Represents a string with embedded placeholders that can render contextual information from the LogEvent.

Platforms Supported:All

SimpleLayout is used by default when nothing specified, so one can just write:

<targets>  <targetlayout="Hello ${message}" /></targets>

But one can explictly specify theSimpleLayout-type like this:

<targets>  <target>    <layoutxsi:type="SimpleLayout"text="Hello ${message}" />  </target></targets>

• text - Layout text

The layout is not meant to be built explicitly from code, instead assign a string, e.g.Layout l = "${longdate}|${level}|${logger}|${message}"

The layout can be literal text like"Hello", but can also contain Layout-Renderers like${message}. See also:List of Layout-Renderers

Many NLog Targets has theirLayout-option configured to this default-value:

${longdate}|${level:uppercase=true}|${logger}|${message:withexception=true}

NLog Layout-format recognizes the colon-character: as option-delimiter, but only when used inside${ and}. To avoid unexpected results, then one can escape using back-slash like this:\:. Ex.${date:format=HH\:mm\:ss}

There also exists Layout-types for more structured output-formats likeJSON,XML,CSV, etc. See also:List of Layouts