Installing AppSignal for Elixir

Please follow the installation guide first, when adding a new application to AppSignal.

Requirements

Before you can compile the AppSignal package, make sure the build/compilation tools are installed for your system. Please check the Supported Operating Systems page for any system dependencies that may be required.

Installation

Installing the AppSignal package in your Elixir application requires a couple of manual steps. Currently, AppSignal support Phoenix, Plug and pure Elixir apps.

If AppSignal does not support your use-case or if you find a problem with the documentation, don't hesitate to contact us. You can also create a pull-request on our public Elixir repository or [documentation repository][docs-repo].

Installing the package

1. Start by adding appsignal to your list of dependencies in mix.exs.

   Elixir

   # mix.exs
   def deps do
     [
       {:appsignal, "~> 2.8"}
     ]
   end

2. Then run mix deps.get.

3. Then run mix appsignal.install YOUR_PUSH_API_KEY or follow the manual configuration guide.

After the installation is complete, start your application. When the AppSignal OTP application starts, it looks for a valid configuration (e.g. an AppSignal Push API key), and start the AppSignal agent.

If it can't find a valid configuration, a warning will be logged. See the Configuration section on how to fully configure the AppSignal agent.

Configuration

Before the AppSignal package works you need to configure it. To be able to send data to AppSignal you first need to create an account on AppSignal.com. Or, if you already have an account, click on the "add app" button on AppSignal.com/accounts.

During the installation process you can run the mix appsignal.install command with the hexadecimal Push API key or manually configure AppSignal using the guide below.

For more information about configuring the AppSignal package for Elixir, please read our configuration documentation.

Manual configuration

If you want to manually configure AppSignal you will need to place the AppSignal Push API key you receive in the installation process in your application's config/config.exs configuration file.

Using the AppSignal configuration you are also able to configure an application name and environment and more.

# config/config.exs
config :appsignal, :config,
  otp_app: :appsignal_phoenix_example,
  name: "AppsignalPhoenixExample",
  push_api_key: "your-push-api-key",
  env: Mix.env,
  active: true

Alternatively, you can configure AppSignal using OS environment variables.

export APPSIGNAL_OTP_APP="appsignal_phoenix_example"
export APPSIGNAL_PUSH_API_KEY="your-push-api-key"
export APPSIGNAL_APP_NAME="AppsignalPhoenixExample"
export APPSIGNAL_APP_ENV="prod"

For more information about configuring the AppSignal package for Elixir, please read our configuration options page.

Run your application!

Once you've completed this guide your application is ready to be monitored by AppSignal!

Start your application up and perform some requests on it. By triggering an error or two you'll also test the error reporting.

Contact us if you have questions regarding installation or encountered any problems during the installation.

Optional: Add Phoenix instrumentation

Read more about how you can integrate more instrumentation in your Phoenix application in our integrating Phoenix guide.

Optional: Add Plug instrumentation

Read more about how you can integrate more instrumentation in your Plug application in our integrating Plug guide.

Optional: Add custom instrumentation

Add custom instrumentation to your application to get a more in-depth view of what's happening in your application. Read more about custom instrumentation in our instrumentation documentation.

Uninstall

Uninstall AppSignal from your app by following the steps below. When these steps are completed your app will no longer send data to the AppSignal servers.

1. In the mix.exs of your app, delete the {:appsignal, "~> 2.0"} line.

2. Run mix deps.get to update your mix.lock with the removed packages state.

3. Remove any AppSignal configuration files from your app.

   • Configuration file location: config/appsignal.exs

   • And its references in any other files in config/*.exs

4. Remove any system environment variables from your development, staging, production, etc. hosts.

   • Environment variables prefixed with APPSIGNAL_

   • Environment variable APP_REVISION

5. Commit, deploy and restart your app.

   • This will make sure the AppSignal servers won't continue to receive data from your app.

6. Optional: Make sure no appsignal-agent processes are running in the background.

   • Check the output of ps aux | grep appsignal-agent and kill the processes still running.

7. Finally, remove the app on AppSignal.com.