Prerequisite Concepts

In the world of software development, monitoring and logging application behavior play a crucial role in improving their quality and performance. Sentry comes into play precisely at this point. Every piece of data sent from the application or user to Sentry is considered an Event. These events are generally divided into two main categories: Error and Transaction.

The definition of an error may vary depending on the platform or programming language, but Sentry typically identifies and logs events such as Exceptions and Unhandled Promise Rejections as errors.

In the Sentry dashboard, the Issues section is designed for managing and tracking errors. The platform uses its internal algorithms to automatically group errors that occur in similar areas of the code or under similar conditions. This grouping is based on the location of occurrence, time, frequency, and other technical parameters, aiming to simplify the error analysis process for development teams.

If you want to know how fast, lightweight, and efficient your application performs in practice, you should look at Transactions. Transactions in Sentry are used to monitor performance and execution time of operations. This section is accessible in the Performance tab.

Some events recorded as transactions include:

• Page Load
• Navigation
• Execution of a specific operation or task

When Performance Monitoring is enabled in the SDK, Sentry automatically generates transactions for many of these operations. However, note that a high volume of this data may cause you to exceed your plan's limits. In such cases, some transactions may be ignored.

To better manage the rate of transaction submissions, Sentry offers a feature called Sampling. Using the tracesSampleRate parameter, you can specify what percentage of transactions are sent to Sentry.

The value of this parameter ranges from 0.0 to 1.0:

• 1.0 means sending all transactions
• 0.5 means sending half of the transactions randomly

For more detailed information on how to configure this parameter, refer to the official Sentry documentation.

For your application to know where to send events, you need to use a DSN (Data Source Name). This address establishes the connection between the application’s SDK and your specific project in the Sentry dashboard.

• If you don’t yet have a project in Sentry, first create a new project.
• Then, go to the Settings section and find and copy the relevant address in the Client Keys (DSN) section.

For more detailed information, refer to the official Sentry documentation.

Each error may come with information that makes its analysis easier. These supplementary data are stored in Sentry as Attachments.

Examples of such attachments include:

• Log files
• Configuration files
• Error-related outputs

The presence of these files can significantly shorten the path to identifying issues for developers.

One of the important tags you can define in the SDK is Environment. This tag specifies in which execution environment of the application an error or transaction occurred. Environments such as:

• development
• testing
• staging
• production

These tags allow you to filter errors more precisely and determine whether an issue pertains to the production version or is only seen in the development environment.

To simplify error management, Sentry displays them as Issues. Each Issue is essentially a collection of similar errors or events that typically occur in a specific area of the code or under similar conditions.

By reviewing an Issue, you can identify the root cause of a problem without needing to examine each event individually.

In Sentry, the concept of Release refers to a specific version of your code deployed in a particular environment.

If you correctly introduce a new Release in the SDK or via the API, Sentry can attribute errors and events occurring in that version to the specific Release. This capability plays a significant role in version-by-version problem analysis.

Sentry SDK is a collection of libraries developed for various languages and frameworks. These tools enable developers to easily integrate Sentry’s capabilities into their applications.

Some supported languages include JavaScript, Python, Java, Go, PHP, .NET, and many others.

SDK use cases include:

• Logging and sending errors to the server
• Defining and sending transactions
• Setting Environment and Release
• Enabling Sampling

To view the complete list of supported SDKs and platforms, visit the official sentry.io website.

One of Sentry’s highly useful features is its alert system. Alerts allow you to be immediately notified when an error occurs.

• Alerts can be defined automatically or manually (Custom).
• Notification methods are configurable: email, Slack, Webhook, etc.

This system ensures that no error goes unnoticed, keeping the development team always informed about the application’s status.

In Sentry’s organizational structure, teams are groups of users who work together on one or more projects. When an error occurs in a project, relevant alerts are sent to the associated team members.

This structure enables:

• Better division of responsibilities
• Faster response to issues
• More effective collaboration among developers