Unable to send client side log to server (Asp.net Web API) using log4javascript

Question

Requirement: Add client side logging and send it to server. Devs in server should be able to enable or disable this logging functionality.

My Approach: I have created a ASP.NET WebAPI project, where i have created a POST method to write log data to a local file. So, that i can add and monitor client side logs.

Now, From the client side i am not able to call the post method. I have used log4javascript. There i got AjaxAppender to send request to server.

JS code using log4javascript:

// Create the logger
var log = log4javascript.getLogger();

// Create a AjaxAppender with default options
var ajaxAppender = new log4javascript.AjaxAppender('http://localhost:59132/api/log');

// If you want to send JSON
var jsonLayout = new log4javascript.JsonLayout();

// Add configuration for ajaxAppender
//ajaxAppender.setThreshold(log4javascript.Level.ERROR); // Sets the appender's threshold. Log messages of level less severe than this threshold will not be logged.
//ajaxAppender.setBatchSize(10); // Sets the number of log messages to send in each request.
//ajaxAppender.sendAll(); // send all remaining messages on window.beforeunload()
ajaxAppender.addHeader("Content-Type", "application/json");
ajaxAppender.setLayout(jsonLayout);

// Adds the given appender
log.addAppender(ajaxAppender);

// Log message
log.debug("Debug");
log.info("Info");
log.warn("Warning");
log.error("Error");
log.fatal("Fatal");

Server Side Code:

[HttpPost]
public void Post([FromBody]List<string> value)
{
    string path = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory + "Log.txt";
    foreach(string s in value)
    {
        using (StreamWriter writetext = new StreamWriter(path, true))
        {
            writetext.WriteLine("Log: " + s.ToString() + " " + DateTime.Now);
        }
    }
}

Moreover, Using jQuery Ajax i am able to send log messages, but i don't think i should implement this in my project, because i am storing the logs in an array and I don't have any configuration set(i.e. I will not be able to enable and disable JS logging feature).

JS Code using jQuery Ajax:

$(document).ready(function (){
    var logArr = [];
    logArr.push("Error - XYZ " + "URL: " +  window.location.href);
    logArr.push("Info - PQRS " + "URL: " + window.location.href);
    logArr.push("Warning - MNOP " + "URL: " +  window.location.href);
    sendError(logArr)
    });

function sendError(message) {
$.ajax({
    url: "/api/log",
    type: 'POST',
    async: true,
    data: JSON.stringify(message),
    contentType: 'application/json; charset=utf-8',
    dataType: 'json',
    success: function () {
        console.log("Success");
    },
    error: function (e) {
        console.log("Failure " + e.message);
    }
});
}

Can log4JS, JSNLog can resolve this? Please, guide me here.

NOTE: We will not be using any error tracking tool like: errlytics, rollbar etc. As they are paid.

Answer 1

I am the author of JSNLog.

JSNLog includes a server side end point for .Net that will log to your favorite logging package (Serilog, Log4Net, etc.) It supports both ASP.NET CORE and ASP.NET Framework (the non-Core version of ASP.NET). It has many great (in my biased opinion) features: http://jsnlog.com

I understand you want to give the server side developers control over the server side logging. With JSNLog, the client side loggers can be controlled with server side code. For details on how this works, see: http://jsnlog.com/Documentation/Configuration/OnServer