CheapToad

<h1> CheapToad </h1>

<h2> Description </h2>

<p>
CheapToad is a simple server plugin for the Hoptoad notifier.  Make an
app receive and store errors from any app in just a couple of lines!
</p>

<p>
<a href="http://hoptoadapp.com">Hoptoad (hoptoadapp.com)</a> is a
commercial application and hosting service, run by thoughtbot.  For
larger or more important apps, you'll want your error logging handled
by a reliable, professional service, such as thoughtbot and Hoptoad.
For small, simple and experimental apps, why pay money?
</p>

<h2> Why CheapToad? </h2>

<p>
With CheapToad and Heroku, you can get mostly-reliable remote error
logging for nothing.  When and if your app grows larger, you can
change two lines in config/initializers/hoptoad.rb and switch to
Hoptoad.
</p>

<p>
Hoptoad has a far better interface, and is free for the first project
and first two users (up to a given rate of errors received).  But CheapToad
could still be the right choice if you:
</p>

<ul>
  <li> have a lot of projects and don't want to spend money </li>
  <li> don't want to let anybody else store your error data </li>
  <li> have a lot of people to collaborate with, but not that many errors yet </li>
  <li> feel bad about making a new Hoptoad account for each of your projects
  just to scam service for free (this is me) </li>
  <li> need a lot of control over your old error notices -- if cleaning them up
  after a while is Not Okay for some reason, for instance </li>
  <li> don't mind hosting for yourself and/or have a hosting solution you like </li>
  <li> just like running your own stuff, and like to get your hands dirty (also me) </li>
</ul>

<p>
By the way, I'm not affiliated with thoughtbot.  This is all reverse
engineered from the Hoptoad notifier and somebody's RedMine plugin for
Hoptoad.  Thoughtbot is aware of CheapToad's existence, but I'm not an
employee or anything.
</p>

<p>
Also, if you like CheapToad for your experimental projects, consider
upgrading a project or two to Hoptoad, or getting your employer to do
the same.  I don't get a cut, but if I/we are costing them money
overall then they have less incentive to keep giving us code to use.
If we act like the farm team for their stuff and occasionally upgrade,
they have more incentive to keep writing things like the
hoptoad_notifier for us to bend to our own purposes.
</p>

<h2> Features </h2>

<ul>
  <li> Very simple installation </li>
  <li> Very simple configuration </li>
  <li> Keeps your error notices around to browse later </li>
  <li> 100% free for any number of projects </li>
  <li> Maintains records of old error notices forever </li>
  <li> RSS feed of error notices for each project </li>
</ul>

<h2> Problems </h2>

<ul>
  <li> Very simple </li>
  <li> Not very configurable </li>
  <li> You have to run your own server, or use something like Heroku </li>
  <li> 100% Unsecured -- like Hoptoad, we rely on API key uniqueness for security.
  Unlike Hoptoad, we suggest using fairly guessable API keys. </li>
  <li> All of these problems can be summed up as "not industrial strength" </li>
</ul>

<h2> Synopsis </h2>

<p>
Make a new Rails app, or choose an existing one.  In
config/environment.rb, add the line 'config.gem "cheaptoad"'.  You'll
also need to go into config/routes.rb and add the line "resources
:notices".  Now that app can receive Hoptoad errors!
</p>

<p>
In any and all apps that you want to send errors to your app, create a
file called config/initializers/hoptoad.rb, as you always would when
using Hoptoad.  Install the Hoptoad notifier also, of course.  The
config file will look a bit like this:
</p>

<blockquote> <pre>
HoptoadNotifier.configure do |config|
  config.api_key = 'My Project Name'
  config.host = 'my-cheaptoad-catcher.heroku.com'
  config.port = 80  # or whatever port number

  # All standard Hoptoad filters are supported
  config.environment_filters &lt;&lt; "MY_SECRET_KEY"

end
</pre></blockquote>

<p>
Note that the host and port are for the app that will *receive*
Hoptoad errors.  That's the app you added the line <tt>config.gem
"cheaptoad"</tt> to.
</p>

<h2> Requirements </h2>

<p>
You'll need a Rails app, which will be your CheapToad server.  It can
do whatever else you like, but its notices controller will be used for
CheapToad stuff.
</p>

<p>
You will <i>not</i> need a Hoptoad API key.  That's kind of the point of this
project.  Instead of using a big hexadecimal string as your API key, I
recommend you use a simple string like "My Blog" or "Secret Project X".
That API key will be used by CheapToad as your project name.
</p>

<h2> Reskinning </h2>

<p>
By default, CheapToad has a built-in set of HTML and RSS files to give
a very simple list of your errors.  If you'd rather use your own, it's
probably easiest to just build your own notices_controller.rb file and
appropriate view files to go with it.  You can look at the ones in the
CheapToad gem to do it -- they're very simple.  Then, add your own new
HTML, CSS and whatnot to pretty it up.
</p>

<p>
We're considering adding the ability to put in your own CSS file
without changing the HTML, just to make the output less stark.  If you
care about this feature and would use it, contact me and let me know!
</p>

<h2> Installation </h2>

<p> <tt>sudo gem install cheaptoad</tt> </p>

<h2> License </h2>

<p>
  CheapToad is released under the MIT license.  That means you need to
  acknowledge me, but otherwise you're free to do what you like.
  Use it in good health.
</p>