Rails Error Dashboard

Batch Operations Guide

The error list can resolve or delete several errors at once. Muting and unmuting several errors is also possible, from a script or the Rails console.

In the dashboard

  1. Open the error list, /red/errors.
  2. Tick the checkbox at the start of each error’s row, or the checkbox in the table header to select every error on the page. A toolbar appears above the table with the number selected and two buttons, Resolve and Delete.
  3. Click Resolve or Delete.

You land on the first page of the error list with a message such as “Successfully resolved 3 errors”. The filters you had set are cleared, except the application.

To clear the selection, untick the checkbox at the start of the toolbar, or the one in the table header.

Delete asks once, then can’t be undone. The browser asks “Are you sure you want to delete the selected errors?”; after you confirm, the errors are deleted together with their occurrences and comments, and they can’t be recovered. Before 0.15.0, Delete didn’t ask.

What each action does

Action Effect
Resolve Marks the errors resolved, with status resolved. It runs your on_error_resolved callbacks and the error_resolved.rails_error_dashboard event for each error, so linked issues in your issue tracker close (before 0.15.0 they stayed open). Plugins get one on_errors_batch_resolved
Delete Deletes the errors with everything recorded about them: occurrences, comments, cascade records and event counts. Plugins get on_errors_batch_deleted with the IDs
Mute (no button) Mutes the errors, storing who and why. Unlike muting one error with a reason, no comment is added. Plugins get on_errors_batch_muted
Unmute (no button) Unmutes them. Plugins get on_errors_batch_unmuted

Every batch action needs the dashboard login, and anyone who can log in can use all of them.

Limits

  • One page at a time. The header checkbox selects the errors on the current page, and the selection doesn’t survive changing pages. The list shows 25 errors a page. To act on more at once, add per_page=100 to the URL (100 is the most), or use the console.
  • No transaction. Each error is saved on its own. If one fails partway through, the ones before it stay changed.

From a script

The toolbar posts to POST /red/errors/batch_action with error_ids[] and action_type (resolve, mute, unmute or delete). The API Reference lists the extra fields, and Posting from a script shows how to get past the CSRF check.

From the Rails console

These commands are what the toolbar calls. They are internal classes and can change between releases.

ids = RailsErrorDashboard::ErrorLog
  .unresolved
  .where(error_type: "NoMethodError", controller_name: "UsersController")
  .ids

RailsErrorDashboard::Commands::BatchResolveErrors.call(
  ids,
  resolved_by_name: "Deploy Bot",
  resolution_comment: "Fixed in release v2.3.1"
)
# => { success: true, count: 12, total: 12, failed_ids: [], errors: [] }

The others:

RailsErrorDashboard::Commands::BatchMuteErrors.call(ids, muted_by: "ops", reason: "Known issue")
RailsErrorDashboard::Commands::BatchUnmuteErrors.call(ids)
RailsErrorDashboard::Commands::BatchDeleteErrors.call(ids)

What the result means:

  • count is how many errors were saved, including any already in that state, and total is how many IDs you passed.
  • IDs that don’t exist are skipped without complaint: count is lower than total, and success is still true.
  • success is false when saving an error raised. Then errors has a message. For resolve, mute and unmute, failed_ids lists the errors that weren’t changed; it is missing when an exception stopped the whole batch.
  • With an empty list, the result is { success: false, count: 0, errors: ["No error IDs provided"] }.

To delete old errors, select by last_seen_at, which is when the error last happened. occurred_at is when RED first recorded it:

old_ids = RailsErrorDashboard::ErrorLog
  .where(environment: "development")
  .where("last_seen_at < ?", 1.week.ago)
  .ids

old_ids.each_slice(100) do |batch|
  result = RailsErrorDashboard::Commands::BatchDeleteErrors.call(batch)
  puts "Deleted #{result[:count]} of #{result[:total]}"
end

For deleting old errors on a schedule, use RetentionCleanupJob instead. See Schedule the periodic jobs.

Troubleshooting

The toolbar doesn’t appear

  • It appears only once you tick an error, and only when the list has errors.
  • It needs JavaScript. Look for errors in the browser console.
  • A Content Security Policy that blocks inline scripts stops it. RED adds your app’s CSP nonce to its scripts, so a policy with a nonce generator (content_security_policy_nonce_generator) works.

“Batch operation failed”

The message after “Batch operation failed:” says why:

  • No error IDs provided: nothing was selected.
  • Invalid action type: action_type wasn’t resolve, mute, unmute or delete.
  • Failed to resolve N errors (or mute, unmute): saving those errors raised.
  • Anything else is the message of an exception that stopped the whole batch.

RED logs the details only when config.log_level is :error or lower. The default is :silent.