Extracting ExceptionDetail Child Property Values Into SqlColumn

[christopher-schofield]

I'm working with Serilog.Exceptions and it is enriching correctly (thank you very much BTW). I am looking to extract properties of ExceptionDetail and insert them into their own database columns. I'm using SQL Server and when referencing the ExceptionDetail.Type and ExceptionDetail.Message as the PropertyName value in the SqlColumn, they always insert NULLs into their respective columns. After further investigation, I'm noticing that the rendered value of ExceptionDetail is not JSON (as opposed to the other properties). When I put ExceptionDetail as the PropertyName value in the SqlColumn, I get this non-JSON formatted data:
[("Type": "System.ArgumentException"), ("HResult": -2147024809), ("Message": "This is a manually generated ArgumentException."), ("Source": "Library.ResearchX"), ("StackTrace": " at Library.ResearchX.Controllers.LogsController.GenerateTestError(String errorType) in C:\Users\user\source\repos\website\Library.ResearchX\Controllers\LogsController.cs:line 116 at lambda_method244(Closure, Object, Object[]) [removed for brevity]"), ("TargetSite": "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ActionResult GenerateTestError(System.String)"), ("ParamName": null)]

I would have expected this to be JSON - or correct me if I'm wrong there, and thus, am assuming this is why the value is inserting NULL. For example, when I attempt to extract the ExceptionDetail.Message value into a SqlColumn like so:
new SqlColumn {ColumnName = "ExceptionMessage", PropertyName = "ExceptionDetail.Message", DataType = SqlDbType.NVarChar},
it simply inserts NULL.

For comparison, when inserting the EventId property (which has child properties Id and Name, it is rendered as proper JSON like so:
{ Id: 1, Name: "UnhandledException" }

Any thoughts on why the ExceptionDetail value is rendered in a non-JSON format? Is that formatting the cause of why the value is not being pulled into the SqlColumn when referencing ExceptionDetail.Message?

[RehanSaeed]

You probably want to create an NVARCHAR column in SQL Server for the value of Message.

[christopher-schofield]

Thanks @RehanSaeed. I've confirmed both the SqlColumn specifies SqlDbType.NVarChar with no DataLength which defaults to -1 max length and the database column is a nvarchar(MAX) as well.

[christopher-schofield]

I also tested a few more times in different scenarios and confirmed the same non-JSON output when setting the SqlColumn PropertyName to ExceptionDetail. It also sets the column to NULL when the PropertyName is set to ExceptionDetail.Message.