Optional logging http requests and response

Question

Could somebody describe how achieve those goal: I have http client with methods. Sometimes server start send strange data, and I need to capture request and response. Injecting logger to every method in httpClient sounds awful. I need this log sometimes and amount of log information can be huge. So i need to switch logging for precise httpclient method capture data i.e. for a day and turn off log's without recompiling application. What I'm thought I can register delegate handler which get as option data from appsettings json where I store something which can identify my methods that should be logged. I think somebody already did that. And maybe I can use ready-made solution. If not I can't completely invent a way how map data from appsettings.json to info that delegate handler has. I mean what way i should store in example full URL or maybe some another data on what i can identify what type of http request sended.

Answer 1

Injecting logger to every method in httpClient sounds awful. I need this log sometimes and amount of log information can be huge.

What you need is an application wide setting called 'debug', which you can enable/disable when starting the application.

If it is enabled, it will log all output. So you can enable it for a day, then reboot your application with the parameter disabled. You can also re-use this for other potential problem areas.

Alternatively, you can build conditional statements in the return method; if the output is not exactly X, then log it.