Brendan Murty - Custom error handler

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4 Feb 2013

When a website or web app is viewable publically, it's a good idea to modify how PHP errors are handled. The default is to show a, sometimes dangerously detailed, error to the visitor. A much better way of handling this is to send an email to the developer and hide the error details from the visitor.

Sample error messages Showing error details to the visitor isn't good

<?
set_error_handler('error_handle');

function error_handle($errno, $errstr, $errfile, $errline){
	// The email address to send the email to
	$mail_to = 'developers@test.com';

	// The email address the email comes from
	$mail_from = 'errors@test.com';

	// Extract the visitor's browser information
	$browser = get_browser(null,true);

	// Setup the content of the email
	$mail_text  = 'Error '.$errno.' in '.$errfile.' (line '.$errline.'):'."\r\n".$errstr."\r\n"."\r\n";
	$mail_text .= 'Current URL: '.$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'].$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']."\r\n";
	$mail_text .= 'Visitor IP: '.$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']."\r\n";
	$mail_text .= 'Visitor Browser: '.$browser['browser'].' '.$browser['version'].' ('.$browser['platform'].')';

	// Configure the email headers
	$mail_headers = 'From: '.$mail_from."\r\n".'X-Mailer: PHP/'.phpversion();

	// The subject of the email
	$mail_subject = 'Error';

	// Send the email
	@mail($mail_to, $mail_subject, $mail_text, $mail_headers);
}
?>