---
title: Let's Put Some Lipstick on this Toad
teaser: Updates to our rails error catcher, Hoptoad.
tags: news,web,airbrake
author: Chad Pytel
published_on: 2008-08-06
---

Its been a little over a week since we officially launched Hoptoad, our
centralized error catching application.  The feedback we've received has been
overwhelmingly positive, and we've caught about 45,000 non-test errors from 115
applications.  If you haven't given Hoptoad a try yet, [come on in, the water's
fine](http://www.hoptoadapp.com).

Yesterday we deployed several improvements:

**One of the more noticeable changes we've made is that the default error
listing now excludes errors that you've marked as resolved.**

In Hoptoad, you can mark an error that your application has thrown as resolved.
Hoptoad detects similar errors, and only notifies you about the first error when
it occurs.  Until now, the primary benefit to marking an error as resolved was
that if an error you thought was resolved occurs again, we'd specifically notify
you about it again.  Previously, we defaulted the main error listing to show you
all errors regardless of their resolved state, and you had to click Hide
Resolved Errors in order to remove the errors from the listing.

We originally made this design decision in order to err on the side of more
visibility into all of the errors that were occurring in your application.  But,
based on user feedback, and a change of heart internally, we've reversed this so
that resolved errors are now excluded from the listing, and you click Show
Resolved Errors to view them.

![''](http://images.thoughtbot.com/ui/2008-8-5-unresolved_1.png)

We've also added a simple visual cue for resolved errors in the listing.

![''](http://images.thoughtbot.com/ui/2008-8-5-resolved_1.png)

**This release also includes documentation on the Hoptoad <abbr
title="Application Programming Interface">API</abbr>**, and the server side
changes necessary to get it going.  The <abbr title="Application Programming
Interface">API</abbr> is RESTful, so you can use Active Resource, or use it
directly if you want.  We've also provided basic documentation on how to submit
errors directly to Hoptoad without using the Rails plugin we provide - so the
door is now officially open for you to create your own clients for Hoptoad -
maybe Merb, or .Net strikes your fancy.  For complete details on the <abbr
title="Application Programming Interface">API</abbr>, check out [the
documentation](http://www.hoptoadapp.com/pages/api).

We've also included a few other refinements and bug fixes as well, you can take
a look at the changes in [our
lighthouse](http://thoughtbot.lighthouseapp.com/projects/14635-hoptoad/tickets?q=milestone%3A08052008)
to see the full list.

Finally, thanks to Tony Pitale for his [writeup on
hoptoad](https://www.viget.com/extend/hoptoad-in-brief).

<iframe title="Toad The Wet Sprocket - Walk On The Ocean (Official Video) - YouTube" width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/12bM1CqHoBY"
frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

We've got some more improvements in the works, stay tuned.

FYI: _Hoptoad/Airbrake was sold to RackSpace and is now called [Airbrake Bug Tracker](http://airbrake.io)_.