Logging snippets ready to go

My last post was some simple intro to how you can make your own snippets - here are some easy ones I made to make logging with log4net easier.

This first one is one I use simply to get a logger with the name of the current class. I put this in most every class. Nothing fancy here, just type log and press tab to get a logger named log.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<CodeSnippets xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/2005/CodeSnippet">
  <CodeSnippet Format="1.0.0">
    <Header>
      <Title>Logging
   </Title>
      <Author>Tomas Ekeli</Author>
      <Description>Initializes a logger with the name of the current class</Description>
      <HelpUrl />
      <SnippetTypes />
      <Keywords />
      <Shortcut>log</Shortcut>
    </Header>
    <Snippet>
      <References>
        <Reference>
          <Assembly>log4net.dll</Assembly>
          <Url />
        </Reference>
      </References>
      <Imports>
        <Import>
          <Namespace>log4net</Namespace>
        </Import>
      </Imports>
      <Declarations />
      <Code Language="CSharp" Kind="" Delimiter="$"><![CDATA[protected static readonly ILog log = LogManager.GetLogger(System.Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType); ]]></Code>
    </Snippet>
  </CodeSnippet>
</CodeSnippets>

Now you've got a logger up and running you'll be doing a lot of calls to log.debug("somestring") and even more with formatting on that string. So here's a snippet for that:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<CodeSnippets xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/2005/CodeSnippet">
  <CodeSnippet Format="1.0.0">
    <Header>
      <Title>logFormattedString</Title>
      <Author>Tomas Ekeli</Author>
      <Description>log formatted string</Description>
      <HelpUrl></HelpUrl>
      <SnippetTypes />
      <Keywords />
      <Shortcut>lsf</Shortcut>
    </Header>
    <Snippet>
      <References>
        <Reference>
          <Assembly>log4net</Assembly>
          <Url />
        </Reference>
      </References>
      <Imports>
        <Import>
          <Namespace>log4net</Namespace>
        </Import>
      </Imports>
      <Declarations>
        <Literal Editable="true">
          <ID>Level</ID>
          <Type />
          <ToolTip>Log level</ToolTip>
          <Default>Debug</Default>
          <Function />
        </Literal>
        <Literal Editable="true">
          <ID>Message</ID>
          <Type />
          <ToolTip />
          <Default>field value: {0}</Default>
          <Function />
        </Literal>
        <div class="youtube-video"><object Editable="true">
          <ID>Field</ID>
          <Type>Object</Type>
          <ToolTip>The field to log</ToolTip>
          <Default></Default>
          <Function />
        </object></div>
      </Declarations>
      <Code Language="csharp" Kind="method body" Delimiter="$"><![CDATA[log.$Level$(string.Format("$Message$", $Field$));]]></Code>
    </Snippet>
  </CodeSnippet>
</CodeSnippets>

Finally a very nice thing about logging is when you can push the context on a stack for inclusion. I use this all the time. This snippet can be used as a surrounding snippet as well (mark the text you want to surround in a context and right-click -> Surround-with

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<CodeSnippets xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/2005/CodeSnippet">
  <CodeSnippet Format="1.0.0">
    <Header>
      <Title>logFormattedString</Title>
      <Author>Tomas Ekeli</Author>
      <Description>log formatted string</Description>
      <HelpUrl></HelpUrl>
      <SnippetTypes />
      <Keywords />
      <Shortcut>lsf</Shortcut>
    </Header>
    <Snippet>
      <References>
        <Reference>
          <Assembly>log4net</Assembly>
          <Url />
        </Reference>
      </References>
      <Imports>
        <Import>
          <Namespace>log4net</Namespace>
        </Import>
      </Imports>
      <Declarations>
        <Literal Editable="true">
          <ID>Level</ID>
          <Type />
          <ToolTip>Log level</ToolTip>
          <Default>Debug</Default>
          <Function />
        </Literal>
        <Literal Editable="true">
          <ID>Message</ID>
          <Type />
          <ToolTip />
          <Default>field value: {0}</Default>
          <Function />
        </Literal>
        <div class="youtube-video"><object Editable="true">
          <ID>Field</ID>
          <Type>Object</Type>
          <ToolTip>The field to log</ToolTip>
          <Default></Default>
          <Function />
        </object></div>
      </Declarations>
      <Code Language="csharp" Kind="method body" Delimiter="$"><![CDATA[log.$Level$(string.Format("$Message$", $Field$));]]></Code>
    </Snippet>
  </CodeSnippet>
</CodeSnippets>

Code snippets

I like anything which makes my day easier. Code snippets are one of these things. You can make your own code-snippets by editing xml directly, using the code snippet schema reference, or you could use a tool. Snippet Editor is just such a tool. With it making and editing snippets is dead simple!

One thing I've noticed with it, though, is that you cannot make a "SurroundsWith" snippet in this tool. To do this you have to edit the xml yourself. It's easy when you know how - just add the following to the header section of your snippet definition:

<SnippetTypes>
   <SnippetType>Expansion</SnippetType>
   <SnippetType>SurroundsWith</SnippetType>
</SnippetTypes>

And in your snippet section you add selected and end fields where you would insert the code you want to surround with the snippet (the following example would surround the selected code with curly braces).

<Code Language="csharp" Kind="method body" Delimiter="$">
   <![CDATA[{ $selected$ $end$}]]>
</Code>