Custom Error Log

Description

Custom Error Log allows you to create custom errors in your WordPress theme or plugin with a single function. Great for debugging those long and complex scripts.

Each error can have its own error message making it a lot easier to pin down specific issues in your code. You can also log notices for less serious issues.

All your errors and notices can be viewed conveniently in the WordPress admin area.

Plugin Features:

• Easy Errors: Create errors with a simple function.
• Useful Errors: Define a custom error message for each error.
• Log notices: Notices can be logged for less serious issues and viewed seperately in the admin area.
• Keep Track: View and moderate all your errors in the WordPress admin area.
• Toolbar icon: The admin toolbar displays how many new errors and notices have occurred on the current page.

Getting Started:

Install and activate the plugin then in the admin menu go to Tools > Error Log. This will eventually be the page that displays all your latest errors but if you’re just getting started it explains in detail how to start logging custom errors.

In your theme use either of the two built in functions to log an error log_error($message); or a notice log_notice($message);.

When these functions are executed they will log whatever error or notice you want.

Ongoing Development:

I have only just started with this plugin and plan on bringing great improvements to it. If you have any ideas please suggest them in the support section.

Translation:

The plugin is translation ready but as of yet contains only an English translation file. If you would like to contribute any translations I would be very grateful.

Please note:

This plugin is aimed at developers who have at least a basic understanding of PHP. If this isn’t you then you may not find much use from this plugin however if you are unsure how to use any of the functions explained you can post a topic in the support section of the plugin directory and I will do my best to help you.

Screenshots

Installation

1. Upload Custom Error Log to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
3. Place the function log_error($message); in your theme where you would like to log an error.

Once the plugin is installed and activated you can find more detailed instructions under Tools > Error Log in the WordPress admin menu.

FAQ

What’s the point?

As they say ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’… I was recently developing a WordPress site which imported data from a CRM in the background and used that data to create users, posts, taxonomies etc.

I started using the standard PHP error log but quickly found that the errors didn’t have enough specific information to make them useful. I needed to know exactly what information wasn’t being imported properly and why so I created this plugin to allow me to customise the information stored in each error.

There are other ways, like using full debugging tools but I think it’s easier to have a simple, WordPress native tool.

How do I log an error?

It’s simple, you place the following function in your theme/plugin where you want to log an error…

log_error( $message );

Replace $message with whatever error message you want to log for example if you’re adding a new user you could do this…

$user_id = wp_create_user( $user_name, $password, $user_email );

if( is_wp_error( $user_id ) ) {

    $error_response = $user_id->get_error_message();

    $mesage = "Unable to create user with username: " . $user_name;
    $message .= " password: " . $password;
    $message .= " The following error occurred: " . $error_response;

    log_error( $message );

}

Reviews

Nice but has a little bug

nubotz January 4, 2019

There’s a error after clicking “Clear Log” when wp_options ‘custom_error_log’ is empty. —- Illegal string offset ‘errors’ —-

Best Debugger Out There!

tansandals July 21, 2018

This is the simplest and best custom error viewer and debugger out there in my opinion. Absolutely vital for developing plugins and themes in WordPress

Really Useful

kendallinternet February 7, 2017

This plugin may not have been updated recently, but it’s still working well (at least on WP 4.7.2). It is super easy to use and provides an excellent audit trail of whatever events you need to record.

Promising !

X-Raym September 3, 2016

Very promising plugin ! I was developing without debug log and my plugin started to get complicated, I needed a way to debug more easily. Infos are well presented, it is clear and userfriendly, there is even some infos in the admin toolbar. Thanks to the Dev for this nice tool !

Contributors & Developers

Changelog

1.1

• Added toolbar icon for displaying new errors/notices that occur on the current page.
• Added option to hide the new toolbar icon.
• Added ability to track which errors/notices have not yet been viewed in the error log.
• Added a nice animation to highlight which logs are new in the error log.
• updated some non-internationalized strings.

1.0

• Hello world…