#104
May 05
Exception Notifications
If you're running a production site, it's a good idea to record all exceptions which occur. See how to set up a notification system which does that in this episode.
Links
Note: I forgot to mention, the exception_logger plugin requires will_paginate, so make sure you have that installed either through a plugin or gem.
Also I should have mentioned the importance of adding authorization to the controller so not everyone can access it. The README shows you how to do this.
gem install will_paginate git clone git://github.com/ryanb/exception_logger.git vendor/plugins/exception_logger script/generate exception_migration rake db:migrate
# config/environments/development.rb config.action_controller.consider_all_requests_local = false # in controllers/application.rb include ExceptionLoggable private def local_request? false end # routes.rb map.connect "logged_exceptions/:action/:id", :controller => "logged_exceptions"
Maybe its a cool idea to use jabber (aka xmpp) for exeption notification to the admin.
I always look forward to seeing a new episode in my Railscasts feed. It's very helpful to know how to simulate the production error environment, and the reporting plugin looks really nice. Keep up the good work!
Like always, thanks a lot for your effort!
Doesn't appear to work with Fast Sessions. http://code.google.com/p/rails-fast-sessions/ No matter what I do I get an error complaining ... "No :secret given to the #protect_from_forgery call" on line #53 of logged_exceptions/index.rhtml ... even though I do have one specified. The errors are logged, but the logged_exception views wont show.
Not to sound ungrateful! Love your stuff of course! I'm on the edge of my seat with each episode. You're one of the reasons I love R(uby|ails)!
Hi
all the same as Russ Jones : the problem with the :secret and the love of your work !
I don't use Rails Fast Sessions, but I disabled session store in cookies. Maybe it's something like that.
@Russ & Jeremy, oh interesting, I hadn't tried this without using cookie session store. It may have something to do with the fact that LoggedExceptionsController doesn't inherit from ApplicationController. You may need to add some specific session info to the controller, check out the readme for an example. I'll do some testing and post what I find.
In many ways I wish this plugin was just a generator which created the controller instead of keeping it buried in a place where it's difficult to change. This would solve these kinds of problems.
maybe will_paginate portage to git?
Nice episode!
If - for whichever reason - you don't want to use one of the plugins, there's another possibility that I'm currently using in one of my projects: I symlinked the production.log in the public directory (of course it's password protected) so I can check the log at any time and don't have to log in at the server.
Rocking the cas bah. Thanks.
Nice one, really helpful!
Got it running ^^, just quick and dirty.
for those who had problems with the "secret"
just use:
protect_from_forgery :secret => 'mytinylittleveryultramegalongsecret'
with your secret in the logged_exceptions_controller.rb
and for me i had to use:
helper_method :filtered? and copy that method from the helper file (logged_exceptions_helper) to the controller file in the plugin/lib, because it looks like that the helper is not loading correct.
would be nice, if the logging process itself would be written to the log file ("INSERT INTO ...") for better documentation ... etc etc
What I do for security reasons is putting any admin or reporting pages into a separate application, as described here:
http://www.rorsecurity.info/2008/03/03/intranet-and-admin-security/
This is deescalation, a stolen cookie/session/account means less harm.
Does anyone know what's to become of the code on dev.rubyonrails.org that didn't get migrated to GitHub? Stuff like plugins/exception_notification and adapters/oracle.
Thanks for the Railscasts!
Hi
I think that in #config/environments/production.rb code to require authentication, you need add after: accepts.html { login_required_without_basic }
other line for rjs format:
accepts.js { login_required_without_basic }
Moreover, the plugin requires RedCloth gem for exceptions details.
I didn't try exception_logger yet, but it looks promising. I had a quick look to the source and saw, that it provides an RSS feed of logged exceptions - so you can use a feed reader to subscribe to the exception logs of your application.
Thanks Ryan for the excellent railscast, as always.
I am getting an exception when I try to protect the logged_exceptions behind an admin authentication (I am using restful_authentication as well):
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.0.2/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:478:in `const_missing': uninitialized constant Rails::Initializer::AuthenticationSystem (NameError)
When I try to download the "exception_logger Plugin [ryanb fork]" from GitHub - the archive doesn't have all the files.