Django Rest Exception Logger

This package provides middleware for automatically logging exceptions in Django applications. It captures and stores exception details such as the error message, stack trace, request data, headers, and the view where the error occurred.

Features

• Automatically logs exceptions in the database
• Captures request payloads and headers for debugging
• Customizable via model relationships with your user model
• Handles specific exceptions like PermissionDenied and ParseError with customized responses

Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• Django 3.2+
• Django Rest Framework 3.12+

Installation

1. Install the package

   You can install this package from PyPI using pip:

   pip install django-rest-exception-logger

2. Add the middleware

   To enable automatic exception logging, add ExceptionMiddleware to your MIDDLEWARE list in your Django project's settings.py file:

   MIDDLEWARE = [
       # Other middlewares...
       'django_rest_exception_logger.middleware.ExceptionMiddleware',
   ]

3. Add the ExceptionLog model

   This package comes with the ExceptionLog model, which stores information about exceptions. You need to integrate it into your project.

   • Add exception_logging to the INSTALLED_APPS list in settings.py:

     INSTALLED_APPS = [
         # Other apps...
         'django_rest_exception_logger',
     ]

   • Run migrations to create the necessary database tables:

     python manage.py migrate

   • if migration not detected, run this command

      python manage.py makemigrations django_rest_exception_logger

4. Configure the user model (optional)

   By default, the ExceptionLog model has a foreign key to the auth.User model. If you are using a custom user model, ensure that the ExceptionLog model's user field is compatible with your custom user model.

5. Customize Middleware behavior (optional)

   You can extend the ExceptionMiddleware or modify it to add additional custom exception handling as needed for your application.

Usage

Once the middleware is installed, it will automatically log exceptions that occur in your views to the ExceptionLog model. The logged information will include:

• Exception type and message
• Full traceback
• Request payload (for POST, PUT, PATCH requests)
• Request headers and parameters
• View name where the exception occurred
• User who initiated the request (if available)

Manual logging (optional)

If you need to log exceptions from other places (views, Celery tasks, management commands, signals), you can use log_exception.

from django_rest_exception_logger.utils import log_exception

try:
    # ... your code ...
    raise ValueError("Invalid input")
except Exception as exc:
    log_exception(
        exc,
        request=request,  # optional
        message="Payment failed",  # optional override for ExceptionLog.message
        extra={"order_id": 123, "step": "charge"},  # optional extra context
        log_type="error",  # optional (default: "error")
        view_name="payments.charge",  # optional override
    )

extra is stored under "_extra" inside request_payload.

Usage Examples

# 1. Query All Error Logs
from django_rest_exception_logger.models import ExceptionLog

# Retrieve all error logs ordered by most recent
error_logs = ExceptionLog.objects.filter(log_type="error").order_by('-timestamp')

for log in error_logs:
    print(log.message, log.timestamp)

# 2. Create a New Info Log
from django_rest_exception_logger.models import ExceptionLog

# Create a new info log entry
ExceptionLog.objects.create(
    log_type="info",
    message="This is an informational log",
    view_name="my_view"
)

Example Use Cases

• Debugging Production Issues: Track unexpected errors in production environments with full context, including which user triggered the error and what data they sent.
• Security Auditing: Capture unauthorized access attempts and permission errors for analysis and potential remediation.
• Improving User Experience: With detailed logs, identify common errors and enhance your application's stability and error handling.

Testing

Run the test suite:

pip install -r requirements-dev.txt  # if you use a dev requirements file
pytest

To manually verify middleware behavior, you can raise an exception in a view and check the logs in your admin or database:

def test_view(request):
    raise Exception("Test exception for logging")

After visiting this view, a new entry should appear in the ExceptionLog model, capturing the details of the error.

Contributing

Feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request if you have suggestions for improvements.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.