November 2019 Summaries

We're expanding our Android SDK to include NDK support, allowing users to trace bugs all the way into native libraries. The updated SDK also brings unified API framework integration and provides information about phone models, storage, screen size, and other state changes. A major version bump is being released as a 2.0 alpha today at DroidCon in San Francisco, with feedback from developers encouraged to help improve the update.

We're adding NDK support to our Android SDK to trace bugs into native libraries, bringing the Android SDK into a unified API framework. We've also added features to get information about the phone and track errors all the way down to compiled C++ code in the NDK. The new version 2.0 alpha is now available at DroidCon in San Francisco and we're seeking feedback from users.

This integration allows developers to create custom workflows within their organization by combining Sentry with their internal tools. With the introduction of Internal Integrations, developers can now build integrations that connect Sentry with their software using a simpler authentication model. This enables the creation of quick prototypes and unique workflow ideas without needing OAuth. An example application demonstrates how easy it is to get started building integrations, covering topics such as creating new internal integrations, enabling webhooks, fetching users with access to a given project, updating issue properties, and handling Sentry events. The integration showcases the flexibility and customizability of Sentry's Integration Platform for internal workflows.

The Sentry Integration Platform allows developers to build custom integrations that connect Sentry with their software. Internal Integrations provide a simpler authentication model than third-party integrations and are great for creating quick prototypes or testing unique workflow ideas within an organization. An example of an internal integration is the Round Robin Issue Assignment application, which cycles through team members on a given Sentry project, assigning each new issue to a different user until everyone has been assigned. This application demonstrates how easy it is to create custom integrations using Sentry's Internal Integrations. The process involves creating a new internal integration, configuring object permissions, enabling webhooks, and handling the issue-created webhook. Additionally, the integration uses Sentry's Web API to fetch users with access to a given project and update an issue's properties to assign a user.

Sentry has received its SOC 2 Type I compliance certification from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), demonstrating its effectiveness in protecting customer data and meeting industry security standards. The certification covers Sentry's information systems related to security, availability, processing integrity, and confidentiality or privacy, providing customers with confidence in their data security and integrity. With this certification, Sentry aims to alleviate security concerns for developers and organizations, making the approval process smoother and more efficient. Additionally, Sentry offers Single Tenant instances of its platform, which provides a SaaS-like experience while maintaining isolated resources and liabilities, ideal for organizations requiring enhanced data isolation and geography flexibility.

Sentry has received its SOC 2 Type I compliance certification, demonstrating the effectiveness of its internal controls around information security, which provides customers with confidence about their data security and integrity. The SOC 2 audit evaluated Sentry's systems relevant to security, availability, processing integrity, and confidentiality or privacy. This certification is expected to alleviate security concerns for developers and organizations, making the approval process smoother. Sentry has also introduced Single Tenant instances of its platform, offering a more secure experience with isolated data at rest and perfect for those concerned about data isolation and geography.

Sentry is hosting several events in November and December 2019, including DroidCon in San Francisco, AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas, and Node + JS Interactive in Montreal. At these events, Sentry will be showcasing its mobile expertise, educating attendees on error monitoring for serverless environments, and giving out coupons, swag, and special edition bath bombs with surprise items. The events are a great opportunity to meet with Sentry sales reps, learn from experts like Armin Ronacher and Ben Vinegar, and engage with the community.

This is your last call to attend Sentry at various events, including DroidCon in San Francisco, AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas, and Node + JS Interactive in Montreal. At these events, Sentry will be showcasing its support for Android with a new mobile launch, providing error monitoring for serverless environments, and offering $150 credit towards new account sign-ups. Attendees can expect to learn from experts, including Armin Ronacher and Bruno Garcia at DroidCon, while also getting exclusive swag, such as bath bombs, and meeting with Sentry representatives. The events will take place between November 25-26 in San Francisco, December 2-5th in Las Vegas, and December 11-12th in Montreal.

The Sentry team is deprecating their legacy JavaScript SDK, raven-js, in favor of the newer @sentry/browser SDK on npm, which will be introduced in Q2 2020. The change aims to unify API surfaces and improve code maintainability through features like built-in TypeScript support, a clearer API, and easier feature development. The new SDKs also provide a more consistent experience across different programming languages and frameworks, allowing users to easily switch between them without significant changes. The Sentry team encourages feedback and welcomes users to explore the new SDKs in the Forums or on Github.

