lawrencepit/exception_logger

ExceptionLogger
===============

The Exception Logger (forgive the horrible name) logs your Rails exceptions in the database and provides a funky web interface to manage them.

First you need to generate the migration:

  ./script/generate exception_migration

Next, you'll need to include the ExceptionLoggable module into ApplicationController.  Once that's done you might want to modify key methods to customize the logging:

  render_404(exception) - Shows the 404 template.
  
  render_500(exception) - Shows the 500 template.
  
  log_exception(exception) - Logs the actual exception in the database.
  
  rescue_action_in_public(exception) - Does not log these exceptions: ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound, ActionController::UnknownController, ActionController::UnknownAction

Now add a new route to your routes.rb:

  map.connect "logged_exceptions/:action/:id", :controller => "logged_exceptions"

After that, visit /logged_exceptions in your application to manage the exceptions.

It's understandable that you may want to require authentication. You can do this by creating your own controller extending your ApplicationController (thereby leveraging all the existing authorization rules you may have) and include the ExceptionLoggableControllerMixin module. For example:

  class LoggedExceptionsController < ApplicationController
    include ExceptionLoggableControllerMixin
    self.application_name = "My Application Name"  # this will show up in the title of the Rss feed

    # add your regular permission checking here, e.g.:
    protected
      # only allow admins
      # this obviously depends on how your auth system works
      def authorized?
        current_user.is_a?(Admin)
      end
      
      # assume app's login required doesn't use http basic
      def login_required_with_basic
        respond_to do |accepts|
          # alias_method_chain will alias the app's login_required to login_required_without_basic
          accepts.html { login_required_without_basic }
          
          # access_denied_with_basic_auth is defined in ExceptionLoggableControllerMixin
          # get_auth_data returns back the user/password pair
          accepts.rss do
            access_denied_with_basic_auth unless self.current_user = User.authenticate(*get_auth_data)
          end
        end
      end
      
      alias_method_chain :login_required, :basic
  end

The exact code of course depends on the specific needs of your application.

CREDITS

Jamis Buck  - original exception_notification plugin
Rick Olson  - model/controller code
Josh Goebel - design