SQL appender for log4net not working in MVC5 application

Question

I can't get log4net to actually log anything to my database. First I added log4net to my project (MVC). Then I added this in AssemblyInfo.cs

[assembly: log4net.Config.XmlConfigurator(Watch = true)]

In Global.asax.cs Application_Start I end the method with

 log4net.GlobalContext.Properties["ApplicationName"] = "MvcApp";
 log.Debug("Application started");

I added the following model:

 public class Log
{
    [Key]
    [DatabaseGenerated(System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.Schema.DatabaseGeneratedOption.Identity)]
    public int Id { get; set; }

    [Required]
    [Display(Name="Date")]
    public DateTime Description { get; set; }

    [Required, StringLength(255)]
    [Display(Name="Thread")]
    public string Thread { get; set;}

    [Required, StringLength(50)]
    [Display(Name = "Level")]
    public string Level { get; set; }

    [Required, StringLength(255)]
    [Display(Name = "Logger")]
    public string Logger { get; set; }

    [Required, StringLength(4000)]
    [Display(Name = "Message")]
    public string Message { get; set; }

    [Required, StringLength(2000)]
    [Display(Name = "Exception")]
    public string Exception { get; set; }
}

I added this to ApplicationDbContext:

 public System.Data.Entity.DbSet<Models.Log> Logs { get; set; }

In web.config I added this in the configSections element:

 <section name="log4net" type="log4net.Config.Log4NetConfigurationSectionHandler, log4net" />

And then I created this as a child of the configuration element in web.config:

   <log4net debug="true">
<appender name="AdoNetAppender" type="log4net.Appender.AdoNetAppender">
  <bufferSize value="100" />
  <connectionType value="System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection, System.Data, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" />
  <connectionString value="Server=windflower.arvixe.com;Initial Catalog=coralys;User Id=coralysdb;Password=CoughUp_23;Application Name=CoralysInternet;" />
  <commandText value="INSERT INTO Log ([Date],[Thread],[Level],[Logger],[Message],[Exception]) VALUES (@log_date, @thread, @log_level, @logger, @message, @exception)" />
  <parameter>
    <parameterName value="@log_date" />
    <dbType value="DateTime" />
    <layout type="log4net.Layout.RawTimeStampLayout" />
  </parameter>
  <parameter>
    <parameterName value="@thread" />
    <dbType value="String" />
    <size value="255" />
    <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
      <conversionPattern value="%thread" />
    </layout>
  </parameter>
  <parameter>
    <parameterName value="@log_level" />
    <dbType value="String" />
    <size value="50" />
    <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
      <conversionPattern value="%level" />
    </layout>
  </parameter>
  <parameter>
    <parameterName value="@logger" />
    <dbType value="String" />
    <size value="255" />
    <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
      <conversionPattern value="%logger" />
    </layout>
  </parameter>
  <parameter>
    <parameterName value="@message" />
    <dbType value="String" />
    <size value="4000" />
    <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
      <conversionPattern value="%message" />
    </layout>
  </parameter>
  <parameter>
    <parameterName value="@exception" />
    <dbType value="String" />
    <size value="2000" />
    <layout type="log4net.Layout.ExceptionLayout" />
  </parameter>
</appender>
<root>
  <level value="DEBUG"/>
  <appender-ref ref="AdoNetAppender" />
</root>

But even with the log.Debug entries nothing is appended. I tried setting the buffer to 5 as a test but no result. I then added a method to flush the buffers as well, no result. And the level is set to maximum (DEBUG).

What else am I missing here?

Answer 1

It finally works. What helped was to enable Internal Debug on log4net and have it log to internal debug to a text file as described in

Log4net with Entity Framework 5 and MVC4

Having done that it turned out that the SQL statement was wrong, my log table had a different name and also by mistake I had named the Date column as Description. All those errors appeared in the internal debug.

Having fixed that, it worked.