Raygun.com package for Node, written in TypeScript.
When sending exceptions to the Raygun service, an app API key is required to map the messages to your application.
When you create a new application in your Raygun dashboard, your app API key is displayed within the instructions page. You can also find the API key by clicking the "Application Settings" button in the side bar of the Raygun dashboard.
Install the module with: npm install raygun
const raygun = require('raygun');
const raygunClient = new raygun.Client().init({
apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY'
});
You can also use import
, which is useful for loading TypeScript definitions. In order to load type definitions, you can use import * as Raygun from 'raygun'
, or import the Client
class directly from the module.
import * as Raygun from 'raygun';
const raygunClient = new Raygun.Client().init({
apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY'
});
You can directly send errors to Raygun, either by making the error yourself or passing a caught error.
raygunClient.send(new Error('Something impossible happened!'));
If you use express, you can report the errors that express catches to Raygun by using the middleware.
// Add at the end of the middleware definitions, just above app.listen:
app.use(raygunClient.expressHandler);
You can directly catch errors in your application code and report them to Raygun.
try {
// run some code that might throw an error we want to report
} catch (e) {
raygunClient.send(e);
}
A similar example for Node style callbacks:
function handleResult(error, result) {
if (error) {
raygunClient.send(error);
return;
}
// process result
}
If you're working directly with promises, you can pass raygunClient.send
directly to .catch
.
const axios = require('axios');
axios
.get('example.com')
.then(handleResponse)
.catch(raygunClient.send);
The Express documentation says Though not strictly required, by convention you define error-handling middleware last, after other app.use() calls
, but that is incorrect. If the app.use(raygunClient.expressHandler);
call is not immediately before the app.listen
call, then errors will not be handled by Raygun.
Note that the Express middleware handler will pick up and transmit any err
objects that reach it. If the app code itself chooses to handle states that result in 4xx/5xx status codes, these will not result in an error payload sent to Raygun.
The send()
function is asynchronous and returns a Promise
of type IncomingMessage
.
Note that IncomingMessage
can be null
if the request was stored because the application was offline.
IncomingMessage
is the response from the Raygun API - there's nothing in the body, it's just a status code response. If everything went ok, you'll get a 202 response code.
Otherwise, we return 401 for incorrect API keys, 403 if you're over your plan limits, or anything in the 500+ range for internal errors.
We use the nodejs http/https library to make the POST to Raygun, you can see more documentation about that callback here: https://nodejs.org/api/http.html#http_http_request_options_callback .
You can await
the call to obtain the result, or use then/catch
.
The default timeout for the transport layer is 5000ms. You can override this value by setting a custom timeout
(also in ms) when you initialize the Raygun client:
import * as Raygun from 'raygun';
const raygunClient = new Raygun.Client().init({
apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY',
...
timeout: 3000 // defaults to 5000ms
});
Use await
to obtain the IncomingMessage
, remember to catch
any possible thrown errors from the send()
method.
try {
let message = await client.send(error);
} catch (e) {
// error sending message
}
You can also use then()
to obtain the IncomingMessage
, as well, use catch()
to catch any possible thrown errors from the send()
method.
client.send(error)
.then((message) => {
// message sent to Raygun
})
.catch((error) => {
// error sending message
});
The send()
method accepts a series of optional named parameters, defined as follows:
client.send(error, { customData, request, tags, timestamp, userInfo });
Each one of these parameters is optional. They are explained in detail the following sections.
You can pass custom data in on the Send() function, as the customData
parameter. For instance (based off the call in test/raygun_test.js):
client.send(new Error(), { customData: { 'mykey': 'beta' } });
If you're using the raygunClient.expressHandler
, you can send custom data along by setting raygunClient.expressCustomData
to a function. The function will get two parameters, the error being thrown, and the request object.
const raygunClient = new raygun.Client().init({apiKey: "YOUR_API_KEY"});
raygunClient.expressCustomData = function (err, req) {
return { 'level': err.level };
};
You can send the request data in the Send() function, as the request
parameter. For example:
client.send(new Error(), { request: request });
If you want to filter any of the request data then you can pass in an array of keys to filter when you init the client. For example:
const raygun = require('raygun');
const raygunClient = new raygun.Client().init({ apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY', filters: ['password', 'creditcard'] });
You can add tags to your error in the Send() function, as the tags
parameter. For example:
client.send(new Error(), { tags: ['Custom Tag 1', 'Important Error'] });
Tags can also be set globally using setTags
client.setTags(['Tag1', 'Tag2']);
You can specify the exact time your error occurred in the Send() function with the timestamp
parameter.
