Question

I’m trying to remove some logging dependencies and stumbled across Castle Windsor’s logging facility. However, I’m kind of skeptical about whether I should use it or not.

public class MyClass
{
    public Castle.Core.Logging.ILogger Logger { get; set; }

    ...
}

Windsor’s logging facility requires that you expose your logger as a property. Is that really a good practice? I feel like I’m almost breaking encapsulation because normally when I reuse a component, I don’t care about it’s logging mechanism and I don’t normally want to see it exposed.

If I use a custom wrapper that uses a static class to create the log, I can keep it private. For example:

public class MyClass
{
    private static MyCustomWrapper.ILogger Logger = LogManager.GetLogger(typeof(MyClass));

    ...
}

I’ve searched the web for reasons why I should use the logging facility, but I’m only finding articles on how to use it, but not why I should use it. I feel like I’m missing the point. Having the logging component exposed is kind of scarying me away.

Answer 1

Windsor’s logging facility requires that you expose your logger as a property.

Not necessarily. You can also put your logger as a constructor (i.e. mandatory) dependency. The logger is usually declared as a property (i.e optional dependency) because there might be no logger. That is, the component should be able to function without a logger.

If I use a custom wrapper that uses a static class to create the log

That’s a service locator, that code couples MyClass to LogManager, which is IMHO worse than what you were trying to get away from.