Error Logging
In the beginning ... JustLog.IT was an Error Logging platform.
Years ago we needed an error logging platform for a distributed app running on 1000's of user desktops. After a number of failed attempts we finally built a platform that met our needs. Specifically we needed
it to:
- Provide a centralized logging location. By exposing a RESTful API endpoint for the error information we provided a single location for all error information.
- Allow us to easily review the errors. Now that we had all the information in one place we built a dashboard on top of that information so we could see errors and error trends.
- Notify us when errors were received. When we built in the notification piece we changed the platform from passive to active and it was a game-changer.
Over the years we tweaked the platform and exposed it to various web apps and mobile apps. We allowed some of our friends and co-workers to use the platform for their logging purposes. Eventually we
worked the kinks out and ended up with a smooth, error-logging machine.
So what are the benefits you get from this logging?
- Errors can be detected, triaged, fixed and deployed in hours if necessary.
- Bad releases reveal themselves almost immediately (assuming something slipped through testing...which would never happen of course).
- Network issues or database outages are detected in real-time, allowing us to respond in minutes and get things back up and running.
- We can proactively notify our support teams and even our customers to errors we are seeing, increasing overall customer satisfaction levels with our apps.
Does it get any better?
Yes. Yes it does. In addition to logging the error we also allow you to log "info" items which can be used to help narrow down and troubleshoot errors. So you can log important milestones in your code in addition to the
errors. When you are reviewing the error you can also get a timeline of the info entries around the error
to add context and help troubleshoot. Info logging is optional but, if used correctly, can really help
when investigating errors.