How is NLog binded to ILogger with Ninject & Ninject.Extensions.Logging

Question

Hi I am trying to use NLog with an Web Api 2 application that uses Ninject for dependency injection.

I have struggled to find any concrete info on how to do this so far I have installed the NuGet packages for NLog & NLog.Configuration. So far what I have read suggests that theses packages should just work and take care of the binding for me.

I set up the Nlog.config file and then I installed the Ninject.Extensions.Logging & Ninject.Extensions.NLog4 packages.

I'm trying to use NLog as follows

public class ErrorCheckController : ApiController
{
    private readonly ILogger _logger;

    public ErrorCheckController(ILogger logger)
    {
        _logger = logger;
    }

    public IHttpActionResult Get(string version)
    {
        try
        {
            throw new Exception("Manually thrown exception");
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            _logger.Debug(ex);
        }

        return Ok();
    }
}

In my NinjectWebCommon I have tried

1. No Binding
2. Binding with kernel.Bind<ILogger>().To<Logger>();
3. Binding with kernel.Bind<ILogger>().ToMethod(lm => LogManager.GetLogger("MyLogger")); where MyLogger is the name of the target configuration

When I do 1 & 2 I get the error

An error occurred when trying to create a controller of type 'ErrorCheckController'. Make sure that the controller has a parameterless public constructor.

The 3rd option gets a Logger but it isn't configured using the NLog.config file

EDIT Here is my config file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<nlog xmlns="http://www.nlog-project.org/schemas/NLog.xsd"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.nlog-project.org/schemas/NLog.xsd NLog.xsd"
  autoReload="true"
  throwExceptions="false">

  <targets>
    <target xsi:type="Database" name="Ink3DPowderDbLogger" connectionStringName="MyDbContext">
      <commandText>
        INSERT INTO Log.ApiLog (
    Application,
    Logger,
    Logged,
    Level,
    Environment,
    Request,
    Message,
    BaseDir,
    Message,
    CallSite,
    CallSiteLn,
    Exception,
    EventProperties,
    StackTrace,
    ServerName,
    Port,
    Url,
    Https,
    ServerAddress,
    RemoteAddress,
    ) VALUES (
    @Application,
    @Logger,
    @Logged,
    @Level,
    @Environment,
    @Request,
    @BaseDir,
    @Message,
    @CallSite,
    @CallSiteLine,
    @Exception,
    @EventProperties,
    @StackTrace,
    @ServerName,
    @Port,
    @Url,
    @Https,
    @ServerAddress,
    @RemoteAddress,
    );
  </commandText>

  <parameter name="@application" layout="${appsetting:name=AppName:default=Unknown}" />
  <parameter name="@logger" layout="${logger}" />
  <parameter name="@logged" layout="${date}" />
  <parameter name="@level" layout="${level}" />
  <parameter name="@environment" layout="${environment}" />
  <parameter name="@request" layout="${asp-request}" />
  <parameter name="@basedir" layout="${basedir}" />
  <parameter name="@message" layout="${message}" />
  <parameter name="@callSite" layout="${callsite}" />
  <parameter name="@callSiteLine" layout="${callsite-linenumber}" />
  <parameter name="@exception" layout="${exception:tostring}" />
  <parameter name="@eventproperties" layout="${eventproperties:tostring}" />
  <parameter name="@stacktrace" layout="${stacktrace:tostring}" />
  <parameter name="@serverName" layout="${aspnet-request:serverVariable=SERVER_NAME}" />
  <parameter name="@port" layout="${aspnet-request:serverVariable=SERVER_PORT}" />
  <parameter name="@url" layout="${aspnet-request:serverVariable=HTTP_URL}" />
  <parameter name="@https" layout="${when:inner=1:when='${aspnet-request:serverVariable=HTTPS}' == 'on'}${when:inner=0:when='${aspnet-request:serverVariable=HTTPS}' != 'on'}" />
  <parameter name="@serverAddress" layout="${aspnet-request:serverVariable=LOCAL_ADDR}" />
  <parameter name="@remoteAddress" layout="${aspnet-request:serverVariable=REMOTE_ADDR}:${aspnet-request:serverVariable=REMOTE_PORT}" />

</target>

  </targets>

  <rules>
    <logger name="*" minlevel="Info" writeTo="Ink3DPowderDbLogger" />
  </rules>
</nlog>

EDIT 2 I Have changed my Get Method to

public IHttpActionResult Get(string version)
    {
        IKernel kernel = new StandardKernel();
        //var resolver = new NinjectDependencyResolver(kernel);
        //var logger = (ILogger) resolver.GetService(typeof(ILogger));
        var logger = kernel.Get<ILogger>();

        try
        {
            throw new Exception("Manually thrown exception");
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            //_logger.Debug(ex);
            logger.Debug(ex);
        }

        return Ok();
    }

This gives me an error

No matching bindings are available, and the type is not self-bindable.

Which sounds like nothing is getting binded to ILogger.

Edit 3

I was looking back over my config file and noticed that I had told NLog to fail silently. I turned this off and now I am getting proper errors. There seems to be an issue with my

I get the errors

Exception: Error when setting property 'Layout' on NLog.Targets.DatabaseParameterInfo

Inner Exception: LayoutRenderer cannot be found: 'appsetting'

I'm not too sure why this can't be found I'm using the same syntax that is in the documentation for appsetting

Answer 1

The problem ended up being that I was trying to Inject

NLog.ILogger

instead of

Ninject.Extensions.Logging.ILogger

It is working now.