June 2021 Summaries

Debugging JavaScript is challenging due to its asynchronous nature and the variety of runtimes available, making it difficult to locate problems and reproduce issues in production environments. Traditional debugging methods such as console.log and in-browser tools can be limited by factors like source maps availability and minified code. However, error monitoring tools like Sentry's JavaScript error monitoring provide full stack traces, support for source maps, and direct integration with source code management tools to help identify the root cause of issues. These tools offer features like Issue Details pages, breadcrumbs, and Discover's query builder to provide visibility into user behavior and events leading up to errors.

Jamstack` is a web architecture that combines `Javascript`, APIs, and markup to deliver dynamic content faster by separating frontend UI from backend databases. `Next.js` offers flexibility for building static and dynamic pages without sacrificing the end-user experience, while also providing context for diagnosing errors with its SDK. The `Netlify` platform delivers simple, secure, and scalable Jamstack applications through modern build workflows, serverless functions, and an edge network. Sentry monitors these applications with a Build Plugin that automatically notifies users of new releases and configures suspect commits within the platform. This integrated approach enables developers to identify performance issues, analyze releases, and define metric alerts to get notified of similar issues.

Traditional monitoring tools often provide unhelpful answers to performance issues, requiring developers to guess the root cause of problems. This has changed with the introduction of Trace View and Trace Navigator features in Sentry. These new features allow developers to connect slow-loading dots by drilling down into transaction details and navigating between front- and back-end transactions. With these tools, developers can gain a better understanding of their application's performance, identify related errors, and solve problems more efficiently.

Sentry has released an SDK for Next.js, allowing developers to capture errors, measure performance, and manage releases with minimal configuration. The SDK simplifies the process of monitoring Next.js projects, reducing the need for manual setup and configuration compared to the previous SDKs. With the new SDK, developers can quickly track down poor-performing APIs or slow database queries, and connect frontend issues to root causes in the backend and vice versa. The SDK also provides features like Trace Navigator and Suspect Tags, which help identify performance bottlenecks and errors. Additionally, Sentry offers a free trial for new users, allowing them to try out the platform before committing to a paid plan.

Better Alerts are here! A couple of weeks back we broke sign-ups and got alerted via Sentry, which led to our incident response process being kicked off. Previously, finding answers was a time-consuming process but with the new Alert Details view we can now see the entire issue history, project, team, and who created the alert. We've also refreshed the alert wizard making it easier to set alerts that make sense for your team and added an Alert List to show you the status of all your alerts - so you can quickly ensure that your product or service is covered and that all the alerts are linked to the owners. This should make Sentry more useful, especially with features like threshold recommendations and alert assignment tracking.