Ark.Tools

This is a set of core libraries developed and maintained by Ark as a set of helper or extensions of the libraries Ark choose to use in their LOB applications.

Getting Started

All libraries are provided in NuGet.

Support for .NET Framework 4.7.1,.NET Standard 2.x, .NET 6.0. Support for other frameworks is up-for-grabs ;)

Quick Start

The main library used by Ark in its stack are

If you want to learn more about each project, look the respective Readme when present or directly at code. Documentation improvements are up-for-grabs ;)

Upgrade to NLog v5 in Ark.Tools>=v4.5

In v4.5 has been revisited the NLog integration and helpers to make use of new features.

NLog 'default' Configuration

The best way to configure NLog is

    Host.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
        .ConfigureNLog()
        .ConfigureServices(...)
    ;

is equivalent to

    .ConfigureLogging((ctx,l) =>
    {
        var appName = Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().GetName().Name;
        NLogConfigurer
            .For(appName)
            // Load default settings from IConfiguration
            .WithDefaultTargetsAndRulesFromConfiguration(ctx.Configuration)
            .Apply();

        l.ClearProviders(); // remove all Microsoft providers
        l.AddNLog(); // sink all Microsoft.Logging logs to NLog
    })

.WithDefaultTargetsAndRulesFromAppSettings() and .WithDefaultTargetsAndRulesFromCloudSettings() exists for older Configuration sources.

The NLog auto-configurer expect the following settings:

NLog.Database for SQL Server target. The table name is passed in as paramter to the configuration extension method.
NLog.Smtp for the Mail target
- NLog:NotificationList for the receipient address.
- NEW The sender address is taken from Smtp connection string ;From=noreply@example.com or from .ConfigureNLog(mailfrom:"me@myapp.com") (defaults to noreply@ark-energy.eu)
NLog:SlackWebHook for the Slack target. By default only Fatal and LoggerName=Slack.* are sent.
APPINSIGHTS_INSTRUMENTATIONKEY or ApplicationInsights:InstrumentationKey for the ApplicationInsights target. By default only >=Error are sent.

NLog Structured Logging

Logging represent a non trivial part of the CPU consumption of a running Assembly: strings are bad, concateneting them is costly. Log Messages are also generally structured to present some context variables which are of interest.

NLog@v4.5 introduced StructuredLogging template support. Ark.Tools@v4.5 (same version, just a coincidence...) supports writing these captured properties in ApplicationInsights and Database Targets.

StructuredLogging is also more performant of string interpolation: string interpolation ($"Message {variable}") SHALL NOT be used for Logging! String interpolation is always performed even usually disabled levels like Trace or Debug causing a performance loss. Additionally the variables are not captured and cannot be used for log analysis querying the JSON fields.

// BAD
_logger.Info($"Logon by {user} from {ip_address}");

// GOOD
_logger.Info("Logon by {user} from {ip_address}", user, ip_address); // ordered by position

NLog Slack (>=v4.4)

Starting Ark.Tools@v4.4 there is support for Logging to Slack via WebHook.

The Configuration auto-loaders like WithDefaultTargetsAndRulesFromConfiguration() looks for a NLog:SlackWebHook and if non-empty configure to send Logs as chat message to Slack. The default Rules are either:

LoggerName="Slack.*" (created via _slackLogger = LogManager.CreateLogger("Slack.MyStuff");)
Level==Fatal

NLog ApplicationInsights

Starting Ark.Tools@v4.5 there is support for Logging to ApplicationInsights.

The Configuration auto-loaders like WithDefaultTargetsAndRulesFromConfiguration() looks for the Microsoft's default settings like APPINSIGHTS_INSTRUMENTATIONKEY and ApplicationInsights:InstrumentationKey.

The default Rules to log any Error or Fatal to ApplicationInsights, including any Exception and StructuredLogging properties.

Migrate from v2 to v3

BREAKING: Microsoft.AspNetCore v5
- change netcoreapp3.1 to net5.0 on all projects referencing Ark.Tools.AspNetCore.* projects
BREAKING: from System.Data.SqlClient to Microsoft.Data.SqlClient
- remove any Nuget reference to System.Data.SqlClient and replace, where needed, with Microsoft.Data.SqlClient
BREAKING: upgraded to Flurl v3
- most usages should be fine, but those that expected Flurl method to return a HttpMessageResponse, as not returns IFlurlResponse Disposable!
BREAKING: change to AspNetCore base Startup on RegisterContainer()
- RegisterContainer() no longer takes IApplicationBuilder parameter but a IServiceProvider as the Container registration has been moved during ConfigureServices()
- this affects mostly those cases where IServiceProvider was used to check for Tests overrides of mocked services
- Use IHostEnvironment or services.HasService if possible instead of relying on IServiceProvider
BREAKING: change to AspNetCore Startups. Now defaults to System.Text.Json instead of Newtonsoft.Json.
- Use the parameter useNewtonsoftJson: true of base ctor to keep old behaviour
- Migrate from the Ark.Tools.SystemTextJson.JsonPolymorphicConverter instead of Ark.Tools.NewtonsoftJson.JsonPolymorphicConverter

Contributing

Feel free to send PRs or to raise issues if you spot them. We try our best to improve our libraries. Please avoid adding more dependencies to 3rd party libraries.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Licence Claims

A part of this code is taken from StackOverflow or blogs or example. Where possible we included reference to original links but if you spot some missing Acknolegment please open an Issue right away.