Feedback wanted: Sharing errors?

[Megiddo]

How would you all feel about a ULX feature that would automatically send us (Team Ulysses) Lua error information if the error is related to ULX? Data sent would include things like ULX version data, a stack trace, and possibly the variables in use at the error location.

This information would be anonymous and used only for fixing potential problems in ULX.

[Bytewave]

I know how nice it is to have errors sent to you so people don't always have to report them, but my biggest concern is implementation.

You have two problems that may arise, and I'm curious as to how you'd address them.

• Error-prone servers. Chances are, most servers aren't perfect, especially those without experienced development staff---just servers with addons thrown at them until they stick. I've seen a lot of cases in my own experience where there are a looot of errors in the backend that would possibly affect UL(ib|X){1} functions. Presumably any overrides on error handlers that submit error data could DoS your collection server unintentionally if they submit too many requests. Not sure how you'd deal with that... maybe a cooldown? But then you might miss something important from a server without too many errors if two appear right after each other.
• Server load. Though the network request may be small, a smaller server may have trouble POSTing to an HTTP server; who knows what they're running with? That's an easy fix, though---opt-in, not opt-out. :p

[Megiddo]

On #1, I'm only exploring the concept right now. I have some ideas on implementation details for those types of concerns, but was curious what the community would have to say about it first.

On #2, if you can't post 512 Kb of text once in a great while, you have much, much larger problems.

[Bytewave]

On #2, if you can't post 512 Kb of text once in a great while, you have much, much larger problems.

That mostly ties in with #1. But yknow.

[feldma]

It sounds like a good idea, but I think it needs to be turned off by default.

[Bytewave]

It sounds like a good idea, but I think it needs to be turned off by default.

Most definitely. Maybe a little prompt on first run, like most installers on programs:

Would you like to share ULX/ULib error data with Team Ulysses in order to assist the debugging process?
    Yes     No

and then store that value in the config. Or forego the prompt entirely and just throw it in XGUI for people to find, but I doubt you'd get many results there.

[WispySkies]

I like the idea.
Although this may be tedious, have it disabled on default, and when an error arises you can then run a command that reports errors of your choice -- like a menu to select what errors you want to report. But in doing so this would most likely take a lot of work & time.

most servers aren't perfect, especially those without experienced development staff---just servers with addons thrown at them until they stick.

That's exactly what I do.

[Megiddo]

Perhaps the best method is to have a panel popup after error(s) occur, showing exactly what would be sent, like how some desktop applications work.

My concern with opt-in is that I am fairly certain that no one would ever enable it without severe prodding. And if no one would enable it, it's not worth the time to develop this feature even though it has the potential to help everyone.

[MrPresident]

How about 'On' by default, but a popup on first run that let's the superadmin know the feature is turned on and what it will send and allow them the option to easily disable it from that popup.

If they choose to disable it, we can display to them where they can go to enable it if they choose.

[Megiddo]

That seems like a workable solution