How to enable custom logger in Sitecore

 Below are the steps to enable a custom logger:

1. Install Sitecore.Logging assembly in Project form Nuget Package manager. Please select Dependency Behavior as Ignore Dependencies.

2. Create CustomLogger.config file in AppSetting/Include/Project folder with below content.You can change log folder and log file name by changing value in config file .

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/">

<sitecore>

<log4net>

<logger name="CustomLogger" additivity="false">

<level value="DEBUG"/>

<appender-ref ref="CustomLogFile"/>

</logger>

<appender name="CustomLogFile">

<patch:attribute name="type">log4net.Appender.SitecoreLogFileAppender, Sitecore.Logging</patch:attribute>

<file>

<patch:attribute name="value">$(dataFolder)/logs/CustomLog/Custom.Log.{date}.txt</patch:attribute>

</file>

<encoding value="utf-8" />

<staticLogFileName value="false"/>

<datePattern value="_yyyyMMdd" />

<rollingStyle value="Date" />

<!--<lockingModel type="log4net.Appender.FileAppender+MinimalLock" />-->

<appendToFile value="true" />

<preserveLogFileNameExtension value="true" />

<layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">

<conversionPattern value="%d (%-5p) %n%m%n%n" />

</layout>

</appender>

</log4net>

</sitecore>

</configuration>

3. Create log helper class with below code:

LogHelper.cs

using log4net;

namespace Sitecore.Demo.Web.Helper

{

    public class LogHelper

    {

        public static readonly ILog Logger = LogManager.GetLogger("CustomLogger");

    }

}

4. The custom logger is ready to use, below is a sample implementation:

AboutController.cs

using Sitecore.Demo.Web.Helper;

using Sitecore.Demo.Web.Models;

using Sitecore.Mvc.Presentation;

using System;

using System.Web.Mvc;

namespace Sitecore.Demo.Web.Controllers

{

    public class AboutController : Controller

    {

        public ActionResult Index()

        {

            //1. Pass the Item to the view

            var model = new AboutViewModel()

            {

                Item = RenderingContext.Current?.Rendering.Item

            };

           //Error Logger

            LogHelper.Logger.Error("Error Log: AboutController: Index method " + DateTime.Now.ToString());

           //Info Logger

            LogHelper.Logger.Info("Info Log: AboutController: Index method " + DateTime.Now.ToString());

            return View(model);

        }

       

    }

}

Below is log generated by above process:

The benefit of enabling a custom logger is that we can create separate log folders as per our requirements.