bugsnag

Bugsnag Notifier for Node.js

The Bugsnag Notifier for Node.js gives you instant notification of exceptions from your Node.js applications. By default, the notifier hooks into uncaughtException event, which means any uncaught exceptions will trigger a notification to be sent to your Bugsnag project.

Bugsnag captures errors in real-time from your web, mobile and desktop applications, helping you to understand and resolve them as fast as possible. Create a free account to start capturing exceptions from your applications.

Installation & Setup

Add bugsnag to your package.json dependencies.

"dependencies": {
    "bugsnag": "latest"
}

Run npm install to install the latest bugsnag notifier version.

npm install

Require bugsnag in your node.js script.

bugsnag = require("bugsnag");

Register the bugsnag notifier.

bugsnag.register("your-api-key-goes-here");

See the full documentation for the register function for more details.

Using Express or Connect Middleware

In order to have bugsnag report on any exceptions in your express or connect app, you need to configure bugsnag to handle exceptions from within those libraries. In order to do that, simply pass the bugsnag register call into app.use().

app.use(bugsnag.register("your-api-key-goes-here"))

Send Non-Fatal Exceptions to Bugsnag

If you would like to send non-fatal exceptions to Bugsnag, you can pass any Error object or string to the notify method:

bugsnag.notify(new Error("Non-fatal"));

You can also send additional meta-data with your exception:

bugsnag.notify(new Error("Non-fatal"), {extraData:{username:"bob-hoskins"}});

###Manual Error Class

If you would like to set the class of error that has occurred, you can call the notifyWithClass method:

bugsnag.notifyWithClass("RuntimeError", new Error("Non-fatal"));

###Callbacks

Both manual notification methods also support a callback to confirm that the error has been reported to Bugsnag.

bugsnag.notifyWithClass("RuntimeError", new Error("Non-fatal"), function(err, response){
    if(err) {
        //Something went wrong
    } else {
        //The notify worked
    }
});

Register

The bugsnag.register takes an optional second parameter, containing an object of options. The options can be a combination of any of the following.

###releaseStage

By default, bugsnag looks at the NODE_ENV environment variable to see what releaseStage the script is running in. If that is not set, bugsnag assumes you are running in production. If you want to override this behavior, set the releaseStage as part of the call to register.

bugsnag.register("your-api-key-goes-here",{releaseStage:"development"});

###appVersion

The bugsnag notifier will look for a package.json file in the root of the project and pull the application version from that file. If this behavior is incorrect, you can pass an appVersion into register to set your own custom version.

bugsnag.register("your-api-key-goes-here",{appVersion:"1.0.0"});

###projectRoot

Bugsnag highlights stacktrace lines that are in your project for you, and automatically hides code that is in third party libraries. If bugsnag is not hiding stacktrace lines in third party libraries, it is likely that the projectRoot is being incorrectly calculated. You can set it when calling register to a path relative to the bugsnag.js file or an absolute path.

bugsnag.register("your-api-key-goes-here",{projectRoot:"../../../"});

###packageJSON

If the bugsnag notifier is unable to locate your package JSON file, you can pass in either a fully qualified path, or a path relative to the location of the bugsnag.js file to the register method. If your package.json file is in your project root, this is usually unnecessary.

bugsnag.register("your-api-key-goes-here",{packageJSON:"../../../package.json"});

###autoNotify

Bugsnag will automatically register for the uncaughtexception event. If you do not wish for this to happen, you can disable the functionality as part of the register call.

bugsnag.register("your-api-key-goes-here",{autoNotify:false});

###notifyReleaseStages

By default the notifier will only notify bugsnag of production exceptions. If you wish to be notified about development exceptions, then you can set the notifyReleaseStages option.

bugsnag.register("your-api-key-goes-here",{notifyReleaseStages:["development", "production"]});

###useSSL

Bugsnag supports the SSL encryption of exception reports. If you require this level of security, you can enable SSL support within the notifier.

bugsnag.register("your-api-key-goes-here",{useSSL:true});

Notify

Both notify and notifyWithClass take an optional final object parameter that provides bugsnag with more information as to what was happening in the node script when the exception occurred.

###context

Bugsnag will use any context passed into the notify method when notifying bugsnag of the exception. You can set this option to any string value, and you will be able to see the context aggregated in the web dashboard.

bugsnag.notify(new Error("Something went badly wrong"), {context:"/users/new"});

###userId

Bugsnag will use any userId passed into the notify method when notifying bugsnag of the exception. You can set this option to any string value and bugsnag will use that to count users affected.

bugsnag.notify(new Error("Something went badly wrong"), {userId: "bob-hoskins"});

###req

Bugsnag can also pull the context (URL) and userID (remote IP address) from the node.js request object if you pass that in to the notify method.

bugsnag.notify(new Error("Something went badly wrong"), {req: req});

The notifier will also pull out extra information about the request to help you diagnose the exception if you pass the request to the notify method.

###extraData

Bugsnag can also send any extra data you want to be sent along with the exception report to bugsnag. To do this just set the extraData option to an object containing the information you want to send.

bugsnag.notify(new Error("Something went badly wrong"), {extraData: {username:"bob-hoskins"}});

Configuration

###setContext

Bugsnag uses the concept of "contexts" to help display and group your exceptions. Contexts represent what was happening in your application at the time an exception occurs. In a network based node app, this would typically be the URL requested. If you provide access to the node.js request object, bugsnag will use the URL for you.

If you would like to set the bugsnag context manually, you can call setContext:

bugsnag.setContext("/images/1.png");

Note: The context here can be overridden when calling bugsnag.notify or bugsnag.notifyWithClass.

###setUserId

Bugsnag helps you understand how many of your users are affected by each exception. In order to do this, we send along a userId with every exception. If you provide access to the node.js request object, bugsnag will use the remote IP address to identify the user.

If you would like to override this userId, for example to set it to be a username of your currently logged in user, you can call setUserId:

bugsnag.setUserId("leeroy-jenkins");

Note: The userId here can be overridden when calling bugsnag.notify or bugsnag.notifyWithClass.

###setExtraData

It is often very useful to send some extra application or user specific data along with every exception. To do this, you can call the setExtraData method:

bugsnag.setExtraData({username: "bob-hoskins"});

Reporting Bugs or Feature Requests

Please report any bugs or feature requests on the github issues page for this project here:

https://github.com/bugsnag/bugsnag-node/issues

Contributing

• Fork the notifier on github
• Commit and push until you are happy with your contribution
• Make a pull request
• Thanks!

License

The Bugsnag Node.js notifier is free software released under the MIT License. See LICENSE.txt for details.