Outputting JSON with the MSSqlServer Serilog sink

Question

How can I configure the MSSqlServer Serilog sink to output the properties as JSON instead of XML? I tried passing a RenderedCompactJsonFormatter to the formatProvider parameter of LoggerConfigurationMSSqlServerExtensions.MSSqlServer(), but that expects an IFormatProvider.

Answer 1

You could instead use the LogEvent column and pull the Properties object out of the JSON in that column value.

var colOpts = new ColumnOptions();
colOpts.Store.Add(StandardColumn.LogEvent);
colOpts.Store.Remove(StandardColumn.Properties);
var log = new LoggerConfiguration()
              .WriteTo.MSSqlServer(connString, "Logs",columnOptions:colOpts)
              .CreateLogger();

Note, I also removed the Properties column so as not to duplicate data in the table.