Otherwise, the current time will be used.
This can be useful when combining Raygun together with other logger tools that provide a timestamp.
In milliseconds since epoch:
client.send(new Error(), { timestamp: 1718268992929 });
As Date
object:
client.send(new Error(), { timestamp: new Date(2024, 5, 13, 10, 0, 0) });
You can attach user information to every Raygun Crash Report.
It will be transmitted with the error sent, and a count of affected customers will appear on the dashboard in the error group view. If you provide an email address, and the user has associated a Gravatar with it, their picture will be also displayed.
This package offers two different ways to do that:
- Provide the
userInfo
parameter in thesend()
method. - Implement the
user(request)
method.
The following properties can be provided as user information:
-
identifier
: Unique identifier for the user is the user identifier. -
email
: User's email address. -
isAnonymous
: Flag indicating if the user is anonymous or not. -
firstName
: User's first name (what you would use if you were emailing them - "Hi {{firstName}}, ...") -
fullName
: User's full name. -
uuid
: Device unique identifier. Useful if sending errors from a mobile device.
All properties are strings
except isAnonymous
, which is a boolean.
As well, they are all optional. Any other properties will be discarded.
Example:
userInfo = {
identifier: "123",
email: "user@example.com",
isAnonymous: false,
firstName: "First name",
fullName: "Fullname",
uuid: "a25dfe58-8db3-496c-8768-375595139375",
}
For legacy support reasons, you can also provide the string
identifier directly as the user information:
raygunClient.send(error, { userInfo: "123" });
Provide the userInfo
optional parameter in the send()
method call:
client.send(new Error(), { userInfo });
This provided user information will take priority over the user(request)
method.
You can set raygunClient.user
to a function that returns the user name or email address of the currently logged in user.
An example, using the Passport.js middleware:
const raygunClient = new raygun.Client().init({apiKey: "YOUR_API_KEY"});
raygunClient.user = function (req) {
if (req.user) {
return {
identifier: req.user.username,
email: req.user.email,
isAnonymous: false,
fullName: req.user.fullName,
firstName: req.user.firstName,
uuid: req.user.deviceID
};
}
}
Param: req: the current request. Returns: The current user's identifier, or an object that describes the user.
Call setVersion(string) on a RaygunClient to set the version of the calling application. This is expected to be of the format x.x.x.x, where x is a positive integer. The version will be visible in the dashboard.
Starting from 0.10.0 support for inner errors was added. Provide option innerErrorFieldName
to specify a field or a function on the error object to use for retrieval of an inner error. Inner errors will be retrieved recursively until there is no more errors. Option innerErrorFieldName
defaults to cause
which is used in VError, therefore VError
is supported out of the box.
You can enable reporting uncaught exceptions to Raygun by setting the reportUncaughtExceptions
option to true
when initializing the client.
const {Raygun} = require('raygun');
const raygunClient = new Raygun.Client().init({
apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY',
reportUncaughtExceptions: true
});
This will cause any uncaught exceptions to be sent to Raygun prior to the process exiting.
Please note that this feature requires raygun>=0.13.0 and at least Node v12.17.0 or v13.7.0. This is due to the use of the uncaughtExceptionMonitor
event, which allows monitoring uncaught exceptions without impacting standard process exit logic.
This feature is preferable to using the domains
module for this purpose, as domains
is both deprecated and carries a heavy performance overhead.
You can change the endpoint that error messages are sent to by specifying the host
, port
, and useSSL
properties in the raygunClient.init()
options hash. By default, host
is api.raygun.com
, port
is 443
, and useSSL
is true
.
Call Raygun.onBeforeSend()
, passing in a function which takes up to 5 parameters (see the example below). This callback function will be called immediately before the payload is sent. The first parameter it gets will be the payload that is about to be sent. Thus from your function you can inspect the payload and decide whether or not to send it.
