Make it easier to use default destructurer for custom exceptions about serilog.exceptions HOT 4 OPEN

@krajek That's a good question, actually, since it points to deeper functionality that I found unexpected.

My case is that Exception.Data contains instances of models for which I've configured custom destructuring policies. They destructure correctly for the standard exceptions, but are overridden by the ReflectionBasedDestructurer.

using Serilog;
using Serilog.Exceptions;
using Serilog.Formatting.Json;
using System;

namespace SerilogExceptionDestructuring
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main()
        {
            Log.Logger = new LoggerConfiguration()
                .WriteTo.Console(formatter: new JsonFormatter())
                .Destructure.ByTransforming<Token>(
                    x => new { x.Id, Token = new string('*', x.Value.Length) })
                .Enrich.WithExceptionDetails()
                .CreateLogger();

            try
            {
                var token = new Token { Id = 1, Value = "Don't show me!" };
                Log.Information("Token created: {@Token}", token);

                var exception = new TokenException();
                exception.Data["@Token"] = token;
                throw exception;
            }
            catch (Exception exception)
            {
                Log.Error(exception, "An exception occurred");
            }
        }
    }

    class Token
    {
        public int Id { get; set; }
        public string Value { get; set; }
    }

    class TokenException : Exception { }
}

{"Timestamp":"2020-12-23T14:41:15.2260722-05:00","Level":"Information","MessageTemplate":"Token created: {@Token}","Properties":{"Token":{"Id":1,"Token":"**************"}}}
{"Timestamp":"2020-12-23T14:41:15.2804143-05:00","Level":"Error","MessageTemplate":"An exception occurred","Exception":"SerilogExceptionDestructuring.TokenException: Exception of type 'SerilogExceptionDestructuring.TokenException' was thrown.\r\n   at SerilogExceptionDestructuring.Program.Main() in C:\\Users\\kmcclellan\\sandbox\\SerilogExceptionDestructuring\\Program.cs:line 26","Properties":{"ExceptionDetail":{"Data":{"@Token":{"Id":1,"Value":"Don't show me!"}},"HResult":-2146233088,"Message":"Exception of type 'SerilogExceptionDestructuring.TokenException' was thrown.","Source":"SerilogExceptionDestructuring","Type":"SerilogExceptionDestructuring.TokenException"}}}

You'll notice that "Don't show me!" appears in the TokenException details. Throwing a base Exception instead has the desired behavior:

{"ExceptionDetail":{"Type":"System.Exception","Data":{"@Token":{"Id":1,"Token":"**************"}},"HResult":-2146233088,"Message":"Exception of type 'System.Exception' was thrown.","Source":"SerilogExceptionDestructuring"}}}

This is because the base ExceptionDestructurer hands the exception Data dictionary as-is to the property bag, rather than trying to destructure it. For any exception destructurer, arguably, the core IDestructuringPolicys should take precedence for non-exception values within the exception tree. If ReflectionBasedDestructurer adhered to this, it would work fine for my case.

from serilog.exceptions.

+1 for this "For any exception destructurer, arguably, the core IDestructuringPolicys should take precedence for non-exception values within the exception tree. If ReflectionBasedDestructurer adhered to this, it would work fine for my case." :)

from serilog.exceptions.

Not sure about the naming WithDefaultException but that method seems like a reasonable idea. How about something like ConfigureException(bool useReflection)? Thoughts @krajek?

from serilog.exceptions.

@kmcclellan Thanks for reaching out. Let me understand your case better. Correct me if I am wrong, please.

You have some custom exceptions for which you intentionally would like to avoid capturing all the properties and would rather just log the "common" exception properties like Message and StackTrace. In your case, the flexibility of reflection based destructurer is a downside.

Is this the correct description of what you are trying to achieve? If so, why exactly is reflection based destructurer wrong solution in your case? You want to hide sensitive data, save space, or for some other reason?

from serilog.exceptions.