How to enforce Serilog tagging to an enum

Question

I am replacing our log4net logger to structured logging using Serilog. I want to enforce the tagging in the code using an Enum but I'm having some difficulties how to do so.

For now my log look like that:

logger.ErrorFormat("Proxy Logic for the Item {Item} failed. Swallow exception", Item); 

When ErrorFormat signutare is

void ErrorFormat(string format, params object[] args);

but I don't know how to replace Item to something like LogTags.TagA. When TagA is an Enum which will give me the way to enforce a uniform standard for my tagging.

so it would look like:

public enum LogTags
{
TagA,
...
}
public class Foo
{
     public void DoError()
     {
     logger.ErrorFormat("Proxy Logic for the Item {@LogTags.TagA} failed. Swallow exception", Item);
     }
}     

What is the best practice to achieve such thing?

Answer 1

Property names in Serilog need to be simple, non-dotted identifiers, so a name like Enum.LogTags.Item won't work directly.

You can force this nesting with something like the pattern below, if a simple name is inadequate:

logger.ErrorFormat(
  "Proxy Logic for the Item {@Enum} failed. Swallow exception",
  new { LogTags = new { Item }});