Menu
Defer is reaching the end of its service life on May 1, 2024. Please reach out to support@defer.run for further information.
Changelog
March 22nd, 2023

Console updates: Diagnostics & Execution filtering

Bryan FriminBryan FriminCTO
Emile RéEmile Founding Engineer
Charly PolyCharly PolyCEO

The recent Builder updates come hand in hand with the following Console updates.

As some of you face issues while building your applications, we realized that plain build errors could be more helpful, as well as executions errors.

Finally, the console gets more actionable with the executions filter and the ability to pause functions.





Build diagnostics to help you move forward

Most build errors are now replaced with diagnostics, with detailed information to fix the identified issues.

Because your time is precious, the Defer Console is now pointing you to the solution, making it easy to move forward.


For example, a project without a yarn/npm/pnpm lock file will now trigger the following diagnostic:

Defer Console - Build diagnostic 1

Here, is another hard-to-catch error where a background function is defined twice:

Defer Console - Build diagnostic 2

Note: The Defer Builder is now more silent and does not leak unnecessary logs to the Defer Console, making it easy to locate errors.



Bonus

While we work on releasing live logs on builds, the Defer Console now displays the build running time (as many of you requested):

Defer Console - Build progress



A quicker path to executions failures' root cause

Source maps support

The Defer Builder compiles your background functions when building your project, which gets executed by the Defer Runner, as .js files.

This led errors to point to compiled path and line numbers, making it hard to locate the exact line of error:

Defer Console - Execution error

The Defer Builder is now generating source maps, enabling the Defer Console to display actual the line of the actual source files.


Better out-of-memory detection

Execution that reached the maximum memory limit ended up with truncated logs.

Such errors are now gracefully handled and results in an associated error message.



Filter executions, pause functions

The first version of the Defer Console was great for small projects that ran dozens of execution.

We quickly need to release the Function Insights view for users that have many functions.


Now, many of you run thousands of execution per day and had a hard time navigating the executions list.

For this reason, we released a new executions list view that features some quick filters:

Defer Console - Execution filters

Allowing you to apply multiple filters with a few clicks:

Defer Console - Execution filter combination


You can now filter executions on 3 criteria:

  • Status: allowing to narrow down to one or multiple statuses
  • Executed at: handy for large executions set
  • Scheduled for: useful for delayed executions

We will soon roll out 2 new filters: see the “Upcoming features” section of this article!



Upcoming features

Onboarding improvements

Build diagnostics is the first step in improving the onboarding experience with Defer; we will soon release a new onboarding experience that avoids going back and forth between the Console and the docs.


Advanced executions filters

2 new filters will soon roll out on the executions list:

  • Error: for example, filter all executions that failed because of an HTTP error
  • Execution ID: useful for workflows and nested executions




We are looking forward to get your feedback!

Got a feature request? Join our Discord Community and post it!

Join the community and learn how to get started, and provide feedback.
Stay tuned about our latest product and company updates.
Start creating background jobs in minutes.
Copyright ©2024 Defer Inc.