Instrument Node.js apps for Error Reporting

You can send error reports to Error Reporting from Node.js applications by using the Error Reporting library for Node.js. Use the Error Reporting library for Node.js to create error groups for the following cases:

• Your log bucket has customer-managed encryption keys (CMEK).
• Your log buckets aren't in the global region.
• You want to report custom error events.

Error Reporting is integrated with some Google Cloud services, such as Cloud Functions and App Engine, Compute Engine, and Google Kubernetes Engine. Error Reporting displays the errors that are logged to Cloud Logging by applications running on those services. For more information, go to Running on Google Cloud on this page.

You can also send error data to Error Reporting using Logging. For information on the data formatting requirements, read Formatting error messages in Logging.

Before you begin

1. Sign in to your Google Cloud account. If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.

2. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

   Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

   Go to project selector

3. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

4. Enable the Error Reporting API .

   Enable the API

5. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

   Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

   Go to project selector

6. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

7. Enable the Error Reporting API .

   Enable the API

8. Prepare your environment for Node.js development.

   Go to the Node.js setup guide

Install the client library

The Error Reporting library for Node.js lets you monitor and view errors reported by Node.js applications running nearly anywhere.

1. Use npm to install the package:

   npm install --save @google-cloud/error-reporting

2. Import the library and instantiate a client in order to begin reporting errors:

   // Imports the Google Cloud client library
   const {ErrorReporting} = require('@google-cloud/error-reporting');
   
   // Instantiates a client
   const errors = new ErrorReporting();
   
   // Reports a simple error
   errors.report('Something broke!');

For more information on installation, read the documentation for the Error Reporting library for Node.js. You can also report issues using the issue tracker.

Configure the client library

You can customize the behavior of the Error Reporting library for Node.js. See the library's configuration for a list of possible configuration options. These options can be passed in the options object passed to the library's constructor.

Other integrations

For more information on integrations between the Error Reporting library for Node.js and other Node.js web frameworks, see the library's repository on GitHub.

Run apps on Google Cloud

To create error groups by using projects.events.report, your service account requires the Error Reporting Writer role (roles/errorreporting.writer).

Some Google Cloud services automatically grant the Error Reporting Writer role (roles/errorreporting.writer) to the appropriate service account. However, you must grant this role to the appropriate service account for some services.

App Engine flexible environment

App Engine grants the Error Reporting Writer role (roles/errorreporting.writer) to your default service account automatically.

The Error Reporting library for Node.js can be used without needing to explicitly provide credentials.

Error Reporting is automatically enabled for App Engine flexible environment applications. No additional setup is required.

Note: Error logs written to stderr are processed automatically by Error Reporting, without needing to use the Error Reporting library for Node.js directly.

Google Kubernetes Engine

To use Error Reporting with Google Kubernetes Engine, do the following:

1. Ensure that the service account to be used by your container has been granted the Error Reporting Writer role (roles/errorreporting.writer).

   You can use either the Compute Engine default service account or a custom service account.

   For information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

2. Create your cluster and grant the cluster the cloud-platform access scope.

   For example, the following create command specifies the cloud-platform access scope and a service account:

   gcloud container clusters create CLUSTER_NAME --service-account  SERVICE_ACCT_NAME --scopes=cloud-platform
   

Note: After you create a cluster, you can't change its service account.

Compute Engine

To use Error Reporting with Compute Engine VM instances, do the following:

1. Ensure that the service account to be used by your VM instance has been granted the Error Reporting Writer role (roles/errorreporting.writer).

   You can use either the Compute Engine default service account or a custom service account.

   For information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

2. In the navigation panel of the Google Cloud console, select Compute Engine, and then select VM instances:

   Go to VM instances

3. Select the VM instance that you want to receive the cloud-platform access scope.

4. Click Stop, and then click Edit.

5. In the Identity and API access section, select a service account that has the Error Reporting Writer role (roles/errorreporting.writer).

