Can not use log4j extensions in log4j configuration, causes ClassNotFoundException

[Oded Peer]

I want to use my my own classes, extension of log4j classes, in my log4j configuration.
I wrote the classes and changed the log4j.properties accordingly.
For example:

public class MyAppender extends org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender
{}

And the log4j configuration
log4j.rootLogger=WARN, Console
log4j.appender.Console=MyAppender
log4j.appender.Console.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.Console.layout.ConversionPattern=%d %p [%c] - <%m>%n

When I run the server in the command line I get java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: MyAppender.
When I run the server from Eclipse it works properly.
I think it works in Eclipse since the Eclipse classpath looks in the Eclipse compiled classes folder.
I tried to precompile the application (play precompile) but I get the same log4j error during precompilation.

[Erwan Loisant (eloisant)]

Did you try writing a plugin and putting your classes in src/, rather than putting them in the portion that gets compiled on the fly?

[Oded Peer (oded-50)]

I would really like to avoid having my classes in the "src" directory.
There are a few solutions as I see it:
1. Create a new project for logging. Have this project produce a jar file, add the jar file to play. This is what I've done to work around the problem, but since play does not have a real "build" procedure I would like to maintain only one project. This is more a maven-style solution.

2. Move my log4j.xml file out of the conf directory, and re-configure log4j in a plugin with my log4j.xml file.

3. Have some kind of "boot" play class loader. This will also allow play developers to override the way Play reads the configuration.