_______ _______ _ _ _______ _______ _________ _________ ______
( ____ \( ___ )( ( /|( ( /|( ____ \( ____ \\__ __/ |\ /||\ /|\__ __/( __ \
| ( \/| ( ) || \ ( || \ ( || ( \/| ( \/ ) ( | ) ( || ) ( | ) ( | ( \ )
| | | | | || \ | || \ | || (__ | | | | _____ | | | || | | | | | | | ) |
| | | | | || (\ \) || (\ \) || __) | | | |(_____)| | | || | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | || | \ || | \ || ( | | | | | | | || | | | | | | | ) |
| (____/\| (___) || ) \ || ) \ || (____/\| (____/\ | | | (___) || (___) |___) (___| (__/ )
(_______/(_______)|/ )_)|/ )_)(_______/(_______/ )_( (_______)(_______)\_______/(______/
Connect middleware which assigns a UUID to every request.
Usage
$ npm install connect-uuid
// load connect-uuid
var uuid = require('connect-uuid');
// use the middleware which sets req.uuid
app.use(uuid());
// add a dynamic helper so the view can see #{uuid}
app.dynamicHelpers({
uuid: function(req, res) {
return req.uuid;
},
});
Uses of a UUID for each Request
Log the UUID in your log files to help you figure out what is going on:
// in your logging
myLogger(req.uuid + ' : Something bad happened.');
Tell the user the UUID for the failed request, and get them to use it as a reference when they report the issue to you (note: this is a Jade template):
p Your reference is '#{uuid}'.
Send yourself the uuid of the (failied) requests so you can find it quicker:
To: me@example.com
From: noreply@example.com
Subject: 50x error
A web request (94a56740-539c-4f66-99dd-99bf80b0d5e7) failed.
You may even store the requests and/or errors in your database:
sql> SELECT * FROM request WHERE uuid = 'b2bc553a-108e-4e71-8d01-9152ffaf0f5c';
And there are many other uses too.
Motivation
When you have so many requests, it's hard to grep (search, find, etc) the logs to figure out what went wrong when you get a bad request. connect-uuid to the rescue.
Add this module as connect middleware and each request has a UUID. When you log anything, make sure you log this UUID with it. When you get an error in your application, make sure you use the UUID when reporting it (whether that is logged, email or whatever). Also, tell the user (in their 50x page) what the UUID is when something goes wrong, so that they can tell you to sort things out.
By doing all this, you can easily find the request and what really happened to it. You may keep detailed or light logs, but either way having a direct reference to the request will really help.
Note
This module was inspired by this email by Matt Sargeant to the NodeJS mailing list: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/nodejs/2NcBM7eXD94/FVm-jL91cekJ
Author
Written by Andrew Chilton
Copyright 2011 AppsAttic
License
MIT. See LICENSE for more details.