EventBucket

EventBucket is a global anonymous event hub. It is global so you can send an event from any application. For example, every time your nightly build fails, it could send an error event to the EventBucket. It is anonymous, so all you need to know is the bucket id. This is why it is so much easier that sending automatic emails - you don't need any authentication to add an event. Technically speaking, EventBucket is a microservice hosted at http://eventbucket.romama.com/

How It Works

1. EventBucket stores events in buckets. Every bucket has a globally unique id (GUID). 2. Buckets are anonymous, so anyone can add an event in any bucket (provided you know the bucket id). 3. Bucket contains events. Every event has a level, message and, optionally, details. 4. Every bucket is limited to 100 events. Once full, new events will push out older events. That's about it.

Monitoring The Bucket

The easiest way to monitor the events in a given bucket is to install the EventBucket Chrome extension. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/eventbucket/ngkbjogjcpjkaaekpgfcidilofbafllf Of course, you can write your own tool based on the API/SDK. In fact, it would be very nice if someone created EventBucket client for Android/IOS/Windows platform.

Accessing The Bucket

To access the EventBucket, you have a following choice:

Over HTTP using EventBucket REST API
From .NET code using EventBucket SDK
From .NET using EventBucket NLog target
From PowerShell using EventBucket PowerShell module

EventBucket REST API

REST API is the most direct way to access the EventBucket. Note that EventBucket API follows HATEOAS principles, so every representation returned by the REST API contain links that you should use to manipulate the resources. Reserve a bucket Reserving a bucket is a one time operation. After you reserved a bucket, you can use it for any events you are interested in. POST http://eventbucket.romama.com/buckets?invite=92280BD3-94A0-47DF-9BA1-1077AC756633 Request: empty Response:

{
	"id": "5b531043-bddb-4bb9-a54e-5529fc0fd290",
	"owner": "",
	"created": "2015-05-09T12:27:33.823Z",
	"modified": "2015-05-09T12:27:33.823Z",
	"links":[
		{
			"rel": "self",
			"href": "http://eventbucket.romama.com/bucket/5b531043-bddb-4bb9-a54e-5529fc0fd290"
		},
		{
			"rel": "http://eventbucket.romama.com/rels/addevent";,
			"href": "http://eventbucket.romama.com/bucket/5b531043-bddb-4bb9-a54e-5529fc0fd290"
		}
	]
}

Add an event to the bucket POST http://eventbucket.romama.com/bucket/BUCKET_ID Request:

{
	"level": 3,
	"message": "The time is running out"
}

Response:

{
	"id": "9d203666-e893-4c16-b2cf-496b8ef33aeb",
	"bucketid": "5b531043-bddb-4bb9-a54e-5529fc0fd290",
	"level": 3,
	"message": "The time is running out",
	"details": "",
	"created": "2015-05-09T12:39:15.243Z",
	"links":[
		{
			"rel": "self",
			"href": "http://eventbucket.romama.com/bucket/5b531043-bddb-4bb9-a54e-5529fc0fd290/event/9d203666-e893-4c16-b2cf-496b8ef33aeb"
		},
		{
			"rel": "http://eventbucket.romama.com/rels/delete",
			"href": "http://eventbucket.romama.com/bucket/5b531043-bddb-4bb9-a54e-5529fc0fd290/event/9d203666-e893-4c16-b2cf-496b8ef33aeb"
		}
	]
}

Event levels are aligned with NLog event levels: Trace = 0, Debug = 1, Info = 2, Warn = 3, Error = 4, Fatal = 5, Off = 6 Get the bucket Retrieving the bucket information also retrieves all the events that are currently in that bucket. However, event details are not returned. To get the details of an event, you need to retrieve that event individually. GET http://eventbucket.romama.com/bucket/BUCKET_ID Response:

{
	"id": "5b531043-bddb-4bb9-a54e-5529fc0fd290",
	"owner": "",
	"created": "2015-05-09T12:27:33.823Z",
	"modified": "2015-05-09T12:39:15.24Z",
	"links":[
		{
			"rel": "self",
			"href": "http://eventbucket.romama.com/bucket/5b531043-bddb-4bb9-a54e-5529fc0fd290"
		},
		{
			"rel": "http://eventbucket.romama.com/rels/addevent",
			"href": "http://eventbucket.romama.com/bucket/5b531043-bddb-4bb9-a54e-5529fc0fd290"
		}
	],
	"events":[
		{
			"id": "9d203666-e893-4c16-b2cf-496b8ef33aeb",
			"bucketid": "5b531043-bddb-4bb9-a54e-5529fc0fd290",
			"level": 3,
			"message": "The time is running out",
			"details": null,
			"created": "2015-05-09T12:39:15.243Z",
			"links":[
				{
					"rel": "self",
					"href": "http://eventbucket.romama.com/bucket/5b531043-bddb-4bb9-a54e-5529fc0fd290/event/9d203666-e893-4c16-b2cf-496b8ef33aeb"
				},
				{
					"rel": "http://eventbucket.romama.com/rels/delete",
					"href": "http://eventbucket.romama.com/bucket/5b531043-bddb-4bb9-a54e-5529fc0fd290/event/9d203666-e893-4c16-b2cf-496b8ef33aeb"
				}
			]
		}
	]
}

