We have disabled the system which sent notifications about finished runs
We have disabled the system which sent notifications about finished runs
At a glance
The community member is experiencing issues with their scrapers failing, and they learned about it only because their production had no data. This is because they relied on emails from Apify, which were disabled without their knowledge. The community member is fine with disabling the email feature, but they would have appreciated an email notification about the change. They don't consider the notifications perfect, but they are the only global way to get notified about failed actors. Setting up alerts manually for each actor is prone to errors, and there is no way to set up alerts for failed actors. After the change, the community member is left with no monitoring over their actors unless they set up automated code to check the actors via the Apify API, which defeats the purpose of using the Apify platform.
In the comments, another community member apologizes for the issue and says the team is working on it. The original community member acknowledges this and mentions that they decided to fix up a script to check the scrapers via the API and integrate it with their Discord, but they consider this a nice-to-have improvement rather than a necessary monitoring measure without an alternative.
I've got some scrapers failing, but I learned only because my production had no data. Why? Because I've relied on emails from Apify, and they didn't come. Why? Because you've disabled them without telling me 😀
C'mon. I'm fine about disabling email feature you want to revamp, but then please email me about the change, because I don't spend my life on the notifiactions tab to learn about the change from a little notification box 🤦♂️
I don't consider the notifications perfect, but they are the only global way to get notified about the fact that actors failed to finish. Alternative is to setup alert, but then I have to manually click on all my ten actors to set it up (prone to errors), and, more importantly there is no way to setup alert for a failed actor. In the metric drop down, there is no exit status is 0 option or equlvalent, as far as I can see.
Hence, after your change, I'm left with no monitoring over my actors unless I immediately go and fix up some automated code checking the actors over your API, which kind of defeats the reasons why I recently migrated my scrapers to Apify - to get these things out of the box, as part of your platform.
Thanks 🙂 I decided I could fix up a script checking the scrapers over the API, and I could add some stats and integration with my Discord, but it would be better as a nice-to-have improvement rather than necessary monitoring measure without alternative.
And I'm sorry for pushing this Discord to its limits with my feedback while fitting my usage to the free plan 😅
