Collect exception reports in Java application

Question

I'm currently maintaining a Desktop Java application that has a small to medium user base. I often get some pretty useless mails saying that "something went wrong" and I'm left digging through the source code, often unable to reproduce the problem.

Now I'm wondering if there is a library that would allow me to collect Exceptions when they happen, present a small dialog to the users and if/when they agree, post the stack trace to my webserver. Basically what I'm looking for is something similar to Application Crash Report for Android (ACRA), but for desktop Java applications.

Answer 1

If you are using SLF4J and Logback, you can configure an appender to send detailed error reports to a Ctrlflow Automated Error Reporting server (which offers filtering and aggregation of incoming reports + dashboards + email digest). This blog post has all the information on how to configure Logback accordingly.

If you want to present your user with a confirmation dialog first, you may have to extend the existing appender, though – unless your “Desktop Java application” is an “Eclipse Rich Client Platform applications.” In that case the work has already been done for you. See this webinar for more information.