Do you use the best trace logging library?

Did you know that writing your own logging infrastructure code wastes time? There are awesome logging abstractions in .NET Core and .NET 5+ that you should use instead!

These abstractions allow you to:

• Create log entries in a predictable and familiar fashion - you use the same patterns for logging in a Background Service as you would in a Blazor WASM app (just some slightly different bootstrapping 😉)
• Use Dependency Injection; your code doesn't take a dependency on a particular framework (as they are abstractions)
• Filter output based off severity (Verbose/Debug/Info/Warning/Error) - so you can dial it up or down without changing code
• Have different logs for different components of your application (e.g. a Customer Log and an Order Log)
• Multiple logging sinks - where the logs are written to e.g. log file, database, table storage, or Application Insights
• Supports log message templates allowing logging providers to implement semantic or structured logging
• Can be used with a range of 3rd party logging providers

Read more at Logging in .NET Core and ASP.NET Core

❌ Figure: Bad example - Using Debug or Trace for logging, or writing hard coded mechanisms for logging does not allow you to configure logging at runtime

❌ Figure: Bad example - Roll your own logging components lack functionality, and have not been tested as thoroughly for quality or performance as log4net

_logger.LogInformation("Getting item {Id} at {RequestTime}", id, DateTime.Now);

✅ Good example - Using templates allows persisting structured log data (DateTime is a complex object)

✅ Figure: Good example - Seq provides a powerful UI for searching and viewing your structured logs