The elmah.io NuGet package landscape

Written by Thomas Ardal

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A more recent version of this overview is available here: elmah.io NuGet packages revisited

We are in the process of building prereleases of all of the elmah.io client integrations. While doing so, it has come to my attention, that a good overview of all of the packages doesn't really exist. Let's start by looking at a diagram showing all of the elmah.io NuGet packages and their dependencies:

From the bottom up:

Elmah.Io.Client

Every messages logged on elmah.io goes through our API. Elmah.Io.Client is a partially auto-generated package for talking with the API. Besides a 1:1 mapping of the API, Elmah.Io.Client also contains a logging API known from logging frameworks like Serilog and log4net. The logging API allows for logging everything from Verbose to Fatal messages.

As illustrated on the diagram, all other client integrations uses Elmah.Io.Client to talk to the API. If you want to create an integration for elmah.io, this is the package to depend.

elmah.io.core

The elmah.io.core package, contains our integration for ELMAH. If you want to add logging of all uncaught errors in your ASP.NET (classic, MVC and Web API) application, this is your package of choice.

elmah.io

While elmah.io.core contains the actual implementation for ELMAH, elmah.io is a convenience package. No code is included in this package but in real life, you will start by installing this package anyway. The package contains config transformations, as well our PowerShell installer (the dialog you see when installing, asking for your log ID). Once installed, you can safely remove this package, leaving elmah.io.core and Elmah.Io.Client as the packages handling everything.

Elmah.Io.Mvc

Much like the elmah.io package, Elmah.Io.Mvc act as an easy installer when using elmah.io from ASP.NET MVC.

Elmah.Io.WebApi

Same story as Elmah.Io.Mvc just for ASP.NET Web API.

elmah.io.umbraco

We love Umbraco and believe it's the best .NET CMS out there. Our native support for Umbraco, contains everything needed to log uncaught exceptions (by depending elmah.io.core), as well as hooking into Umbraco's own logging feature (using elmah.io.log4net).

Elmah.Io.Extensions.Logging

When releasing ASP.NET Core, Microsoft also made a new logging framework available called Microsoft.Extensions.Logging. As sexy as that name sounds (?), it's a good logging framework, inspired by similar community driven projects. In fact, Microsoft.Extensions.Logging can act as a simple proxy for other logging frameworks and that it exactly how you'd use it with elmah.io. Using the Elmah.Io.Extensions.Logging package, you can send everything from Verbose to Fatal log statements from any .NET Core application to elmah.io.

Elmah.Io.AspNetCore

Elmah.Io.AspNetCore is out implementation for ASP.NET Core. Using middleware, all uncaught exceptions in your ASP.NET Core application, are send to elmah.io. If ELMAH is ever ported to ASP.NET Core, we may discontinue this package. For now, this is the package for integrating ASP.NET Core with elmah.io.

Logary.Targets.Elmah.Io

Logary is a logging framework for .NET, written entirely in F#. Our integration for Logary, makes it possible to log different types of messages in elmah.io, through Logary.

elmah.io.trace

A simple .NET trace listener, sending trace messages from the Trace class in .NET to elmah.io.

elmah.io.nlog

Log target for the popular .NET logging framework NLog.

elmah.io.log4net

Appender for the oldest .NET logging framework on the block: log4net. While log4net may not be the new shiny thing, it's still the most commonly used logging framework. We have excellent support for log4net.

Serilog.Sinks.ElmahIo

Serilog is a very popular logging framework, that has gained a lot of traction and attention during the last years. We use Serilog ourselves, to log messages from all of the components inside elmah.io. Using this package, logging error messages (as well as debug, information etc.) through Serilog, is easy as 1-2-3.

Serilog.Sinks.ElmahIo.AspNet

Since writing this post the Serilog.Sinks.ElmahIo.AspNet package has been removed.

While Serilog.Sinks.ElmahIo is a great choice for most logging needs, you may want additional information stored, when logging from a web application. The Serilog.Sinks.ElmahIo.AspNet package, logs a lot of information from the HTTP context as well, when logging messages through Serilog. If you are using Serilog from a web application, this package is the better choice.