Send an Email When an Error Occurs

Question

Currently my application is using log4net to log errors, the web.config for this is as followed:

<log4net>     <appender name="FileAppender" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender">       <file type="log4net.Util.PatternString" value="../../logs/gateway_%date{yyyyMMdd}.log" />       <appendToFile value="true" />       <rollingStyle value="Date" />       <datePattern value="yyyyMMdd" />       <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">         <conversionPattern value="%date [%thread] %-5level %logger [%property{NDC}] – %message%newline" />       </layout>     </appender>     <root>       <level value="DEBUG" />       <appender-ref ref="RollingLogFileAppenderOutput" />     </root>   </log4net> 

However, the client now wants each error to be emailled to them.

What is the easiest way to do this, can you do it within the web.config file?

Answer 1

You should use SmtpAppender

<appender name="SmtpAppender" type="log4net.Appender.SmtpAppender">     <to value="[email protected]" />     <from value="[email protected]" />     <subject value="test logging message" />     <smtpHost value="SMTPServer.domain.com" />     <bufferSize value="512" />     <lossy value="true" />     <evaluator type="log4net.Core.LevelEvaluator">         <threshold value="WARN"/>     </evaluator>     <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">         <conversionPattern value="%newline%date [%thread] %-5level %logger [%property{NDC}] - %message%newline%newline%newline" />     </layout> </appender>  <logger name="ErrorLogger">     <level value="Error" />     <appender-ref ref="FileAppender" /> </logger> <logger name="EmailLogger">     <level value="Error" />     <appender-ref ref="SmtpAppender" /> </logger> 

In order to send emails only for an specific error you could do something like this

try {   // your logic } catch (MySpecificException ex) {    // I only send emails for exception of type MySpecificException     LogManager.GetLogger("EmailLogger").Error(ex);  } catch (Exception ex) {    // Just log to a file for the rest    LogManager.GetLogger("ErrorLogger").Error(ex);  }