Deprecating Our Legacy JavaScript SDK Sentry is deprecating its old raven-js JavaScript SDK in favor of the newer `@sentry/browser` SDK, which offers several improvements including a unified API, built-in TypeScript support, and clearer function signatures. The new SDK will be fully compatible with existing Sentry installations and will provide a more powerful and customizable experience for users. The deprecation is intended to encourage users to upgrade to the newer SDK, which was designed with features like APM in mind and has undergone significant bug fixes and minor improvements.

Sentry for Data is a new initiative by Abhijeet Prasad and Mike Clarke, which aims to bridge the gap between error monitoring and observability tooling for data tools, highlighting that logs are insufficient for quick and efficient debugging. The team built out monitoring solutions using Sentry for popular data tools like Apache Beam and Apache Airflow, but now focuses on integrating Sentry with PySpark, a Python API for Apache Spark. This integration provides full context events in Sentry that can be tracked, assigned, and grouped, containing metadata and breadcrumbs to help isolate the source of errors. The PySpark integration works out of the box for various execution environments and can be customized based on setup needs. To get started, install the Sentry Python SDK and initialize it before creating a SparkContext/SparkSession with the SparkIntegration. Instrumenting both driver and worker clusters is necessary to gain comprehensive insight into error occurrences.

Sentry For Data: Error Monitoring with PySpark` is a new integration for PySpark, the Python API for Apache Spark, that provides error monitoring and observability tooling for data pipelines. The integration allows errors to be tracked, assigned, and grouped, with metadata and breadcrumbs that help isolate the source of the error. It works out of the box for SparkSQL, Spark Streaming, and Spark Core, and can be customized based on the needs of the setup. To get started, install the Sentry Python SDK on the Spark execution environment, initialize Sentry before creating the SparkContext, and instrument both driver and worker clusters. The integration provides full context events in Sentry that can help debug errors more efficiently.

The Sentry project, now a large company employing nearly 100 individuals, is re-licensing its software due to concerns about open-source licensing and protection of intellectual property. The team wants to standardize on a single license across all projects, while ensuring that users can freely modify and deploy the code as they currently do. After considering various options, Sentry has adopted the Business Source License (BSL), which provides a balance between openness and IP protection. The BSL has two components: a license grant restriction that prevents commercial use of the software, and a conversion date after 36 months when the code becomes Apache-2.0 licensed. This change aims to protect Sentry's business while allowing it to continue developing and distributing its source code in an open fashion.

The Sentry project has undergone a significant change in its licensing decision after over a decade. The company initially used the BSD 3-Clause License but later decided to re-license, primarily to standardize on an open-source license across all projects and ensure protection for the developers' livelihoods. The new licensing arrangement aims to strike a balance between allowing users to freely modify and deploy Sentry while protecting the company's intellectual property from competitors who might sell their work. The Business Source License (BSL) has been adopted, which includes a grant restriction that prevents commercial use of the service but converts to an Apache-2.0 license after 36 months. This change is intended to address concerns about open-source companies being plagiarized or copied by businesses seeking to compete with them, and it will ensure the future of Sentry's development while maintaining its open-source nature.

Amixr is an incident management platform with deep Slack integration that aims to make incident response less painful, more collaborative, and faster by providing customizable routing, escalations, on-call scheduling, knowledge base, incident grouping, multi-channel delivery, reporting, AI performance analysis, and more. The Amixr + Sentry Integration Platform synchronizes issue statuses in Sentry with incident statuses in Amixr, allowing for two-way status updates between the platforms. This integration enables developers to build workflows on top of Sentry and create custom integrations, making it easier to manage incidents and improve service reliability.

The Sentry Integration Platform, launched earlier this year, enables developers to build workflows on top of Sentry, a critical tool for incident management in production infrastructure. The platform aims to improve performance and collaboration during incidents by providing customizable routing, escalations, on-call scheduling, knowledge bases, and multi-channel delivery options. Amixr, an incident management platform with deep Slack integration, is part of the Sentry Integration Platform and helps teams respond to incidents more efficiently by synchronizing issue statuses between platforms and enabling two-way status updates. By streamlining communication and collaboration, Amixr and the Sentry Integration Platform help reliability engineers tackle incidents more effectively, ensuring faster response times and improved service reliability.