Question

I want to add global exception handling code to C# WPF apps and, although it seems rather rakish (nobody else seems to do it), I want to send email to the developer with exception info. The main problem I can think of happening here is if the developer ends up changing his email address after the software has been deployed. Perhaps an email to the department (such as a listserv type of email broadcast address) would be more appropriate? Has anybody used this sort of methodology, and if so, what solution have you come up with to make sure that somebody gets the exception-generated email?

Is this the best solution:

// in exception code (pseudocode)
try
  SendEmailToTheCoder();
catch
  on EmailAddressNotValid:
    try
      SendEmailToTheListServ()
    catch
      on EmailNotSent:  
        LogExceptionDataToLog("Bla");

…or has my brain gone pear-shaped again (I don’t know what that means, but it’s British, so it must be wickedly funny)

Answer 1

The best thing to do is to keep the details of the messaging outside of the application.

For instance, you may log errors to a text file or some other kind of log, then have an external application or Windows service monitor that log and decide what to do — such as sending an email, or creating a digest of all messages of the day and emailing it, or a similar action.

This way, you can optimize and modify what happens in case of these errors, without having to change your program code. You can also reuse that system with other applications that also just log errors to a text file, which has a lower probability of error than connecting to an SMTP server and sending a message.