Returning an identifier for the logged event is not appropriate for this provider. This provider will always return null (Nothing in VB) from the Log method.

This class is abstract and can not be created directly. See the XmlFileLoggingProvider for a concrete implementation. Implementers can inherit from this class to create a specific logger that allows writing to a file. Implementers should override the SerializeLogEntry(LogEntry) method.

The FileLoggingProviderBase checks upon creation whether the configured file can be created and written to. The provider will fail when this is not the case. When the provider is configured in the application's configuration file, it will invalidate the complete provider model. This enables quick detection of a system's misconfiguration.

The FileLoggingProviderBase does not hold a file lock during the entire life time of the application domain. Instead it will close the file directly after logging a single event. This allows other applications to process that file more easily. This however, can lead to a failure when other processes are writing to this same file. Writing to that file from outside the context of the FileLoggingProviderBase or one of it's implementations is discouraged. Configer a FallbackProvider to prevent a failure to bubble up the call stack.

The following table shows a list of scenario's and for each scenario the table shows whether this scenario can be executed without a change that the provider might fail to log the event.