This document covers some of the more frequently asked questions.
Why use Arecibo if my framework or application already sends me 404 and 500 errors?
Arecibo not only sends you the information you need to track and diagnose the problem, it also saves you time by allowing you to track the errors for your entire server or site. Get your Javascript, Django, Ruby on Rails, Plone and other environments all sending errors to the same place. If you are just relying on an exception_notifier process, Arecibo will make your life so much easier fixing that error with the correct information.
What detailed information does Arecibo give me about my errors?
That's up to the client program that you write for your system, the individual client libraries send a variety of different data, depending upon how they are implemented. Some of the standard ones include:
Timestamp
IP Address
Status (i.e. 404, 500)
Environment, Browser and Full User Agent info
Type of error
Server
Username
Error Message
Complete Traceback
Request Variables
Post Variables
How do I see my activity with a quick glance and then drill down?
Go to the Dashboard. You'll see recent errors, grouping by server and type, and a graph of frequency of errors over the last 30 days. You can then click on any individual error, server group or error type group to see additional details.
How does Arecibo organize my errors?
All the same errors can be grouped together. You can add tags for your environment and group or sort by those tags.
You can assign priorities of 1 to 10 for you the different types of errors.
My environment / system / application doesn't have an interface or API for Arecibo.
Arecibo is designed by developers for developers. We've included a full list of variables, posting code, feeds and export examples for you to design to your own needs. We've kept the required items (the only required variable is your API key) as small as possible yet given you access to all your fields to filter and export as you will. You can find the full information on variables, posting, feeds and export.
How can I have Arecibo notify me of errors?
Currently Arecibo can send an email to your specified address, to a twitter feed (read the twitter hint below) or your RSS feeder. If you need to send to something else, you can design your own feed using the feed and export information.
Twitter is posting all my errors to my personal account and all my followers can see them.
Arecibo sends tweets directly to the account you provide. We highly suggest creating a separate twitter account just to receive Arecibo errors and then use your account to follow it. That allows you to be notified of your errors but not broadcast them to all your followers.
How can I filter my errors? I don't want to waste my time on insignificant errors.
There are multiple ways to filter your errors into groups. Arecibo automatically groups your errors by server and type. You can customize by assigning priorities and tags. You can set priorities by using the priorities variable.
How do I assign tags?
You can assign individual tags by viewing the error and simply clicking on the add tag link.
How does the rest of my team see my errors?
You can invite other members of your team to join your account. Go to Your Account > Invite users and start the invite process.
My server may send me thousands of errors on a bad day. How does Arecibo handle that?
We've written Arecibo in Django to take advantage of it's scalability and capacity for huge loads. Arecibo automatically groups similar errors together to avoid showing you all those thousands of errors but if you want to, you can still drill down and see full information for each and every one of those errors.
Arecibo only sends out notifications of errors occurring in a 5 minute period. For example: if a server fails and over 15 minutes you generate a few thousand errors, you will get 3 emails. Each email tells you how many errors you have had in that last 5 minute period. You do not get one email for each error.
Why doesn't Arecibo have XYZ feature?
We try to keep our products focused and streamlined. We have been tempted to add new feeds, plug-ins and do dozens of other ideas for Arecibo. But again and again we focus ourselves on having Arecibo focus on doing one thing very well - getting you the information you need to fix your errors quickly. We have given you the tools to customize the data in the way you can use the best.
How do I suggest a feature or show off my implementation of Arecibo?
If you have a suggestion, let us know. If you want us to show off what you've done, let us show it off for you. We come from the Open Source world and realize that great ideas can come from many different areas. And if you're having the problem and have solved it, probably others are also.
