This is a simple Redmine plugin that makes Redmine act like a Hoptoad server. All exceptions caught and sent by HoptoadNotifier will create or update an issue in Redmine.

Just install the Plugin following the general Redmine plugin installation instructions at www.redmine.org/wiki/redmine/Plugins.

Then, go to Administration -> Settings -> Incoming emails in your Redmine and generate an API key.

Now, download and install the HoptoadNotifier following the excellent instructions on their github page github.com/thoughtbot/hoptoad_notifier.

When it comes to creating your config/initializers/hoptoad.rb file, deviate from the standard and put in something like this:

HoptoadNotifier.configure do |config|
  config.api_key = {:project => 'my_redmine_project_identifier', # the identifier you specified for your project in Redmine
                    :tracker => 'Bug',                           # the name of your Tracker of choice in Redmine
                    :api_key => 'my_redmine_api_key',            # the key you generated before in Redmine (NOT YOUR HOPTOAD API KEY!)
                    :category => 'Development',                  # the name of a ticket category (optional.)
                    :assigned_to => 'admin',                     # the login of a user the ticket should get assigned to by default (optional.)
                    :priority => 5                               # the default priority (use a number, not a name. optional.)
                   }.to_yaml
  config.host = 'my_redmine_host.com'                            # the hostname your Redmine runs at
  config.port = 443                                              # the port your Redmine runs at
  config.secure = true                                           # sends data to your server via SSL (optional.)
end

You’re done. You can start receiving your Exceptions in Redmine!

After you received your first exception in Redmine, you will notice two new custom fields in the project(s) you’ve received the exceptions for. Those are Backtrace filter and Repository root.

If you’d like to (and we really recommend you do!) filter the backtraces that Notifier reports, you can add comma separated strings to that field. Every line in a backtrace will be scanned against those strings and matching lines will be removed. I usually set my filter to “[GEM_ROOT]”, but if you’re using plugins which tend to clutter up your backtraces, you might want to include those as well. Like this for example: “[GEM_ROOT],/vendor/plugins/newrelic_rpm”.

All Issues created will have a source link in their description which – provided that you have your source repository linked to your Redmine project – leads you directly to the file and line in your code that has caused the exception. Your repository structure most likely won’t match the structure of your deployed code, so you can add an additional repository root. Just use “trunk” for a general SVN setup for instance.

MIT

Jan Schulz-Hofen, ROCKET RENTALS (rocket-rentals.de)