Simple Logging with EF Core and SQLite

attractive young indian woman, wearing a crop top, jeans shorts, logging notes in front of a dashboard

A quick demo in .NET 8.0 web api showcasing simple logging using a combination of EF Core and SQLite

This is a quick and simple project that shows logging with EF Core and SQLite

1. It’s useful to learn logging on a basic level

1. It cannot be used for production level logging

1. It does not use Ilogger

1. Still it gives the students a taste for logging

1. The next step would be to upgrade to using a logging library like Serilog

You can find the code here.

CSharpForStudents/CS2025/LoggingWithEFCoreSQLite at main · Jay-study-nildana/CSharpForStudents

Here is one example of logging in action.

        [HttpGet]
        [Route("GetLogs")]
        public IActionResult GetLogs()
        {
            _logger.LogInformation("GetLogs called");

            var logs = _dbContext.LogItems.ToList();
            _logger.LogInformation($"Fetched {logs.Count} log items.");

            return Ok(logs);
        }

        [HttpPost]
        [Route("CreateLog")]
        public IActionResult CreateLog([FromBody] LogItem logItem)
        {
            _logger.LogInformation("CreateLog called");

            if (!ModelState.IsValid)
            {
                _logger.LogWarning("Invalid log item data received.");
                return BadRequest(ModelState);
            }

            logItem.Timestamp = DateTime.UtcNow;
            _dbContext.LogItems.Add(logItem);
            _dbContext.SaveChanges();

            _logger.LogInformation("Log item created successfully.");
            return CreatedAtAction(nameof(GetLogs), new { id = logItem.Id }, logItem);
        }

Here is an example log from the local SQLite DB.

1 Reached GetWeatherForecast 2 2025-01-11 08:48:28.9409837
2 arraytoReturn has been created 2 2025-01-11 08:48:28.941846
3 Reached GetWeatherForecast 2 2025-01-11 08:48:40.6352555
4 arraytoReturn has been created 2 2025-01-11 08:48:40.635299

That’s all there is to it.

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