I wrote up a very simple C# class that provides logging for C# applications since the C# Logger on sourceforge is still in alpha (and doesn’t appear to be active) and the .NET framework doesn’t seem to provide normal text file logging outside of the EventLog (correct me if I’m wrong):

using System;
using System.IO;
namespace com.ignitionlabs.logging {  
  public class Logger {
    private static int _ALL = 100;
    private static int _INFO = 75;
    private static int _ERROR = 50;
    private static int _OFF = 0;
    private static String logDirectory = System.Configuration.ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["logging.directory"].ToString();
    public static int ALL {
      get { return _ALL; }
    }
    public static int ERROR {
      get { return _ERROR; }
    }
    public static int INFO {
      get { return _INFO; }
    }
    public static int OFF {
      get { return _OFF; }
    }
    public static void append(String message, int level) {
      int logLevel = _OFF;
      String strLogLevel = System.Configuration.ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["logging.level"].ToString();
      switch(strLogLevel) {
        case "ALL":
          logLevel = _ALL;
          break;
        case "ERROR":
          logLevel = _ERROR;
          break;
        case "INFO":
          logLevel = _INFO;
          break;
        default:
          logLevel = _OFF;
          break;
      }
      if (logLevel >= level) {
        DateTime dt = DateTime.Now;
        String filePath = logDirectory + dt.ToString("yyyyMMdd") + ".log";
        if (!File.Exists(filePath)) {
          FileStream fs = File.Create(filePath);
          fs.Close();
        }
        try {
          StreamWriter sw = File.AppendText(filePath);
          sw.WriteLine(dt.ToString("hh:mm:ss") + "|" + message);
          sw.Flush();
          sw.Close();
        } catch (Exception e) {
          Console.WriteLine(e.Message.ToString());
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

After compiling, you’ll need to add 2 elements to your <appsettings> in web.config:

<add key=”logDirectory” value=”c:\myapp\logs\” />
<add key=”logLevel” value=”ALL|INFO|ERROR|OFF” />

and then you can use the class like this:

Logger.append(“your application message…”, Logger.ALL);

As always, I’m interested in any design flaws or critiques.

I’m in project limbo today, coming off a large ecommerce initiative for FootJoy that uses ASP, C#, Flash and Flash Remoting and moving onto another ecommerce site, this one completely C#.

I’m slowly grokking the .NET packages, I trying to understand the low-level System.Web classes today. I was interested to read about the IHttpHandler interface, which you use to create services that are similar in nature to the Java Servlet interface. Similarities I can see/find:

• JSP’s are compiled down to servlets at runtime, .NET uses the System.Web.UI.PageHandlerFactory class when handling requests for .aspx files. Don’t believe me? Check the <httpHandlers> element of your machine.config file.
• Servlets can be configured to respond to a variety endpoints through the <servlet-mapping> element of web.xml, HttpHandlers are added to web.config like this:

  <httpHandlers>
     <add verb=”*” path=”/mypath/somepage.aspx” type=”com.mindseye.handlers.TestHandler, TestHandler” />
  </httpHandlers>

• Both servlets and httphandlers give you a means of interacting with the low-level request and response services of the web server

In much the same way, HttpModules and the javax.servlet.Filter class perform similar functions. An HttpModule class registers itself to listen for events that are fired in your HttpApplication (for instance the ‘BeginRequest’ event) and then can perform actions based on the occurrence of those events. A Filter is a bit different in that it is mapped to the a specific url pattern in web.xml and is then called when a request is made that matches that pattern. Just like the HttpModule class, it too can then modify the request coming in or the response going back out.

In general, I’m very impressed by ASP.NET (and thus the .NET framework).