Runtime Support System
Runtime Exception Handling Subsystem
If a runtime exception is experienced in the application, a exception notification dialog will appear:
At this point, you have a number of options:
• Continue the application
• Restart the application
• Close or terminate the application
Before you select one of these options, you can perform one or both of two Bug Report actions:
• Send a bug report
• Show the bug report
Bug Reports
A Bug Report is a collection of system, environment and application information that will assist us to track down and fix the problem. It is automatically generated by the exception-handling subsystem of the AppSheet engine.
This exception box enables you to view the bug report and/or send a bug report to our support team, together with a collection of environment information that will assist us to track down and fix the problem.
We encourage you to send the report.
Using the Exception Notification Assistant
If you click on the “Send Bug Report” button (or hit the “return” key) the Exception Notification Assistant will be started. This is a three step wizard that collects the relevant information and sends the details to our support team.
• Step 1: Contact Information
• Step 2: Provide the Error Details
• Step 3: Configure Screenshot
• Step 4: Finish and Send
Step 1: Contact Information
Enter your name and email address in the relevant fields. Click on the “Remember Me” checkbox to ensure this data is automatically pre-populated in future.
Then click on the “Continue” button to go to the next step
Step 2: Provide the Error Details.
Although the Exception Notification subsystem collects information about the environment, it can’t detect the all steps that lead to the exception or other information that can help to describe or isolate the problem. In the second page of the wizard (See below) you can enter text information about the situation in which the error occurred. We are particularly interested in the functions that you were performing and any prior steps that you may have carried out before the exception occurred.
An example is shown in the diagram below. You will note that the “Continue” button is not enabled until there is data edited in the memo field.
Although you can skip this step, it will help us very much when we try to diagnose the problem. Your assistance here is greatly appreciated.
Step 3: Configure Screenshot
The third step is to attach a screenshot of the application. See below. This will not always show the data that caused the problem, but it will show the UI at the moment of the exception, so it will provide us with additional information on the current mode and state of the application at the time the error occurred. See below for an example.
Editing the image
If you click on the image in the Screenshot page above, the standard image editing application will be invoked, usually the Windows Paint program, unless this default has been overridden by some other image editing program. See below for an example.
Using this program, you can provide additional information by adding text boxes and lines or arrows. Just “Exit” from this arrow and answer “yes” to any prompts to save the image.
After this step is completed, you will be returned to page 3 of the Exception Notification Assistant with the changes shown, as below:
Step 4: Finish and Send
Finally, complete the wizard and send the notification. The notification is sent to the Decade Nine automated support system, which will log the incident and notify our support team. This means that we keep a record of all such faults, and can gain valuable insight into the indivual and aggregate peformance of the application and take steps to fix and prevent such problems in future. Please refer to the section on Support later in this document.
You can always cancel this process at anytime by pressing the “Cancel” button.
Once you click on the “Continue” button to finalise the process, a small window will appear showing the status and progress of the mailing process. Allow this to continue.
What Happens Next?
Once the notification has been sent to the support team, the Decade Nine automated support system will respond with an acknowledgement of the support incident that has been logged. Below is an example of this notification. After a lot of evaluation, we have chose to use the “Fogbugz” incident tracking system.
Please note the url in the email, which you can use to view and track the progress of the incident.
Support Requests
The AppSheet engine provides the facility for users to log generic support requests directly from within the application. This feature uses the same basic process as the Exception Notification Assistant, with slight changes reflecting the fact that there is no runtime exception.
The Support Request Assistant operates in a three-step process very similar to the Exception Notification Assistant.
• Step 1: Contact Information
• Step 2: Provide the Support Request Details
• Step 3: Configure Screenshot
• Step 4: Finish and Send
These steps, and the resulting acknowledgement from the Decade Nine support system are identical to the Exception Notification Assistant above.
Please provide as much information as possible in the Support Request Details section. The more we know, the more we can assist.