Software Search
or: browse all software/services
Categories
SEO (19)
WebSite Software (66)
Desktop Software (1)
E-Commerce (66)
Database Tools (14)
Security Tools (5)
Image Tools (7)
Developer Tools (25)
Data Management Tools (19)
Admin Tools (32)
WebSite Visitor Experience (34)
B-2-Customer Interaction (8)
Services (Points) (1)
Passes/Subscriptions (1)
Shopping Carts »
    AspDotNetStorefront (5)
    Magento (5)
    VPCart (66)
Vendors »
    Big Yellow Zone (67)
Web Design Services (1)
Web Development Services (1)
 
(all products/services(67))
HELP/FAQs?

Got questions/problems? Take a look through our FAQs (frequently asked questions), or email us at: support@bigyellowkey.com. We shall do our best to get back to you promptly.

Want Discounts?

Are your prices for multiple domains too large? Are you trying to get licences for test domains but being asked to pay full cost? Don't worry; we can add test domains to your licences manually. Just purchase a single domain addon/upgrade for what it is that you need, and then email us about your situation regarding the remaining domains and we'll liaise with you over the options. email us at: support@bigyellowkey.com. We shall do our best to get back to you promptly. click here for more information regarding multiple domains, upgrades, and discount policies.

BigYellowKey News
(click here to view all BYK news)

Imminent: 4/1/2016 4:05:00 PM
BYZ Development Points have been changed
Click Here for details.
The new BYZ Development Points (BYZ192) replace all previous BYZ Points which are now no longer available.
Released: 4/1/2016 3:05:00 PM
BYZ Annual Pass Now Available!
Click Here for details.
The BYZ Annual Pass replaces the BYZ addon subscription service.
Released: 4/1/2016 2:05:00 PM
The BYZ Terms and Conditions have been changed.
Click Here for details.

Apologies, but online Payments are temporary unavailable as we are in the process of changing our payment gateway.
Please contact us if you wish to place an order and we will organize a manual payment process for you.
We hope/expect online payments to be available again soon.

Error Logging for ASP - BYZ188

<< back to previous screen

Create detailed log files automatically every time a user on your site gets a 500 Server Error, and allow the site visitor to see a friendly customizable screen that indicates an error has occurred. The user will not see the full error, but the log files that you have access to via FTP will have a full stack with everything you need to know about what the user was doing at the time and what the error was and who the user was. You can also dump the stack from anywhere within your own ASP code.



Error Logging for ASP - BYZ188
Latest version:04/30-JUL-2015
From vendor:Big Yellow Zone
For Terms and Conditions, click here
Please do not purchase any BigYellowZone
products/services or request technical
support until you have read and agree with
the terms and conditions.
Price:£20.00
add to cart


Compatibility, Bundling, and Status Notes:
Compatible with any classic asp system (generic asp, and any version of VPCart)

Demos/Samples:
(click on a link below to see the corresponding demo/sample)
Sample Error Log File This is an example log file that shows you the kind of information that each error generates in the error log files.
Sample Output of Error Display Screen This is an example of what the user will see on your site when they encounter a "500" (server) error on your site.
You can configure/customize this screen to show your own logo and any message/info you want.


Why you need this module (or something like it)
A "500" server error is any error that comes up on your website that stops a page from being able to load. Usually this is due to things like missing/incorrect logic in asp files, permission problems on your files/folders, data errors, problems with 3rd party APIs (eg shipping APIs or payment gateways), or hackers trying to inject your site, or it can be down to a simple timeout problem where a page takes too long to load because your logic/data needs tuning-up.

A classic example of a "500" server error would be something like this:
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Incorrect syntax near ')'.
which might be happening because, for example, in the VPCart shopping cart, your features column has a non-numeric value in it which could then be causing the product-detail page to fail and could ALSO be causing product-summary pages to fail as well.

You're probably not even aware of most of the "500" server errors that happen on your site because your visitors won't usually tell you about them, and as the site-owner/developer, you're spending most of your time on the admin side of your site rather than continually testing all the customer pages and your checkout etc. It's possible that you're losing a large proportion of orders/visitors due to a simple problem in your asp code or data that you don't even know about.

