Missing Ilogger parameters

[ollie10]

Package

Sentry

.NET Flavor

.NET Core

.NET Version

8.0.0

OS

Windows

SDK Version

8.0.0

Self-Hosted Sentry Version

No response

Steps to Reproduce

Hi everyone, I have a (maybe) dummy question. I'm using Sentry for Asp.NET using as logging methods the one shipped in the framework via Microsoft.Extensions.Logging

I'm logging errors and exceptions passing sometimes parameters like in this way:

_logger.LogError("ERROR - User Registration Failed Invalid Recaptcha", new { RegisterModel = registerModel, RecaptchaResponse = recaptchaResponse });

The question is: Where am I supposed to see these parameters in the Sentry interface? I mean, logging is working pretty fine, especially with the exceptions caught. I see everything I need; I just never see, in any case, those parameters.

Am I doing something wrong, or is this the expected behavior?

Expected Result

I would expect to see the parameters as a dictionary or a deserialized object in Sentry Event

Actual Result

Nothing about those parameters is shown on the event details

[jamescrosswell]

Hm, typically you log errors when you have an exception, in which case the exception can be passed as well and you get full stack trace details etc. on the Issues dashboard in Sentry):

sentry-dotnet/samples/Sentry.Samples.ME.Logging/Program.cs

Lines 65 to 73 in d6dc82b

	try
	{
	Dependency.Work("some work");
	}
	catch (Exception e)
	{
	// Handle an exception and log it:
	logger.LogError(e, "7 - An event that includes the scope key-value (A, B, C) and also the breadcrumbs: (2, 4, 6) and events (3, 5)");
	}

If you wanted additional information to be sent to Sentry, one way to do it would be via the logger state:

sentry-dotnet/samples/Sentry.Samples.ME.Logging/Program.cs

Lines 51 to 59 in d6dc82b

	using (logger.BeginScope(new Dictionary<string, string>
	{
	{"A", "some value"},
	{"B", "more value"},
	}))
	{
	logger.LogWarning("4 - Breadcrumb that only exists inside this scope");
	logger.LogError("5 - An event that includes the scoped key-value (A, B) above and also the breadcrumbs: (2, 4) and event (3)");

Under the hood that information gets passed through to Sentry like so:

sentry-dotnet/src/Sentry.Extensions.Logging/SentryLogger.cs

Lines 113 to 135 in 464fd4c

	switch (property.Value)
	{
	case string stringTagValue:
	@event.SetTag(property.Key, stringTagValue);
	break;
	case Guid guidTagValue when guidTagValue != Guid.Empty:
	@event.SetTag(property.Key, guidTagValue.ToString());
	break;
	case Enum enumValue:
	@event.SetTag(property.Key, enumValue.ToString());
	break;
	default:
	{
	if (property.Value?.GetType().IsPrimitive == true)
	{
	@event.SetTag(property.Key, Convert.ToString(property.Value, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture)!);
	}
	break;
	}
	}

So basically the State has to be an IEnumerable<KeyValuePair<string, object>> and the values can be string, Guid, Enum or some primitive (like int). If you want to pass a complex model like RegisterModel you'd need to first serialize this to JSON or something (so that it could be supplied as a string).

[ollie10]

Hello @jamescrosswell I see your point; that's said, the solution is not very user-friendly.
Besides that, there are plenty of cases in which you want to log an error without an exception, like in those cases where you have logic errors. That's why the LogError of ILogger has a method that doesn't need an exception to log the data.

Anyway, if there is no other way, I will give it a try with the scopes way. Many thanks for the help

[jamescrosswell]

Anyway, if there is no other way, I will give it a try with the scopes way. Many thanks for the help

Hey @ollie10 ,

I don't think there's any other way that Sentry could get data from the logger. In the code you provided above, you're making a call to this extension method:

        /// <summary>
        /// Formats and writes an error log message.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="logger">The <see cref="ILogger"/> to write to.</param>
        /// <param name="message">Format string of the log message in message template format. Example: <c>"User {User} logged in from {Address}"</c></param>
        /// <param name="args">An object array that contains zero or more objects to format.</param>
        /// <example>logger.LogError("Processing request from {Address}", address)</example>
        public static void LogError(this ILogger logger, string? message, params object?[] args)
        {
            logger.Log(LogLevel.Error, message, args);
        }

So the logger doesn't do anything with registerModel and recaptchaResponse. The params args in that extension method would only ever be used to format the message (if you were using message templating).

If you can think of an easier way to pass data from the logger to Sentry, we could look into it though. We're always looking for ways to make Sentry easier to use.