6. In the Access scopes section, select Allow full access to all Cloud APIs, and then save your changes.

7. Click Start/Resume.

Cloud Functions

Cloud Functions grants the Error Reporting Writer role (roles/errorreporting.writer) to your default service account automatically.

The Error Reporting library for Node.js can be used without needing to explicitly provide credentials.

Cloud Functions is configured to use Error Reporting automatically. Unhandled JavaScript exceptions will appear in Logging and be processed by Error Reporting without needing to use the Error Reporting library for Node.js.

Note: Log entries are processed automatically if they contain a stack trace and they specify either no log severity or a log severity of at least ERROR, without needing to use the Error Reporting library for Node.js.

Example:

// Imports the Google Cloud client library
const {ErrorReporting} = require('@google-cloud/error-reporting');

// Instantiates a client
const errors = new ErrorReporting({
  projectId: 'your-project-id',
  keyFilename: '/path/to/key.json',
});

// Reports a simple error
errors.report('Something broke!');

Example

You can manually report an error by calling the report method, as seen in the following example:

// Imports the Google Cloud client library
const {ErrorReporting} = require('@google-cloud/error-reporting');

// Instantiates a client
const errors = new ErrorReporting();

// Use the error message builder to customize all fields ...
const errorEvent = errors.event();

// Add error information
errorEvent.setMessage('My error message');
errorEvent.setUser('root@nexus');

// Report the error event
errors.report(errorEvent, () => {
  console.log('Done reporting error event!');
});

// Report an Error object
errors.report(new Error('My error message'), () => {
  console.log('Done reporting Error object!');
});

// Report an error by provided just a string
errors.report('My error message', () => {
  console.log('Done reporting error string!');
});

Reporting errors with Express.js

The Error Reporting library for Node.js can integrate Error Reporting into popular Node.js web frameworks such as Express.js:

const express = require('express');

// Imports the Google Cloud client library
const {ErrorReporting} = require('@google-cloud/error-reporting');

// Instantiates a client
const errors = new ErrorReporting();

const app = express();

app.get('/error', (req, res, next) => {
  res.send('Something broke!');
  next(new Error('Custom error message'));
});

app.get('/exception', () => {
  JSON.parse('{"malformedJson": true');
});

// Note that express error handling middleware should be attached after all
// the other routes and use() calls. See the Express.js docs.
app.use(errors.express);

const PORT = process.env.PORT || 8080;
app.listen(PORT, () => {
  console.log(`App listening on port ${PORT}`);
  console.log('Press Ctrl+C to quit.');
});

Run apps in a local development environment

To use the Error Reporting library for Node.js in a local development environment, such as running the library on your own workstation, you must provide your Error Reporting library for Node.js with the local application default credentials. For more information, see Authenticate to Error Reporting.

To use the Node.js samples on this page from a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

1. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

2. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

   gcloud init

3. Create local authentication credentials for your Google Account:

   gcloud auth application-default login

   Note: If the gcloud CLI prints a warning that your account doesn't have the serviceusage.services.use permission, then some gcloud CLI commands and client libraries might not work. Ask an administrator to grant you the Service Usage Consumer IAM role (roles/serviceusage.serviceUsageConsumer), then run the following command:

   gcloud auth application-default set-quota-project PROJECT_ID

For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

The projects.events.report method also supports API keys. If you want to use API keys for authentication, you do not need to set up a local Application Default Credentials file. For more information, see Create an API key in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.

Example:

// Imports the Google Cloud client library
const {ErrorReporting} = require('@google-cloud/error-reporting');

// Instantiates a client
const errors = new ErrorReporting({
  projectId: 'your-project-id',
  keyFilename: '/path/to/key.json',
});

// Reports a simple error
errors.report('Something broke!');

Viewing error reports

In the navigation panel of the Google Cloud console, select Error Reporting, and then select your Google Cloud project:

Go to Error Reporting

For more information, see Viewing Errors.