RVM error reporting

OpenFin provides an error report mechanism that is triggered when the RVM encounters errors when attempting to read and load an application provider’s application manifest.

When the RVM encounters such an error in the application start-up process, it may do the following actions, depending on how it is configured:

• Report the error to the end-user via an error dialog box.
  The contents of this dialog box depend on the type of error and the version of the RVM.
• Send an error report via email to a designated email address.
  By default, it is sent to [email protected]; the email address is configurable.
• Send an error report to a designated web service.
  By default, it is sent to https://dl.openfin.co/services/report-error; starting in RVM version 10, the server address is configurable via the reportErrorUrl option in desktop owner settings.

Errors that the RVM might encounter when starting an application include the following:

• Failure to reach the application manifest
• Failure to download the specified version of the OpenFin Runtime from OpenFin's servers
• Failure to load required assets from a local network server
• Failure to initialize the RVM

For errors that involve reading files over a network, causes might include:

• No access to the internet or local network
• End user launched the application prior to connecting to a VPN
• Firewall restrictions

Error dialog boxes

By default, the RVM notifies the end-user that the application cannot start because of an error.

In RVM v10 or later, the dialog box initially appears with a summary of the error. The user can expand it to view technical details.
In versions earlier than v10, the dialog box shows all the technical details, with no option to expand or collapse them. In either version of the dialog box, there is a button for the user to report the error via email.

If the user clicks Report Error, a dialog box opens for the user to enter details about the circumstances of the error. This information is sent to the configured email address.

When using the --diagnostics command-line flag with OpenFinRVM.exe, the "old style" dialog box appears, even in RVM v10 and later.

Avoid network errors

Both desktop owners and application providers can take steps to reduce the likelihood of end-users encountering RVM errors related to problems with network access.

Desktop owner
: Ensure that end-user systems are properly configured to reach OpenFIn application assets, both locally and over the internet.

Application providers
: Design your application to adhere to offline web standards

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Note

It is common for VDIs to take more time than non-virtual systems to establish a connection to the network on start-up.
End-users who launch your application prior to network connectivity will see the RVM error report dialog.
This happens because OpenFin software is not able to reach the application manifest located on your web server because the network connection is still not available. See VDI deployment for more information on deploying on VDIs.

Configure error reporting

By default, error reports go to OpenFin's error reporting service, at https://dl.openfin.co/services/report-error, and, if emailed, to [email protected].

Some application providers and desktop owners might prefer to suppress error reporting entirely, or they might prefer that such reports go to their own service or email address rather than to OpenFin.
An organization's IT support group is better positioned to provide support for most application startup errors than OpenFin's Support group, which cannot address, for example, local network issues.

Both the desktop owner and the application provider can control whether the error report dialog appears, and where reports are sent if it does appear.
Settings made by the desktop owner in the Desktop Owner Settings take precedence over any made by the application provider in the application manifest.

Desktop owner configuration

Starting in RVM version 10, the desktop owner can configure whether the error dialog appears and where error reports are sent.

In the "desktopSettings" object in the Desktop Owner Settings, you can configure the following options:

• disableErrorReporting, defaults to false. If set to true, no OpenFin applications show the error reporting dialog when errors occur, and no error reports are generated.
• reportErrorUrl, defaults to https://dl.openfin.co. You can change this option to specify your own internal server to send application error reports to.
  The path to the POST endpoint of the service must be /services/report-error; the path is not included in the reportErrorUrl value.

Application manifest configuration

OpenFin is designed to cache each application manifest on the local disk. If the application supports offline mode and has run successfully once on the user’s machine, OpenFin is able to access the manifest and launch it in offline mode.

Starting in RVM version 10, in the top level of the application manifest, (under either platform or startup_app, depending on the type of application), application providers can configure the same settings as appear in the Desktop Owner settings (see previous section):

• disableErrorReporting
• reportErrorUrl

Note that the enableErrorReporting property controls only whether the Report Error button is enabled , not whether the error report dialog box itself appears.
The disableErrorReporting option (in RVM 10 and later) provides greater control over error reporting.

Application providers can also configure the error report dialog via properties in the supportInformation object.
Among these properties is moreInfoUrl, which can specify a web page with "troubleshooting steps."
Refer to the Sample troubleshooting guide for example guidance that such a page could contain.