How to Auto‑Email Django Errors: Configure Logging & Custom Decorators

Monitor All Request Requests

Configure Django to send error emails for request‑related failures by setting the email parameters in the settings.py file. The emails are sent to the addresses defined in ADMINS.

SERVER_EMAIL = '[email protected]'
DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL = '[email protected]'
ADMINS = (('receiver','[email protected]'),)
EMAIL_HOST = 'smtp.exmail.qq.com'
EMAIL_HOST_USER = '[email protected]'
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD = '123456'
EMAIL_BACKEND = 'django.core.mail.backends.smtp.EmailBackend'

1. Set Email Configuration

The above settings ensure that Django can connect to the SMTP server and send messages to the administrators.

2. Configure LOGGING

Define a mail_admin handler that uses django.utils.log.AdminEmailHandler and set its level to ERROR. This handler will automatically email 5XX server errors.

'handlers': {
    'mail_admin': {
        'level': 'ERROR',
        'class': 'django.utils.log.AdminEmailHandler',
        'include_html': False,
    }
}

Attach the handler to the django.request logger so that request‑related errors are captured.

'loggers': {
    'django.request': {
        'handlers': ['default', 'mail_admin'],
        'propagate': True,
        'level': 'ERROR',
    }
}

Monitor Non‑Request Tasks

For background jobs such as scheduled tasks, create a custom decorator that catches exceptions, formats the traceback, and sends an email using a utility function.

def decorator_error_monitor(title):
    def wrap(f):
        def wrapped_f(*args, **kwargs):
            try:
                result = f(*args, **kwargs)
                return result
            except:
                exc = traceback.format_exc()
                utils.send_exception_email(email_list, title, exc)
                raise Exception(exc)
        return wrapped_f
    return wrap

Apply the decorator to any function that needs monitoring:

@decorator_error_monitor("Settlement Error")
def do_settlement(users):
    for user in users:
        process_settlement_for_one_user(user)

Conclusion

The presented monitoring methods are simple and practical, requiring no additional logging infrastructure. They enable immediate detection of system issues and provide detailed error logs to help quickly locate and resolve problems.