Setting Up Log Management in PHP

When your PHP app misbehaves at 2 AM, structured logs with proper context are the difference between a 10-minute fix and a 3-hour investigation.

Getting Started

Setting up log management in your PHP project with Bugsly is straightforward. The entire process takes just a few minutes, and you'll immediately start seeing events in your dashboard.

Installation

composer require bugsly/bugsly-php

Configuration

<?php
\Bugsly\init([
    "dsn" => "YOUR_BUGSLY_DSN",
    "traces_sample_rate" => 1.0,
]);

// Errors are now automatically captured

Verification

After adding the SDK, trigger a test error to confirm everything works. Check your Bugsly dashboard — the event should appear within seconds, complete with stack trace and context data.

Best Practices for PHP Log Management

Group by fingerprint. Bugsly automatically groups similar errors, but you can customize fingerprinting for PHP-specific patterns like route-based grouping or middleware errors.

Filter noise early. Use beforeSend to drop expected errors — like 404s from bots or network errors from flaky connections — before they consume your event quota.

Track releases consistently. Bugsly correlates errors with specific releases, so always set the release version. This makes it trivial to identify which deploy introduced a regression.

Monitor performance alongside errors. With tracesSampleRate enabled, Bugsly captures transaction data too, connecting slow endpoints with their associated errors for a complete picture of your PHP application's health.

Next Steps

After configuring log management, set up log-based alerts for critical patterns like authentication failures or payment errors. Use Bugsly's log correlation to connect log entries with error events and traces. Create saved searches for common debugging scenarios your team encounters regularly.