Make Laravel use SlackHandler for Logging

Slackhandler

/*
 I am using Laravel 5.2. This will probably work for many versions, but use at your own risk.
 
 Instructions
  - Make sure that you add SLACK_TOKEN, SLACK_CHANNEL, SLACK_USERNAME, SLACK_ICON in .env
  - SLACK_ICON - you can use almost any emoji that Slack supports. See http://www.emoji-cheat-sheet.com/
  - SLACK_USER - You can use any username you want to. It doesn't have to be an existing user
  - SLACK_CHANNEL - I don't know what happens if you use a non-existent channel. I always make sure the channel exists first
  - SLACK_TOKEN - You can find this in your Slack account somewhere
  - Add the code below to the top of bootstrap/app.php
  - That is it. Now \Log::warning("This is a warning"); should send a message to Slack. 
*/


// Put this at very top of file.
use Monolog\Handler\SlackHandler;

// There is a line that starts $app = ...
// The rest goes after that line

$app->configureMonologUsing( function($monolog) {
    $slackHandler = new SlackHandler(env('SLACK_TOKEN'), env('SLACK_CHANNEL'), env('SLACK_USERNAME'), true, env('SLACK_ICON'));
    $slackHandler->setlevel(Monolog\Logger::INFO);
    $monolog->pushHandler($slackHandler);
});


// The rest goes in .env

SLACK_TOKEN=<your slack token here>
SLACK_CHANNEL=#test-channel
SLACK_USERNAME=logger
SLACK_ICON=:squirrel:

Testing that it works

// Put this in routes.php to test SlackHandler (or whatever handler you are using.)
// Then visit /logtest and check Slack.

Route::get('logtest', function() {
  \Log::debug("This is debug information.");
  \Log::info("This is soley for informational purposes.");
  \Log::notice("This is a notice.");
  \Log::warning("This is a warning. Maybe this shouldn't happen so often.");
  \Log::error("This is an error message. Please fix this soon.");
  \Log::critical("This is a critical warning. That is going to hurt in the morning!");
  \Log::alert("Alert! Danger Will Robinson.");
  \Log::emergency("This is an emergency. All hands abandon ship!");
  
});

If you have done it right, this is what Slack will look like.

How does this differ from using the builtin slack driver in config/logging.php?