Python 2.7: Save all exceptions into database (convert to unicode Problems) - database

Question

I am trying to save all exceptions thrown by a python service (running hidden on Windows 7/10) into a sqlite3 database file. In addition to other things(traceback, date, etc) I want to save the error message too.
My Problem is that there are some error messages that I cannot convert to unicode (Especially some WindowsErrors and errors with a german 'Umlaut': ä, ö, ü). As I don't know every possible error in advance I want to have a function that can handle ALL errors and convert their message to unicode.
Can someone tell me what the convertToUnicode-function has to look like?
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
def someErrorneousFunction():
raise RuntimeError('Not a unicode string. But with a german Umlaut: ä!')
def saveExceptionToDBThatOnlyAcceptsUnicode(msg):
"""SQL INSERT SOME STUFF... + THE UNICODE ERROR MESSAGE!"""
pass
def convertToUnicode(e):
""" What to do here ??? """
pass
try:
someErrorneousFunction()
except Exception as e:
unicode_error_msg = convertToUnicode(e)
saveExceptionToDBThatOnlyAcceptsUnicode(unicode_error_msg)
Note: I found that some Exceptions have an attribute called .msg or .str, but not all of them!
Does this method make sense at all? I know its bad practice to catch ALL exceptions with no distinction but as my software occasionally is in testmode somewhere else and I want to get the exception database per mail it seemed meaningful to me. Furthermore I distinguish the errors I know from those I don't know in advance.
I would appreciate any advise!
Thank you!
Sebastian

Answer 1

If, as your demo shows, the source file is known to be in UTF-8, then this should work:
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import traceback
def someErrorneousFunction():
raise RuntimeError('Not a unicode string. But with a german Umlaut: ä!')
def saveExceptionToDBThatOnlyAcceptsUnicode(msg):
print type(msg)
print msg
def convertToUnicode(e):
return traceback.format_exc(e).decode('utf8')
try:
someErrorneousFunction()
except Exception as e:
unicode_error_msg = convertToUnicode(e)
saveExceptionToDBThatOnlyAcceptsUnicode(unicode_error_msg)
Output:
<type 'unicode'>
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\test.py", line 15, in <module>
someErrorneousFunction()
File "C:\test.py", line 5, in someErrorneousFunction
raise RuntimeError('Not a unicode string. But with a german Umlaut: ä!')
RuntimeError: Not a unicode string. But with a german Umlaut: ä!