types you tried or what I can try?

[@ProjectBoredomKiller]

So far very happy with what I've been learning. Although I wasn't too familiar with the SQL section I typed it in just to get familiar with it. I've no database server set up and I've never used stored procedures. It's obvious that's a whole subject in itself.

[@IAmTimCorey]

I'm glad you got a lot out of this video.

[@davidnguyen9023]

Thank you so much, you helped me with my "Software development tools" home assignment!

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@jalbajiwaghmare4490]

Great session. Tim you covered everything.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks!

[@Yupmoh]

One of the best tutorials i've ever seen, Thank you.

[@PerHultqvist]

Thanks for this video! I gave up the first time I tried to use log4net, but then I got this video on my recommended list on youtube, and NOW I get why I should use log4net! The people over at Apache(?) should all be fired for their shitty web site and lack of tutorials. They can keep the developers, they have done an excellent job, but the rest have to go :-)

[@PerHultqvist]

Yeah, it's a little bit harsh. I just tried to make a point that documentation/tutorials are VERY important. So they can keep their jobs, as long as they promise to do their job better moving forwad :-) Developers are constantly trashed for their performance when programs fail, so why shouldn't everyone else get a little bit of that too? :-) And yeah, I fell into that trap too, people who write stuff on the internet that they would never say to a person face-2-face. My bad :-)

[@pranaygawand4884]

thank you tim for such a awesome Log4net tutorial!

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@coloradopav]

Really, really, really good! Well paced, easy to follow, very detailed.

[@jayaramjs6777]

How to add log4net file path when we deploy on linux.

[@wazk224]

Thanks Timothy, very concise and very well presented.

[@harag9]

I've never used log4net before and found this tutorial very good and clear, great work on doing this for us. However I wish you had more tutorials as it was really easy to pause the video and follow along. Any plans on doing a more advanced tutorial on log4net - e.g.. using .log4net files rather than .config etc. ? Keep up the great work!

[@ThrashAbaddon]

This video is great. Timothy, thank you so much for sharing it. :)

[@GudeDoc]

This was a really useful video and full of interessting information! Thank you

[@IAmTimCorey]

Glad it was helpful!

[@yankelsteinmetz8845]

Thanks Tim for another amazing video! You mentioned that the configuration file can be changed during production. I have applications that are deployed in Azure as App Services, I don't see where I can have access to my config file.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You can either modify the config file on disk in Azure (you do have access to the files) or you can override it with configuration settings in Azure itself.

[@kuldipjulasana244]

Great tutorial, clears all doubts.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Glad it was helpful!

[@koushaljoshi681]

Thank you IAMTimCorey.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@syedabbas9827]

Good video to learn log4Net very well presented.

[@ashishjain871]

This is a high quality video tutorial. Thanks for taking the time to create this. It is awesome :). Really appreciate it.

[@joshzollinger5181]

Great video. Gave me exactly what I needed, and even gave me some stuff I didn't know I needed. Keep it up and thank you.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are most welcome. Thanks for watching.

[@ashwinimaddala]

Thanks Tim! very helpful illustration.

[@SimeonTheGamer]

Yes a very good tutorial. An Excellent job. Did really help more than any other video.

[@HongUtube2009]

thanks for taking time creating this, it's been very helpful!

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are most welcome. Thanks for watching.

[@erickmanuel2332]

Thanks a ton for this video, I was lost till I saw this video

[@OmarAzeriah]

Thanks for this very useful video, I use NLog framework but not anymore, they are very similaire but log4net is more mature, Excuse my english but I wanna say another thanks from Morocco, Casablanca :) I read your article before in codeproject but this video is more useful.

[@shashikant2011]

WOW! Excellent tutorial, Thanks Tim

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are most welcome. Thanks for watching.

[@mr-loki]

Tim, thanks a lot! Superb tutorial, exactly what I was looking for!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Glad it was helpful!

[@SectionsixTube]

Very helpful. Thanks for taking the time to make this.

[@banercoehsan]

Thanks again for your nice tutorial. I have a small problem that you may have an answer for. I am interested in the last part of the tutorial for using global context properties. I have a filed named "state" in sql database, and I want to fill it when I am logging. I have these codes at the begining of the program SystemState systemState = new SystemState(States.Start); log4net.LogicalThreadContext.Properties["state"] = systemState; // it has public overrrid ToString() I set systemState properly when the state of the system changes. for example: systemState.Set(States.Initialize); // it sets a public property. actually it is equivalent to systemState.State = States.Initialize; DefinedStates.InitializationState(); // it does some things Log.Debug("here comes my message"); Everything is fine if I set the buffer size to 1. However, when I change the buffer size to 100, the state filed in the sql db is filled with the last assigned value! Notice that I do not set the context property every time. If I do, things are fine. It looks log4net only reads the global context property when it is going to write in sql db. any idea how to force log4net to read the property before writing that to sql? or maybe i am making a mistake somewhere. Thanks

[@banercoehsan]

Thanks. It works now like a charm :)

[@brendan2240]

Wow, thank you so much. This is an amazing tutorial.. You are an awesome teacher - Subscribed.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are most welcome. Thanks for watching.

[@rasimismatulin1400]

Very useful tutorial. Let all the video tutorials will like it. Thanks!!

[@somnath.sonawne]

Thanks for such a detailed video session.

