How to do logging when writing an Visual Studio MEF extension

Question

I'm writing a Visual Studio extension using MEF an I'm wondering how to add logging to the code. When writing a VsPackage one could use the "Action Log" like shown in MSDN. But this isn't possible in a MEF extension.

How should I do my logging? Is it even possible to write to the VS access log using a MEF extension? Should I do my own logging using nlog or similar.

Answer 1

You can still use the IVsActivityLog. The only thing that changes is the way you get access to the IVsActivityLog instance. Instead of this:

IVsActivityLog log = GetService(typeof(SVsActivityLog)) as IVsActivityLog;

You would first [Import] the SVsServiceProvider:

[Import] internal SVsServiceProvider ServiceProvider = null;

Then you can call IServiceProvider.GetService:

IVsActivityLog log = ServiceProvider.GetService(typeof(SVsActivityLog)) as IVsActivityLog;