How to use NLog in Xamarin Android

Question

I want to use NLog in my Xamarin.Droid project. I installed NLog.Config and dependencies and move NLog.config and NLog.xsd manually to Assets folder and change NLog.config build action to AndroidAsset.

As you can see in Load automatically NLog.config from Assets folder I guess there is no problem to put NLog.config into Assets folder.

After that I change NLog.config like below

<targets>
    <target name="console" xsi:type="Console" layout="${longdate} ${callsite} ${level} ${message}"/>
</targets>
<rules>
    <logger name="*" minlevel="Info" writeTo="console" />
</rules>

After that I write some code like below for write some log in Console

ILogger logger = LogManager.GetCurrentClassLogger();
for (int c = 0; c < 1000; ++c)
    logger.Debug("Hi there");

But after that I could not see any my messages in Android Device Logging or Output tab when "Show output from" set to Debug.

Do I look to the right places?

Try to set `minlevel` to `Debug` in your config file, this should help you. — Anton, Sep 14 '16 at 17:48
Also see [Nlog](https://github.com/NLog/NLog/wiki/Configuration-file#log-levels) levels — Anton, Sep 14 '16 at 17:49

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 14 '16 at 16:51

2

Your config says minlevel info:

<logger name="*" minlevel="Info" writeTo="console" />

but your are writing debug level. Which is below info.

logger.Debug("Hi there");

So change your logger rule to: (level name & attribute names are case insensitive)

<logger name="*" minlevel="debug" writeTo="console" />

answered Sep 14 '16 at 16:51

Julian

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Is it good way to place NLog.config to Assets? or it is bad practice? – sorosh_sabz Sep 14 '16 at 19:37
1

I think it is, but not sure as it's more Xamarin question – Julian Sep 14 '16 at 21:47
Instead of using Android Asset, then use embedded resource that should work on all Xamarin Platforms: https://github.com/NLog/NLog/wiki/Explicit-NLog-configuration-loading – Rolf Kristensen May 25 '19 at 18:40

Rolf Kristensen · Answer 2 · 2022-09-18T13:33:15.433

NLog v5 no longer automatically scans for NLog.config in the Androids Assets-folder.

Either perform explicit loading of the NLog.config from the Assets-folder, or consider embedding the NLog.config as Assembly-Ressource:

NLog.LogManager.Setup().LoadConfigurationFromAssemblyResource(typeof(App).GetTypeInfo().Assembly);

See also: https://github.com/NLog/NLog/wiki/Explicit-NLog-configuration-loading

Notice NLog.Targets.MauiLog can also be used for platform specific output:

Android - Android.Util.Log / LogCat
Apple iOS / MacOS - Unified Logging OSLog (replacement of print and NSLog)

How to use NLog in Xamarin Android

2 Answers2