Rostyslav Matviiv
Introduction
When encountering errors in the administration log, users are greeted with brief messages that offer little insight into the root cause. To delve deeper, users must navigate through various settings, turn on debug mode (and in the case of content object exceptions, also turn off the default exception handler), navigate to the URL which was requested when the error occurred and try to reproduce the problem. Managing multiple occurrences of the same error becomes tedious — the log still shows them as individual errors (the only thing that relates them is a possibility to Delete similar errors). At Raccoon Depot, we recognized these pain points and decided to improve error management within TYPO3.
The Problem
Current error management in TYPO3 presents several challenges:
- Limited information: Users are provided with minimal details about errors, requiring them to navigate through complex settings to uncover additional information.
- Lack of context: Errors are treated as isolated incidents, making it difficult to understand the full scope of issues and their impact.
- Delayed actions: Minimal internal notifications may lead to errors being overlooked or only detected after significant delays.
- Absence of guidance: Less experienced users are left without guidance on how to address errors effectively.
The Solution
We have decided to develop an error management extension which aims to address these challenges comprehensively.
- Detailed error insights: Our extension will gather extensive information about each error, including full stack traces and any relevant data, presenting them in a dedicated backend module.
- Grouping: Similar errors will be grouped together, providing users with a clearer overview and enabling efficient troubleshooting.
- Enhanced notifications: Users will receive notifications through their preferred communication channels, ensuring timely awareness of errors.
- AI-powered suggestions: Leveraging the power of AI, our extension will offer intelligent suggestions for resolving errors, empowering users of all skill levels to take proactive steps.
Conclusion
We're implementing the first version of this extension as part of the TYPO3 community budget ideas for Q2 2024. It will cover all of the proposed functionality on some level — but we will iterate and there will be a lot of improvements to come after this first version is done.
We are really grateful to all the members of the TYPO3 community who took part in discussion of our idea and gave us valuable insights and suggestions on how to make it even better. Thank you all! I hope that with our new error management approach, users will experience a smoother, more efficient workflow, allowing them to tackle errors with confidence and ease.