You can also pass this in as an option to init()
like this: raygunClient.init({ onBeforeSend: function(payload) { return payload; } });
From the supplied function, you should return either the payload (intact or mutated as per your needs), or null
.
If your function returns a truthy object, Raygun4Node will attempt to send it as supplied. Thus, you can mutate it as per your needs - preferably only the values if you wish to filter out data that is not taken care of by the filters. You can also of course return it as supplied.
If, after inspecting the payload, you wish to discard it and abort sending it to Raygun, simply return null
.
For example:
const myBeforeSend = function (payload, exception, customData, request, tags) {
console.log(payload); // Modify the payload here if necessary
return payload; // Return null here instead of payload to abort the send
}
Raygun.onBeforeSend(myBeforeSend);
Breadcrumbs can be sent to Raygun to provide additional information to look into and debug issues stemming from crash reports.
Breadcrumbs can be created in two ways.
Call client.addBreadcrumb(message)
, where message is just a string:
client.addBreadcrumb('test breadcrumb');
Create your own BreadcrumbMessage
object and send more than just a message with client.addBreadcrumb(BreadcrumbMessage)
.
The structure of the type BreadcrumbMessage
is as shown here:
BreadcrumbMessage: {
level: "debug" | "info" | "warning" | "error";
category: string;
message: string;
customData?: CustomData;
}
When an error message is sent to Raygun Crash Reporting, all the registered Breadcrumbs will be attached automatically.
After the error message has been sent, the registered Breadcrumbs list be cleared automatically.
Otherwise, you can also clear Breadcrumbs with client.clearBreadcrumbs()
.
Raygun4Node provides a custom ExpressJS middleware that helps to scope Breadcrumbs to a specific request. As well, this middleware will add a Breadcrumb with information about the performed request.
To set up, add the Raygun Breadcrumbs ExpressJS handler before configuring any endpoints.
// Add the Raygun Breadcrumb ExpressJS handler
app.use(raygunClient.expressHandlerBreadcrumbs);
// Setup the rest of the app, e.g.
app.use("/", routes);
This middleware can be used together with the provided ExpressJS error handler expressHandler
.
The order in which the middlewares are configured is important. expressHandlerBreadcrumbs
must go first to scope breadcrumbs correctly.
app.use(raygunClient.expressHandlerBreadcrumbs);
app.use(raygunClient.expressHandler);
You can enable a batched transport mode for the Raygun client by passing {batch: true}
when initializing.
const raygunClient = new raygun.Client().init({
apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY',
batch: true,
batchFrequency: 5000 // defaults to 1000ms (every second)
});
The batch transport mode will collect errors in a queue and process them asynchronously. Rather than sending each error one at a time as they occur, errors will be batched and sent at regular intervals.
If your application generates and reports large volumes of errors, especially in a short duration, the batch transport mode will perform better and operate with less network overhead.
You can control how often batches are processed and sent by providing a batchFrequency
option, which is a number in milliseconds.
The default timeout for batch transport calls is 5000ms. You can override this value by setting a custom timeout
(also in ms) when you initialize the Raygun client:
import * as Raygun from 'raygun';
const raygunClient = new Raygun.Client().init({
apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY',
batch: true,
batchFrequency: 5000, // defaults to 1000ms (every second)
timeout: 10000 // defaults to 5000ms
});
Raygun can cache errors thrown by your Node application when it's running in 'offline' mode. By default the offline cache is disabled. Raygun4Node doesn't detect network state change, that is up to the application using the library.
Raygun includes an on-disk cache provider out of the box, which required write permissions to the folder you wish to use. You cal also pass in your own cache storage.
When creating your Raygun client you need to pass through a cache path
const raygunClient = new raygun.Client().init({
apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY',
isOffline: false,
offlineStorageOptions: {
cachePath: 'raygunCache/',
cacheLimit: 1000 // defaults to 100 errors if you don't set this
}
});
The Raygun client allows you to set it's online state when your application is running.
To mark as offline
raygunClient.offline();
To mark as online
raygunClient.online();
When marking as online any cached errors will be forwarded to Raygun.