[@rdf5356]

Unbelievably useful! Thanks Tim

[@IAmTimCorey]

Excellent!

[@DEEPAKMISHRA-pl8jv]

TIM YOUR VOICE IS SO SO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SWEET !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@IAmTimCorey]

lol Thanks!

[@mpumenyathi4232]

Great video. Got here via your code project article.

[@3085689]

This videos are so helpful, please upload more videos.

[@binishvbabu]

Thanks, Timothy a lot for this tutorial. Excellent presentation! :) May God bless you.

[@MichaelNyrup]

Thank you - worth every minute!

[@DS-tc7uu]

Thank you very much. Very helpful for a beginner!

[@narendrababu890]

Hi Tim, Thanks for the great video with simple and clean explanation, liked it a lot. Really awesome. I'm able to configure and log the issues now in my application. We are trying to implement the ELK stack in one of the application. Can you please make a video on logging mechanism using ELK stack. It would be a great help. Thank You.

[@kaesuna1]

Explained very clear to me, Much appreciate;

[@CoderzF1]

Cool, I just found out that you are a fellow member of CodeProject like me

[@IAmTimCorey]

Yep

[@onigumo]

LOL I didn't expect you'd response that quickly, my question was "How can I log all the API calling details, like function names, parameters values", after 2 hours research I found a solution to do that which is manually ToString() all of them, I'd like a gun please.

[@IAmTimCorey]

That doesn't sound right. The method name, sure. But the parameters, if they are coming in as one object, you can just serialize to JSON instead of manually stringifying each one. Just be careful not to log sensitive data.

[@onigumo]

@@IAmTimCorey Cool, I'm only a beginner so that's my temporary solution, any tutorials about serializing to JSON?

[@andreiatorresferreira3873]

Amazing tutorial! Thanks Tim.

[@emilychong4010]

Thanks for this informative video. It helps a lot!

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@fishtaco77]

Well done! Thanks for creating this.

[@sableng00]

This is great tutorial... Thank you. Subscribed.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@attarddanielable]

Very helpful video, well explained. Thanks for the good work

[@jhillyt]

New to Log4Net; Great Video!

[@matifnawaz]

Great tutorial. Many thanks! It would be a great favor to our eyes if you used a bigger font size. Even without that it's awsome. Thanks again.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Yep, all of the videos after that video have had larger fonts all around. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.

[@bhushankhaladkar2191]

Very Nicely explained

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

Thanks for building your skills with Tim.

[@chrislauber]

Awesome tutorial, thanks so much for making it!

[@littleRebell]

thats a really superior tutorial. *thumbsUP*

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks!

[@viktorpavlovych]

This is just awesome video - thank you so much for making it! It saved huge amount of time for me

[@viktorpavlovych]

Thank you again! Really useful video

[@jorindplasa4397]

Awesome tutorial Timothy. Thank you very much. :D :D

[@jayeshthamke7860]

Thanks for the video Tim, it was great! Also is there any viewer tool to see logged messages ?

[@MsGothDoll]

Thank You so much for that video. It really helped me to get to know with log4net regards

[@bhoopendrasharma9474]

Thank you Tim for such a nice explanation about log4net, Lot of fundamentals got cleared for using log4net. I have one question: I want to create logs file with different names at runtime. I think some down in the comments asked similar question. Actually I am working on a application which generates invoices. Each invoice passes through hundreds of rules before calculating the amount. If I would have a separate log file for each invoice, then it would be easy for troubleshooting like which rule has passed which has failed and how the final value of amount would have calculated.

[@khoatrandang7015]

Thank Tim for an amazing and in depth tutorial. Could you please increase your font size a little big, cause its somewhat small :P. Overall, I have never watched any tutorial that come close to this.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Unfortunately, I can't go back and make the font size bigger in this video. The videos I released after this video have all had larger font size.

[@prasantapradhan5449]

Awesome, Mind blowing ,Excellent Timothy, you've done a great job. worth the hour. Thank you very much :)

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are most welcome. Thanks for watching.

[@joracardanovsky4192]

Thank you a lot for this video and the time you spent on it. Is it possible for you to do the unit tests tutorial ? The way you explain is perfect. Thank you

[@joracardanovsky4192]

+Timothy Corey Yeah , i'm learning mocking, its quite difficult.

[@joracardanovsky4192]

+Timothy Corey And is it always necessary to make a common class that implements all kinds of logging? Like Elmah , Nlog . I mean in medium/big projects.

[@joracardanovsky4192]

+Timothy Corey Thank you a lot for your answers ! Looking forward to see your future tutorials

[@joracardanovsky4192]

+Timothy Corey And the last question )) How can i get on your mailing list?

[@DilowaSA]

Excellent Video. Thank you for the effort. It clarifies lots of things.

[@DilowaSA]

Hi Tim, Is it possible to not declare "private static readonly log4net.ILog log = LogHelper.Getlogger();" in every class but rather just call the helper which will declare and log the error, with the correct class name?

[@HM-ds4hm]

Great video sir! It was very helpful! Thanks!

[@balazsbo]

Amazing content, a very well made tutorial! Thank you mate!

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@nemocat8894]

Clear concise video. Thanks

[@DannTeBg]

its like log4net strived to make it as complicated as possible...

[@alejandrosagrera6387]

great job! Thanks Tim.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@DotNetHow]

Thank you for your video Tim. :)