Configure elmah.io from code

You typically configure elmah.io in your web.config file. With a little help from some custom code, you will be able to configure everything in code as well:

using Elmah;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel.Design;

[assembly: WebActivatorEx.PreApplicationStartMethod(typeof(ElmahFromCodeExample.ElmahConfig), "Start")]

namespace ElmahFromCodeExample
{
    public static class ElmahConfig
    {
        public static void Start()
        {
            ServiceCenter.Current = CreateServiceProviderQueryHandler(ServiceCenter.Current);
            HttpApplication.RegisterModule(typeof(ErrorLogModule));
        }

        private static ServiceProviderQueryHandler CreateServiceProviderQueryHandler(ServiceProviderQueryHandler sp)
        {
            return context =>
            {
                var container = new ServiceContainer(sp(context));

                var config = new Dictionary<string, string>();
                config["apiKey"] = "API_KEY";
                config["logId"] = "LOG_ID";
                var log = new Elmah.Io.ErrorLog(config);

                container.AddService(typeof(Elmah.ErrorLog), log);
                return container;
            };
        }
    }
}

Replace API_KEY with your API key (Where is my API key?) and LOG_ID with a log ID (Where is my log ID?).

Let's look at the code. Our class ElmahConfig is configured as a PreApplicationStartMethod which means, that ASP.NET (MVC) will execute the Start method when the web application starts up. Inside this method, we set the ServiceCenter.Current property to the return type of the CreateServiceProviderQueryHandler method. This method is where the magic happens. Besides creating the new ServiceContainer, we created the Elmah.Io.ErrorLog class normally configured through XML. The Dictionary should contain the API key and log ID as explained earlier.

In the second line of the Start-method, we call the RegisterModule-method with ErrorLogModule as parameter. This replaces the need for registering the module in web.config as part of the system.webServer element.

That's it! You no longer need the <elmah> element, config sections, or anything else related to ELMAH and elmah.io in your web.config file.

This article was brought to you by the elmah.io team. elmah.io is the best error management system for .NET web applications. We monitor your website, alert you when errors start happening, and help you fix errors fast.

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