Allow: JsonLayout into a variable

[mccabela]

NLog version 4.2.3 - .Net 4.5

Previously I used to store my layout in a variable and place that layout on the target. This allowed me to setup the defaultLayout once and share it across multiple targets.

e.g.

<!-- Setting the Variable -->
<variable name="defaultLayout" value="${iso8601dateformat}|${level:uppercase=true}|[${logger}]|[Thread-${threadid}]|[Machine-${machinename}]|${message}${onexception:${newline}EXCEPTION OCCURRED\:${exception:tostring:maxInnerExceptionLevel=5:innerFormat=tostring}}" />

<!-- Assigning the layout -->
      <target xsi:type="File" fileName="${logFilePath}trace.txt" layout="${defaultLayout}"
              maxArchiveFiles="100"
              archiveNumbering="Sequence"
              archiveAboveSize="${archiveFileAboveBytes}"
              archiveFileName="${logFilePath}archive/trace-{#####}.txt" />

I'm now moving my logging to use JsonLayout. Is it still possible to store the layout in a variable and assign it to a target?

If so can you please provide an example of how it can be done?

Thanks,

Lach

[304NotModified]

I'm not sure if this would work, but maybe you can test (untested here)

<variable name="defaultLayout" >
  <layout type="JsonLayout">
    <attribute name="message" value="${messsage}">
  </layout>
</variable>

[mccabela]

I tried and threw an exception "Expected value on " so I don't think it works :(

So it might need to be a feature request.

Thanks for the suggestion

[304NotModified]

Checked the code, currently only SimpleLayouts are allowed. There was a good reason for this, not sure but I guess performance.

We should check if we could change this from SimpleLayout -> Layout.