Assembly suffix not supported by xsi:type and NLog.xsd

[snakefoot]

When using this format:

<target xsi:type="Syslog, NLog.Targets.Syslog" name="cee-udp">

Then one gets the following XML schema-validation error:

Maybe add support for having assembly-name as prefix:

<target xsi:type="NLog.Targets.Syslog:Syslog" name="cee-udp">

Curious is the XML Schema validation is still able to validate properties for the SysLog-target when using NLog.Targets.Syslog: as prefix? (Seems intellisense works when doing this xsi:type="NLog:File")

See also #4300 + #4308

See also: luigiberrettini/NLog.Targets.Syslog#307

[davidgeary]

AFAICS, the only place this new capability of including the assembly name is mentioned is in the list of NLog 5.0 changes:

This means custom targets requires explicit <add assembly="NLog.MyAssembly" />, or use the new ability to specify type with assembly-name: <target type="MyTarget, NLog.MyAssembly" name="hello" />.

It would be useful if this could be added to the documentation of the target configuration too.

[snakefoot]

It would be useful if this could be added to the documentation of the target configuration too.

If you have found a NLog-wiki-page that needs to be updated, then you are wellcome to make the change yourself, or you can point out where something is missing.

[snakefoot]

Looks like xsi:type="myprefix:mytype" requires that one have defined the prefix upfront with xmlns:myprefix="..".

So abusing myprefix as assembly-loading-hint might break other stuff in XML / XSD-tooling for validation / intellisense. Guess we need an adult to help us out.

[ThomasArdal]

When reading through all of the different issues spread across repositories about this issue, I think that I have come to the conclusion that the xsi:type attribute isn't the right place to put the assembly information. I believe I was the one pushing for a .NET fully qualified name-type of format here. This was definitely a mistake and my lack of XML Schema knowledge led to a poor suggestion from my side there.

I can see how this could be implemented:

myprefix:assembly:logname

But I'm not sure it's a good idea or even parses schema validation. Also, parsing this string could be bit of a problem since myprefix would not always be there.

In the end, the idea behind the feature (if I remember correctly) was to avoid having to declare the extensions element in config. The assembly attribute directly on the target element (suggested somewhere else) is my favorite I believe.

Just a bit of input. There are definitely adults out there with more XML Schema knowledge than me so maybe something is possible there that I couldn't manage to dig up in the XML Schema docs 🤷‍♂️

[snakefoot]

I think I will step away from the crime-scene, and let those who with knowledge about xsi:type and xmlns take over, and provide a proper pull-request.

Think my contribution is just showing how one should not do it :)