For example, maybe you've got a configuration value that's not valid which is causing most of your site's checkouts to fail; you lose virtually all your orders/income for weeks/months, and in the end you find out that the root cause was that you'd accidentally typed a spurious space in a config option by mistake.

You really need to know when this kind of thing happens so that you can fix the problem and get your visitors/orders back again before it's too late.

So, you essentially have 2 choices:
1) Allow these kinds of errors to continue to go unknown by you, and potentially lose almost all of your orders/customers, your google ranking, your company's reputation/goodwill, and in the end, ultimately, lose your business/company.
or:
2) Spend just a few pounds on a reliable, detailed, configurable system/module that lets you track/fix all your site problems in one easy-to-spot place.

Please go for option 2.
Even if you don't buy our module and instead decide to go for a different solution, you still need to do something regarding option 2.

The actual asp/vbscript error message should be hidden from the visitor for security reasons, but you still need to know (as the site owner or developer) when errors happen and what the error was etc so that you can fix your code (or data).

As well as being able to dump the "stack" (session variables, form fields etc) from 500 server errors, you can also dump the stack to log files from within your own ASP scripts as well, even when 500 server errors aren't happening (eg to help debug non-500 issues).

What this module (BYZ188) Does
This module will display a friendly, totally configurable and customizable screen to your site visitors when they encounter a 500 Server error.
When a visitor encounters such an error, the full "stack" of information is automatically written to a log file for you in an easy-to-read format.
You then use FTP to regularly check the existence/contents of your error log files that this module generates, and hence fix the offending code/data by using the information in the log file to help debug the problem.

And to help with debugging non-500 issues, you can also dump the "stack" (session variables, form fields etc) to log files from within your own ASP scripts as well, even when 500 server errors aren't happening.

At the moment, the chances are that you're getting the occasional call/email from a customer saying "I just tried to order, but I got an error", then you're asking them what browser they're using, what page they were on at the time, what they entered in the form, what they were ordering, etc etc. You no longer need to do that; you'll be able to see exactly what the user was doing and who they were etc even if they don't contact you, and you can then fix the error and can also send them an email saying that you noticed they had a problem and that you've now fixed it.


Technical/Developer Information:

Detailed installation/usage notes included
The module comes with detailed step-by-step notes on how to install, configure, and use the module.

Configurable/Customizable Error Display Screen
You can easily configure/tweak the error display screen that the user gets (eg to show your own logo image, your site name, and any other messages/links etc that you like).

Separate Error Log Files Per Day
A different file will be created automatically for each day that errors occur. If no errors occur on a given day, then no error log file will be created for that day.
The format of the log file names is:
500errorlog_yyyymmdd.txt
eg:
500errorlog_20140221.txt
Within each log file, the errors are in date/time order (ie the order in which the errors happened, with the oldest errors at the top, and the newest errors at the bottom).

Secure Log Folder
The log files are expected to be placed in an area within your site that's not browsable (ie outside the wwwroot or httpdocs area), so that you can download/read/view them via ftp, but nobody can ever see them by browsing the site (eg "_private" or "data" at the top level of your site's ftp account, NOT inside wwwroot or httpdocs)

Full "Stack" Included in the Error Logs
Each error will have everything you need to know for it in the log file, including:

1) The core/key information
The error number/description, the line number causing the error, the file that the line-number relates to, the url that the user was browsing at the time, and the user's IP address/addresses.

2) QueryString
The full stack of querystring arguments for the user who encountered the error.
NOTE: The "QueryString Arguments" stack will not be shown in the log file if the user did not have any arguments in their url at the time of the error.

3) Form Fields
The form fields for the user who encountered the error.
NOTE: The "Form field" stack will not be shown in the log file if the user was not in the process of submitting a form at the time of the error.

