Cant get NLog to work

Question

So I set up NLog config file supposedly correct (did the same thing i did on a working project) however in this project it fails for some reason the database Logs table is empty. Can somone tell me what may cause the issue?

Heres the code

Controller

public class HomeController : Controller    
{ 
       private ShopModel db = new ShopModel();
       private static Logger logger = LogManager.GetLogger("dbloger");
       public ActionResult Index()
        {   
            logger.Info("Test");
            return View(db.Users);
        }
}

NLog.config

<?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"
      autoReload="true">
  <targets async="true">

    <target name="dbl" xsi:type="Database" connectionStringName="ShopModel"
           dbProvider="System.Data.EntityClient"
           commandText=" INSERT INTO Logs ([Usrname] ,[Log], [Date]) VALUES (@Email,@Message, @Date);" >

      <parameter name="@Message" layout="${message}"/>
      <parameter name="@Date" layout="${longdate}" />
      <parameter name="@Email" layout="${gdc:Email}" />

    </target >
  </targets>

  <rules>

    <logger name="*" minlevel="Trace" writeTo="dbl" />
  </rules>
</nlog>

And connection string in web.config

<connectionStrings>

 <add name="ShopModel" connectionString="metadata=res://*/Models.ShopModel.csdl|res://*/Models.ShopModel.ssdl|res://*/Models.ShopModel.msl;provider=System.Data.SqlClient;provider connection string=&quot;data source=(LocalDB)\MSSQLLocalDB;attachdbfilename=|DataDirectory|\Shopdb.mdf;integrated security=True;multipleactiveresultsets=True;application name=EntityFramework&quot;" providerName="System.Data.EntityClient" />

</connectionStrings>

Answer 1

Easiest way is to create a variable inside nlog file, and assign the connection string value from Startup.cs.

<connectionString>${var:connectionString}</connectionString>

nlog.config

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<!--
  NOTE: Use this to log internal error, if you have issue configuring NLog.

  <nlog xmlns="http://www.nlog-project.org/schemas/NLog.xsd"
      xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
      autoReload="true"
      internalLogLevel="Warn"
      internalLogFile="C:\temp\internal-nlog.txt">
-->

<nlog xmlns="http://www.nlog-project.org/schemas/NLog.xsd"
      xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
      autoReload="true">

  <extensions>
    <add assembly="NLog.Web.AspNetCore"/>
  </extensions>

  <targets>
    <target xsi:type="Null" name="blackhole" />
    <target name="database" xsi:type="Database">
      <connectionString>${var:connectionString}</connectionString>
      <!-- 
          Script for creating the dbo.Log table.

          SET ANSI_NULLS ON
          GO
          SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
          GO
          CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Logs](
              [Id] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
              [Application] [nvarchar](50) NOT NULL,
              [Logged] [datetime] NOT NULL,
              [Level] [nvarchar](50) NOT NULL,
              [Action] [nvarchar](50) NULL,
              [Controller] [nvarchar](50) NULL,
              [Identity] [nvarchar](50) NULL,
              [Referrer] [nvarchar](250) NULL,
              [UserAgent] [nvarchar](250) NULL,
              [Url] [nvarchar](500) NULL,
              [Message] [nvarchar](max) NOT NULL,
              [Logger] [nvarchar](250) NULL,
              [Callsite] [nvarchar](max) NULL,
              [Exception] [nvarchar](max) NULL,
           CONSTRAINT [PK_dbo.Logs] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED 
          (
              [Id] ASC
          )WITH (PAD_INDEX = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = ON) ON [PRIMARY]
          ) ON [PRIMARY] TEXTIMAGE_ON [PRIMARY]

          GO
        -->
      <commandText>
        INSERT INTO dbo.Logs (Application,Logged,[Level],Action,Controller,[Identity],Referrer,UserAgent,Url,Message,Logger,Callsite,Exception)
        VALUES (@Application,@Logged,@Level,@Action,@Controller,@Identity,@Referrer,@UserAgent,@Url,@Message,@Logger,@Callsite,@Exception);
      </commandText>
      <parameter name="@Application" layout="ASP" />
      <parameter name="@Logged" layout="${date}" />
      <parameter name="@Level" layout="${level}" />
      <parameter name="@Action" layout="${aspnet-MVC-Action}" />
      <parameter name="@Controller" layout="${aspnet-MVC-Controller}" />
      <parameter name="@Identity" layout="${aspnet-User-Identity}" />
      <parameter name="@Referrer" layout="${aspnet-Request-Referrer}" />
      <parameter name="@UserAgent" layout="${aspnet-Request-UserAgent}" />
      <parameter name="@Url" layout="${aspnet-Request-Url}" />
      <parameter name="@Message" layout="${message}" />
      <parameter name="@Logger" layout="${logger}" />
      <parameter name="@CallSite" layout="${callsite:filename=true}" />
      <parameter name="@Exception" layout="${exception:tostring}" />
    </target>
  </targets>

  <rules>
    <!-- Skip Microsoft logs, and log only own logs-->
    <logger name="Microsoft.*" minlevel="Trace" writeTo="blackhole" final="true" />
    <logger name="*" minlevel="Trace" writeTo="database" />
  </rules>
</nlog>

Startup.cs

public class Startup
{
    public Startup(IHostingEnvironment env)
    {
        var builder = new ConfigurationBuilder()
            .SetBasePath(env.ContentRootPath)
            .AddJsonFile("appsettings.json", optional: false, reloadOnChange: true)
            .AddJsonFile($"appsettings.{env.EnvironmentName}.json", optional: true)
            .AddEnvironmentVariables();
        Configuration = builder.Build();

        env.ConfigureNLog("nlog.config");
    }

    public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IHostingEnvironment env, ILoggerFactory loggerFactory)
    {
        ...
        loggerFactory.AddNLog();
        app.AddNLogWeb();
        LogManager.Configuration.Variables["connectionString"] = 
            Configuration.GetConnectionString("DefaultConnection");
        ...
    }
}

}

Update

Based on comment, you are using ASP.NET MVC. You cannot use Entity Framework Connection string for NLog. Instead, you will need to have a separate connection string like this -

<add name="CONNECTION_STRING_NAME_FOR_NLOG" 
         connectionString="data source=(LocalDB)\MSSQLLocalDB;attachdbfilename=|DataDirectory|\Shopdb.mdf;integrated security=True;multipleactiveresultsets=True;application name=EntityFramework" 
         providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"/>

Answer 2

The problem turned out to be the connection string provider which is System.Data.EntityClient which is currently not supported by NLog Found here