ASP.NET MVC2 + Ninject + NLog (+ shared hosting?) = NullReferenceException

Question

I have an MVC2 app that\'s based on the Tekpub Starter Site, so it uses Ninject for dependency injection, NLog for logging, and a bunch of other libraries in various places.

Answer 1

You could avoid using LogManager.GetCurrentClassLogger() and let Ninject resolve the current class name for you:

Change the constructor of your NLogLogger class into this:

public NLogLogger(string currentClassName) 
{
  _logger = LogManager.GetLogger(currentClassName);
}

And change the ninject binding to resolve the current classname:

Bind<ILogger>().To<NLogLogger>()
  .WithConstructorArgument("currentClassName", x => x.Request.ParentContext.Request.Service.FullName);

Additional benefit: your log file now also includes the class name from where the log directive was issued.

I know my answer is a little bit late to the party, but I was struggling with this myself today and couldn't find the answer anywhere. Maybe this helps someone else.

Answer 2

It looks like NLog can't run in medium trust: http://nlog-project.org/forum.html#nabble-td1685352

If you look in the Global, the app logs when it starts up as well as when it shuts down. You should be able to remove that and be happy.

Answer 3

Shared hosting often has restrictions on reflection etc.

So my guess is that

[NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.] NLog.LogManager.GetCurrentClassLogger() +84

is related to that - what happens if you get the logger using a meachanism where you pase in a Type that you get at compile time via typeof ?

Answer 4

I have experienced a similar problem.

My (simplistic) solution:

replace these lines

private Logger Logger = LogManager.GetCurrentClassLogger();

by this line

private static Logger Logger = LogManager.GetCurrentClassLogger();

The readonly keyword is optional.