Get an event Retrieving an event returns the complete event data, including details. GET http://eventbucket.romama.com/bucket/BUCKET_ID/event/EVENT_ID Response:

{
	"id": "9d203666-e893-4c16-b2cf-496b8ef33aeb",
	"bucketid": "5b531043-bddb-4bb9-a54e-5529fc0fd290",
	"level": 3,
	"message": "The time is running out",
	"details": "",
	"created": "2015-05-09T12:39:15.243Z",
	"links":[
		{
			"rel": "self",
			"href": "http://eventbucket.romama.com/bucket/5b531043-bddb-4bb9-a54e-5529fc0fd290/event/9d203666-e893-4c16-b2cf-496b8ef33aeb"
		},
		{
			"rel": "http://eventbucket.romama.com/rels/delete",
			"href": "http://eventbucket.romama.com/bucket/5b531043-bddb-4bb9-a54e-5529fc0fd290/event/9d203666-e893-4c16-b2cf-496b8ef33aeb"
		}
	]
}

Delete an event DELETE http://eventbucket.romama.com/bucket/BUCKET_ID/event/EVENT_ID Response: empty

EventBucket .NET SDK

EventBucket .NET SDK is the simpliest way to access the event bucket from the C# code. However, if you just need to add events, you can use EventBucket NLog target. To install EventBucket SDK as a Nuget package (https://www.nuget.org/packages/EventBucket.SDK), run the following command:

Install-Package EventBucket.SDK -Pre

Code sample demonstrating how to access the EventBucket using the SDK:

using Artemkv.EventBucket.SDK;

...

public async Task TestBucketAsync()
{
	// Id can be specified as a string
	var bucket = await Bucket.GetAsync("5b531043-bddb-4bb9-a54e-5529fc0fd290");
	// Or as a GUID
	// var bucket = await Bucket.GetAsync(new Guid("5b531043-bddb-4bb9-a54e-5529fc0fd290"));
	
	// Add an event with a message
	await bucket.AddEventAsync(Level.Error, "Message from .NET");
	
	// Add an event with a message and details
	await bucket.AddEventAsync(Level.Error, "Message from .NET", "Details from .NET");
	
	// Get the latest data of the bucket
	bucket = await Bucket.GetAsync(bucket.Id);
	
	// Access events and event properties
	var message = bucket.Events[0].Message;
}

EventBucket NLog Target

Configuring the EventBucket NLog target is the simpliest way to add events to the bucket from .NET application without any coding. To install EventBucket NLog library as a Nuget package (https://www.nuget.org/packages/EventBucket.NLog), run the following command:

Install-Package EventBucket.NLog -Pre

Sample NLog.config file that uses the EventBucket target:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<nlog xmlns="http://www.nlog-project.org/schemas/NLog.xsd"
      xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">

  <extensions>
    <add assembly="Artemkv.EventBucket.NLog"/>
  </extensions>
  
  <targets>
    <target xsi:type="EventBucket" name="e" bucketId="5b531043-bddb-4bb9-a54e-5529fc0fd290"
            layout="${longdate} ${uppercase:${level}} ${message} ${exception:format=ToString}" />
  </targets>

  <rules>
    <logger name="*" minlevel="Trace" writeTo="e" />
  </rules>
</nlog>

EventBucket PowerShell Module

Using PowerShell is the convenient way to add events from the scripts. Download PowerShell Module To import the PowerShell module:

Import-Module Artemkv.EventBucket.PowerShell

To get the events in the bucket:

Get-EBEvent -BucketId "5b531043-bddb-4bb9-a54e-5529fc0fd290"

To add the event with the given level and the message to the bucket:

Add-EBEvent -BucketId "5b531043-bddb-4bb9-a54e-5529fc0fd290" -Level Info -Message "Message From Power Shell"

To add the event with the given level, message, and the details to the bucket:

Add-EBEvent -BucketId "5b531043-bddb-4bb9-a54e-5529fc0fd290" -Level Info -Message "Message From Power Shell" -Details "Details From Power Shell"

To filter events by level:

Get-EBEvent -BucketId "5b531043-bddb-4bb9-a54e-5529fc0fd290" | Where-Object {$_.Level -eq "Info"}

To remove the selected events:

Get-EBEvent -BucketId "5b531043-bddb-4bb9-a54e-5529fc0fd290" | Where-Object {$_.Level -eq "Info"} | Remove-EBEvent