You're able to provide your own cache provider if you can't access to the disk. When creating your Raygun client, pass in the storage provider on the offlineStorage property
Example:
const sqlStorageProvider = new SQLStorageProvider();
const raygunClient = new raygun.Client().init({
apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY',
isOffline: false,
offlineStorage: sqlStorageProvider,
offlineStorageOptions: {
table: 'RaygunCache'
}
});
Required methods
- init(offlineStorageOptions) - Called when Raygun is marked as offline. offlineStorageOptions is an object with properties specific to each offline provider
- save(transportItem, callback) - Called when marked as offline
- retrieve(callback) - Returns an array of cached item filenames/ids
- send(callback) - Sends the backlog of errors to Raygun
See lib/raygun.offline.ts for an example.
We recommend that you limit the number of errors that you are caching so that you don't swamp the clients internet connection sending errors.
You can provide your own grouping key if you wish. We only recommend this you're having issues with errors not being grouped properly.
When initializing Raygun, pass through a groupingKey
function.
const raygunClient = new raygun.Client().init({
apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY',
groupingKey: function(message, exception, customData, request, tags) {
return "CUSTOMKEY";
}
});
By default Raygun4Node tries to convert unknown objects into a human readable string to help with grouping, this doesn't always make sense.
To disable it:
const raygunClient = new raygun.Client().init({
apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY',
useHumanStringForObject: false
});
If your custom error object inherits from Error
as its parent prototype, this isn't necessary however and these will be sent correctly.
By default Raygun4Node doesn't include column numbers in the stack trace. To include column numbers add the option reportColumnNumbers
set to true to the configuration.
const raygunClient = new raygun.Client().init({
apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY',
reportColumnNumbers: true
});
Including column numbers can enable source mapping if you have minified or transpiled code in your stack traces.
Raygun supports source mapping for Node.js stacktraces which include column numbers. To enable this feature you will need to upload your map files to the JavaScript Source Map Center and enable the processing of Node.js error stacktraces.
Raygun supports source mapping for Node.js stacktraces which include column numbers. To enable this feature simply upload your map files as per the instructions on this page and enable the processing of Node.js errors with this setting in Raygun.
Managing files in the JavaScript Source Map Center Files in the JavaScript Source Map Center can be managed via a few API calls.
A GET request to https://app.raygun.com/jssymbols/[applicationIdentifier]
will return a JSON object listing all files within the center. eg.
curl
-X GET
-u my@email.com:mypassword
https://app.raygun.com/jssymbols/[applicationIdentifier]
Returns:
{
"Count": totalNumberOfItems,
"Items": [
{
"Url": "https://urlOfItem",
"FileName": "fileName.js",
"UploadedOn": "2016-01-01..."
},
...
]
}
A DELETE request to https://app.raygun.com/jssymbols/[applicationIdentifier]/all
will remove all files within the center. eg.
curl
-X DELETE
-u my@email.com:mypassword
https://app.raygun.com/jssymbols/[applicationIdentifier]/all
A DELETE request to https://app.raygun.com/jssymbols/[applicationIdentifier]
will remove files with the specified URLS from the center. eg.
curl
-X DELETE
-u my@email.com:mypassword
-F "url=https://example.com/js/myjs.min.map"
https://app.raygun.com/jssymbols/[applicationIdentifier]
All requests use the same authentication methods as the upload call (Basic Authentication and Token Authentication).
- Node will show compilation warnings when using Raygun4Node in Webpack applications.
- Although Breadcrumbs report the source filename, code line and function name, these are not processed using source maps like with stack traces.
View a screencast on creating an app with Node.js and Express.js, then hooking up the error handling and sending them at https://raygun.com/blog/2013/07/video-nodejs-error-handling-with-raygun/
You can enable logging of debug information from the Raygun client by setting the environment variable DEBUG=raygun
. The client will then log information about transporting and storing errors, including timing information.
In lieu of a formal styleguide, take care to maintain the existing coding style. Add unit tests for any new or changed functionality. Lint and test your code using "npm test".
Copyright (c) 2016 Raygun Limited
Licensed under the MIT license.