4) Session variables
All the session variables for the user who encountered the error. For example, for a shopping cart site this might hold the details of the customer, shopping-basket-contents, or order. Sessions can also hold other helpful debugging information such as the sql statement that was last run on that user's session etc.
It will output normal session variables, as well as session arrays that are up to 3 dimensions and will cater for any number of elements for each dimension. (eg for shopping cart arrays).
NOTE: The "Session" stack will not be shown in the log file if the user did not have any session variables setup at the time of the error.

5) Cookie Variables
All the cookie variables for the user who encountered the error. For example, for a shopping cart site this might hold the details of the customer, shopping-basket-contents, or order.
NOTE: The "Cookie" stack will not be shown in the log file if the user did not have any Cookie variables setup at the time of the error.

6) Server Variables
All the server variables for the user who encountered the error. For example this will tell you the type of browser the user was using.

Secured Values
You can configure codes (field names, session codes, querystring arguments, cookie codes) that you want masked in the log files. For example, you may want to avoid having credit card numbers or passwords in the log files for security reasons. For these, you can configure a list of "codes" that you want to mask (eg "cardno" or "password") and you can say what you want the log file to "mask" them as (eg turn them into asterisks in the log file, or into a format like "XXXXNN" (where "X" is a character and "N" is a digit). For the configured list of "codes" you can also use wildcards (eg "*password*" for any field that has the string "password" as part of its name).

Switching It On
The error logger, once installed/tested, can be switched-on simply by setting an option from your hosting control panel or by some simple minor changes to your web.config file (the installation notes have full details).


Terms and Conditions:
For terms, conditions, and licensing information for all BigYellowZone products/services, please click here.
Please do not purchase any BigYellowZone products/services or request technical support until you have read and agree with the terms and conditions.


Full Version History:
VerNo Version Date Release Notes
01 20-FEB-2014 Initial version - Big Yellow Zone Error Logging for ASP
02 09-MAR-2014 Enhanced to allow you to dump the stack (form fields, sessions etc) to log files from within your own ASP system for debugging/information purposes (ie for when 500 server errors arent happening but where youre having other problems which need debugging).
If upgrading from a previous version, please see the new installation notes for instructions on how to make the error-logger callable from within your own system for non-500 issues, and then read the usage notes for how to dump the stack from within your own system.
Effected Files:
README* (changed files)
byz$188_version.asp (changed file
byz_erl_common_fun_inc.asp (new file)
byz_erl_common_vars_inc.asp (new file)
byz_erl_global_inc.asp (new file)
byz_erl_error.asp (changed file)
byz_erl_error_display_test.asp (changed file)
byz_erl_whereami.asp (changed file)
03 01-APR-2015 Upgraded BYZ038 (from V28 to V31).
Upgraded BYZ036 (from V17 to V18).
Enhanced/changed to cater for VPCart V8.
Changed instances of VP-ASP/VPASP to VPCart as VPASP has now been rebranded/renamed.
Effected Files:
README* (changed files)
byz$188_version.asp (changed file)
04 30-JUL-2015 Upgraded BYZ038 (from V31 to V34).
Added new config options and logic so that you can disguise/mask specific fields, session-values, querystring arguments, and cookies (such as credit cards), so that you can safely dump error logs/stacks without having to worry about having unencrypted credit cards or other details like passwords in your log files.
Added extra logic to exclude the ALL_HTTP and ALL_RAW server variables from the error log output as they are simply copies of the other individual server variables which are already outputted elsewhere in the server variables output block. This drastically reduces the size of the log files and makes it a lot easier to read.
Changed to output all server variables (apart from ALL_HTTP and ALL_RAW) to the log files, even the blank ones (which werent previously outputted).
Added {STARTVAL} at the beginning of all the stack lines so that you can more easily spot when a given value starts/ends when it spans multiple physical lines in the log file.
PLEASE NOTE: If upgrading from a previous version, its crucial that you configure the new options to match any fields/session-values etc that your site may use that need to be disguised/masked in the logs, AND that you secure/delete your old log files.
See the config file for more help/details.
Effected Files:
README* (changed files)
byz$188_version.asp (changed file)
byz_erl_$config.asp (changed file)
byz_erl_common_fun_inc.asp (changed file)
byz_erl_common_vars_inc.asp (changed file)