Seq apps without NuGet?

[Konstantin Erman]

The only documentation I found about Seq apps is this and it makes it sound like NuGet packaging is required to add custom event handler to Seq.

Is there a way to just build a class library assembly, put it somewhere for Seq to find it and avoid NuGet altogether (packaging, publishing, etc.)?

Thank you!

Konstantin

[nblum...@nblumhardt.com]

Hi Konstantin,

There's a small "Manually upload an app..." link at the bottom of the Apps page in Settings, however it is a bit of a tedious process to configure and update an app that way (it is a relic from before the NuGet packaging was implemented).

Not sure it helps, but if you happen to use TeamCity, it's really quick to pack a NuPkg from it now (some built in tasks to simplify it).

Regards,
Nick

[Konstantin Erman]

-- There's a small "Manually upload an app..." link at the bottom of the Apps page in Settings, 

Thanks! I obviously overlooked it.

Please, please don't kill that feature and rather add it to documentation. I feel that for many people ability to add the app "locally" without NuGet (even without private NuGet feed) would be very much appreciated. Especially during the time when app is developed and debugged.

[Thomas B]

Hi Konstantin, do you know that you can point a private nugetfeed directly to a local disk folder (just type the path of the folder containing packages).

Also, the nupkg is just a zip, so it's in fact just a matter of "nuget pack *.*" to produce a package. Just unzip an actual addon and see what it is made of.

[Konstantin Erman]

I know about private NuGet feeds, but still it looks like unnecessary overhead during the app creation/debugging time. It is like require your C# project to build MSI setup package every time you press F5! While it is appropriate when the app is published for external users, I would expect some shortcut for the app in development.

I guess I can make NuGet package, install it once and then just keep replacing the binary under development without zipping - unzipping it first.

Anyway, as far as I understand, apps are only good for subscription type of event handling and what we actually need more is dumping the data out of Seq on demand accordingly to some query. I wonder if I can use Seq HTTP API from within the app to query and only use the app to gather parameters and display the result in Seq UI.

[Jeffrey Campbell]

Second this; I was wondering actually if there is anyone whom has posted a howto or tutorial on packaging a Seq app for importing into their server. I have a client for whom I would like to write a custom Seq app to write specific content from the ,logs to a file, but so far have had zero success getting my app uploaded correctly (Seq returns with a 405 error when uploading the nuget package). Is there anyone who can provide more insight into this process?

Much obliged for any responses, thank you. 

[nblum...@nblumhardt.com]

Hi Jeffrey,

If you're using the "manually upload" option you need to add assemblies individually, rather than as a NuGet package. It's not a great process :-)

Pointing a local Seq instance to the output location of your build process in VS is about the best setup I've found so far. Once it's working (e.g. have NuGet Pack run as a post-build event) - it's fairly painless.

Is a filesystem-based feed an option for you?

Cheers,

NIck

[Jeffrey Campbell]

Thanks for getting back to me Nick. The situation I'm encountering is that the Seq server where the app will be running is on our client's own network where this windows server will be the lone exception (everything else is Linux and OSX). I need to be able to take this Seq app,  upload or copy it over to the client's network, and then install/configure it on their Seq instance. 

I've tried the following steps to create a Nuget package and install it on my own local instance of Seq, but each time I try the server responds with a 405 cannot connect and fails to do anything meaningful with the app. I have no doubt I'm not doing something correctly to gte this to work I'm just not as familiar with developing Nuget apps/frameworks.

1. Build Project. 

2. Using the Nuget command line console, change directories to the project folder and run nuget spec

3. Edit the nuspec file and fill out all var indicated fields (Seems like there is a linking process that could be done from the Assembly information itself, but this seemed the easiest way to troubleshoot).  

4. Run 'nuget pack projectname'. 

5. Attempt to upload the nuget package to Seq; Upon saving, receive a 405 error. 

Any help is appreciated. 

[nblum...@nblumhardt.com]

Hi Jeffrey,

I think the key is that you need to upload the individual assemblies, not the .NUPKG, when using the "manual" option. Dropping the packages on a file share, and adding that as a feed, is a much better experience.

I've just started working on https://github.com/continuousit/seq-dev-apphost to hopefully make the whole thing a bit smoother - no ETA but I hope to flesh something out pretty quickly.

If you're still having trouble, can you please drop error messages etc. to our support address?

Cheers,

Nick