Friday 25 July 2008

How do i get code to display in my blog without text going bizarre

Use the
<pre>
tag :)

Added this to my stylesheet of the blog template

pre {
white-space: pre-wrap; /* css-3 */
white-space: -moz-pre-wrap !important; /* Mozilla, since 1999 */
white-space: -pre-wrap; /* Opera 4-6 */
white-space: -o-pre-wrap; /* Opera 7 */
word-wrap: break-word; /* Internet Explorer 5.5+ */
}

and then anything like code can go in <pre></pre> tags and will be left alone by the browser.

Monday 14 July 2008

Example of a simple static logger class using log4net

I recently had to knock together a very simple logging class for a simple application I was creating to monitor some website activity. My favourite logging application by far is log4net!!

Apache Log4Net

This is a simple static class which can be called anywhere else in the solution. In effect it is just a wrapper. The way that log4net is designed you can attach a logger to any class in your framework. But for simple projects this is a bit overkill.

   1: /// <summary> 
   2: /// Static class logger using Log4Net
   3: /// </summary> 
   4: public static class ExampleLogger 
   5: { 
   6:     #region Members 
   7:  
   8:     /// <summary> 
   9:     /// Create a logger for this static class
  10:     /// </summary> 
  11:     private static readonly ILog logger = LogManager.GetLogger(typeof(ExampleLogger)); 
  12:  
  13:     #endregion Members 
  14:  
  15:     #region Constructors 
  16:  
  17:     /// <summary> 
  18:     /// On construct - build logger object 
  19:     /// </summary> 
  20:     static ExampleLogger() 
  21:     { 
  22:         XmlConfigurator.Configure(); 
  23:     } 
  24:  
  25:     #endregion Constructors 
  26:  
  27:     #region Class Methods 
  28:  
  29:     /// <summary> 
  30:     /// Write information to log 
  31:     /// </summary> 
  32:     /// <param name="logLevel">Level of information to write</param> 
  33:     /// <param name="message">Information to write to log</param> 
  34:     public static void WriteLog(LogLevel logLevel, String message) 
  35:     { 
  36:         if (logLevel.Equals(LogLevel.Debug)) 
  37:         { 
  38:             logger.Debug(message); 
  39:         } 
  40:         else if (logLevel.Equals(LogLevel.Error)) 
  41:         { 
  42:             logger.Error(message); 
  43:         } 
  44:         else if (logLevel.Equals(LogLevel.Fatal)) 
  45:         { 
  46:             logger.Fatal(message); 
  47:         } 
  48:         else if (logLevel.Equals(LogLevel.Info)) 
  49:         { 
  50:             logger.Info(message); 
  51:         } 
  52:         else if (logLevel.Equals(LogLevel.Warn)) 
  53:         { 
  54:             logger.Warn(message); 
  55:         } 
  56:     } 
  57:  
  58:     #endregion Class Methods 
  59: } 
  60:  
  61: /// <summary> 
  62: /// Priority level of the information to be logged 
  63: /// </summary> 
  64: public enum LogLevel 
  65: { 
  66:     Debug = 1, 
  67:     Error, 
  68:     Fatal, 
  69:     Info, 
  70:     Warn 
  71: }

You also need to set where the log information is configured in your web config file at the entry point of your application. I.e. either main or Global.asax etc.

   1: //Configuration for Log4Net
   2: XmlConfigurator.Configure(new FileInfo(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.ConfigurationFile));

Finally you need to add the log4net configuration section in the web.config



   1: <!-- Log 4 Net logging -->
   2:  <log4net>
   3:  
   4:    <appender name="RollingFileAppender" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender">
   5:      <file value="C:\Log\ExampleLog" />
   6:      <appendToFile value="true" />
   7:      <staticLogFileName value="false" />
   8:      <rollingStyle value="Composite" />
   9:      <datePattern value="yyyyMMdd.lo\g" />
  10:      <maxSizeRollBackups value="10" />
  11:      <maximumFileSize value="1MB" />
  12:      <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
  13:        <conversionPattern value="%date [%thread] %-5level %logger [%property{NDC}] - %message%newline" />
  14:      </layout>
  15:    </appender>
  16:  
  17:    <root>
  18:      <level value="DEBUG" />
  19:      <appender-ref ref="RollingFileAppender" />
  20:    </root>
  21:    
  22:  </log4net>

This configuration sections will log information to a file named ExampleLog and a data pattern inserted. Each day a new file will be created. As if the log file exceeds 1MB.

For more examples for configurations for log4Net – see the website:

Log4Net Configuration Examples