Migrating Between Raven and Version 1.7

The old raven-java library has been overhauled and renamed to sentry-java. The focus of the new release was to improve APIs, make the underlying client completely independent of logging integrations, and to rename (from raven-*) for clarity.

What follows is a small guide explaining the major changes.

Android

Take a look at our new Android documentation.

New Artifacts

Before (raven-java)

Artifact named raven (and others: raven-*) under the com.getsentry.raven group. Final minor release was version 8.0.x.

Now (sentry-java)

Artifact named sentry (and others: sentry-*) under the io.sentry group. Started over with version 1.0.0 (but please use the latest version!).

New Packages

Before (raven-java)

Package root was com.getsentry.raven.

For example, the logback appender used to be referenced in configuration by using com.getsentry.raven.logback.SentryAppender.

Now (sentry-java)

Package root is io.sentry.

For example, the logback appender is now referenced in configuration by using io.sentry.logback.SentryAppender.

Logging Integration Configuration

Before (raven-java)

Most (or all) configuration would be done inside of the logging appender itself. For example:

<appender name="Sentry" class="com.getsentry.raven.logback.SentryAppender">
    <filter class="ch.qos.logback.classic.filter.ThresholdFilter">
        <level>WARN</level>
    </filter>
    <dsn>https://host:port/1?options</dsn>
    <release>1.0.0</release>
</appender>

Now (sentry-java)

While setting up the SentryAppender itself is still required for logging integrations, configuration of Sentry is no longer done in the same place.

This is because appenders are initialized only when the first message (at or above the threshold) is sent to them, which means Sentry has no idea how to initialize and configure itself until the first event is sent. This may seem OK, but it prevented users from being able to do things before an error was sent, such as: record breadcrumbs, set the current user, and more.

For this reason, all configuration is now done “outside” of the logging integration itself. You may configure Sentry using a properties file (default: sentry.properties) if you preferred the old style, more information can be found on the configuration page.

For example:

<!-- logback.xml -->
<appender name="Sentry" class="io.sentry.logback.SentryAppender">
    <filter class="ch.qos.logback.classic.filter.ThresholdFilter">
        <level>WARN</level>
    </filter>
</appender>

Raven Class Changes

Before (raven-java)

The Raven class was both the core client class and also had the ability to statically store a client and send events without keeping track of the instance yourself.

Now (sentry-java)

The core client class is now called SentryClient and there is now separate Sentry class that you may use to handle initializing Sentry statically and sending events.

For example:

// The static SentryClient can be lazily initialized from anywhere in your application.
// Your DSN needs to be provided somehow, check the configuration documentation!
Sentry.capture("Hello, world!")

Configuration via DSN

Before (raven-java)

Options were prefixed with raven., for example: raven.async.

Now (sentry-java)

Options are no longer prefixed, for example: async.

Configuration via Java System Properties

Before (raven-java)

Only certain options could be set, and only in the logging integrations. For example: sentry.release was allowed but sentry.async did nothing.

Now (sentry-java)

All options can be configured via Java System Properties, for example: sentry.async=false is respected.

Configuration via Environment Variables

Before (raven-java)

Only certain options could be set, and only in the logging integrations. For example: SENTRY_RELEASE was allowed but SENTRY_ASYNC did nothing.

Now (sentry-java)

All options can be configured via Environment Variables, for example: SENTRY_ASYNC=false is respected.

Classes Renamed

Before (raven-java)

Many classes contained the word Raven. For example RavenServletRequestListener.

Now (sentry-java)

All instances of Raven have been renamed Sentry. For example SentryServletRequestListener.

In addition, as noted above, the underlying client class Raven became SentryClient, and so RavenFactory also became SentryClientFactory and DefaultRavenFactory became DefaultSentryClientFactory.

Custom Factories

Before (raven-java)

To do customization users would typically create a DefaultRavenFactory subclass and register it in one of multiple (painful) ways.

Now (sentry-java)

To do customization users subclass DefaultSentryClientFactory and then call out that class with the factory option, like factory=my.company.MySentryClientFactory. See the configuration page for more information.