Exception Logging using Singleton Design Pattern

Suggested Videos
Part 4 - Thread Safety in Singleton - Text - Slides
Part 5 - Lazy vs Eager loading in Singleton - Text - Slides
Part 6 - Static Class vs Singleton - Text - Slides



In this tutorial we will discuss how to create a simple employee web application using ASP.NET MVC and we will create a custom logger library using Singleton design pattern which logs exceptions to an external file



Logger Library

ILog.cs

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Text;

using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace Logger

{

    public interface ILog

    {

        void LogException(string message);

    }

}

Log.cs

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.IO;

using System.Linq;

using System.Text;

using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace Logger

{

    public sealed class Log : ILog

    {

        private Log()

        {

        }

        private static readonly Lazy<Log> instance = new Lazy<Log>(() => new Log());

        public static Log GetInstance

        {

            get

            {

                return instance.Value;

            }

        }

        public void LogException(string message)

        {

            string fileName = string.Format("{0}_{1}.log", "Exception", DateTime.Now.ToShortDateString());

            string logFilePath = string.Format(@"{0}\{1}", AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, fileName);

            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

            sb.AppendLine("----------------------------------------");

            sb.AppendLine(DateTime.Now.ToString());

            sb.AppendLine(message);

            using (StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(logFilePath, true))

            {

                writer.Write(sb.ToString());

                writer.Flush();

            }

        }

    }

}

Create and MVC Application and Create EmployeePortal DB with Employee Table

Employee Table

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Employee] (

    [Id]             INT          IDENTITY (1, 1) NOT NULL,

    [Name]           VARCHAR (50) NOT NULL,

    [JobDescription] VARCHAR (50) NOT NULL,

    [Number]         VARCHAR (50) NOT NULL,

    [Department]     VARCHAR (50) NOT NULL,

    PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED ([Id] ASC)

);

Generate Model using ADO.Net entity model generator using the above Table. Post generation, Add an Employee controller and use generated model which further creates views for Employee which facilitates CRUD operations on the employee.

Sample EmployeeController.cs

using Logger;

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Data;

using System.Data.Entity;

using System.Linq;

using System.Net;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.Mvc;

using Web.Models;

namespace Web.Controllers

{

    public class EmployeesController : Controller

    {

        private ILog _ILog;

        private EmployeePortalEntities db = new EmployeePortalEntities();

        public EmployeesController()

        {

            _ILog = Log.GetInstance;

        }

        protected override void OnException(ExceptionContext filterContext)

        {

            _ILog.LogException(filterContext.Exception.ToString());

            filterContext.ExceptionHandled = true;

            this.View("Error").ExecuteResult(this.ControllerContext);

        }

        // GET: Employees

        public ActionResult Index()

        {

            return View(db.Employees.ToList());

        }

        // GET: Employees/Details/5

        public ActionResult Details(int? id)

        {

            if (id == null)

            {

                return new HttpStatusCodeResult(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest);

            }

            Employee employee = db.Employees.Find(id);

            if (employee == null)

            {

                return HttpNotFound();

            }

            return View(employee);

        }

        // GET: Employees/Create

        public ActionResult Create()

        {

            return View();

        }

        // POST: Employees/Create

        // To protect from overposting attacks, please enable the specific properties you want to bind to, for

        // more details see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=317598.

        [HttpPost]

        [ValidateAntiForgeryToken]

        public ActionResult Create([Bind(Include = "Id,Name,JobDescription,Number,Department")] Employee employee)

        {

            if (ModelState.IsValid)

            {

                db.Employees.Add(employee);

                db.SaveChanges();

                return RedirectToAction("Index");

            }

            return View(employee);

        }

        // GET: Employees/Edit/5

        public ActionResult Edit(int? id)

        {

            if (id == null)

            {

                return new HttpStatusCodeResult(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest);

            }

            Employee employee = db.Employees.Find(id);

            if (employee == null)

            {

                return HttpNotFound();

            }

            return View(employee);

        }

        // POST: Employees/Edit/5

        // To protect from overposting attacks, please enable the specific properties you want to bind to, for

        // more details see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=317598.

        [HttpPost]

        [ValidateAntiForgeryToken]

        public ActionResult Edit([Bind(Include = "Id,Name,JobDescription,Number,Department")] Employee employee)

        {

            if (ModelState.IsValid)

            {

                db.Entry(employee).State = EntityState.Modified;

                db.SaveChanges();

                return RedirectToAction("Index");

            }

            return View(employee);

        }

        // GET: Employees/Delete/5

        public ActionResult Delete(int? id)

        {

            if (id == null)

            {

                return new HttpStatusCodeResult(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest);

            }

            Employee employee = db.Employees.Find(id);

            if (employee == null)

            {

                return HttpNotFound();

            }

            return View(employee);

        }

        // POST: Employees/Delete/5

        [HttpPost, ActionName("Delete")]

        [ValidateAntiForgeryToken]

        public ActionResult DeleteConfirmed(int id)

        {

            Employee employee = db.Employees.Find(id);

            db.Employees.Remove(employee);

            db.SaveChanges();

            return RedirectToAction("Index");

        }

        protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)

        {

            if (disposing)

            {

                db.Dispose();

            }

            base.Dispose(disposing);

        }

    }

}

• Run the application and all the exceptions will be logged under the file created by the logger class library.
• This Proves that singleton design pattern comes handy in the situations where we need to have a single instance of the object.
• Now, to consider another example, we can design Cache Management to use and leverage on Singleton design pattern as we can handle reads and writes to external caches using the Single Cache instance object.