Video: Observability Matters: This Time for Frontend

From Author:

Have you ever had that sinking feeling when your favorite app suddenly stops working? You’re not alone. Frontend teams focus on client-side performance to enhance user experience, where customers spend time and revenue is generated. Tools like RUM and Synthetic Monitoring help, but they're outdated and not sufficient. Say hi to Frontend Observability, a holistic and end-to-end approach to investigate errors and latencies.

This talk has been presented at JSNation US 2024, check out the latest edition of this JavaScript Conference.

Rate this content
Bookmark
Video summary
Hi, everyone! My name is Yash Varma, and I'm a software engineer and computer researcher. I'm an open telemetry enthusiast, working on creating a vendor-neutral observability framework. Today's talk is titled as Observability Matters, this time for frontend. We'll cover the evolution of ZEP, the understanding of observability, current state of front-end monitoring tools, core essence of front-end observability, and front-end observability direction. Observability is about understanding what's happening inside the system based on its internal behavior or output. Front-end developers often lack observability compared to back end developers. Synthetic monitoring and real user monitoring are two common tools used by frontend developers. Front-end observability allows us to understand application performance for different users and situations, connecting the dots and gaining insight into core web vitals and user sessions. It's time to adopt observability as a culture and break down silos between front-end and back-end to better understand the entire user experience.

FAQ

The main takeaway is to rethink observability as a mindset, not just a toolset, and to embrace it as a shared responsibility among engineering teams to enhance user experience and system resilience.

The focus of Yash Varma's recent talk is 'Observability Matters, this time for frontend,' where he discusses the importance of observability in frontend development.

Frontend observability is important because it helps developers understand user interactions and performance issues in real-time, ensuring a better user experience and business outcomes.

Challenges of frontend development include managing complex user interfaces, handling user feedback, and dealing with unexpected issues caused by browser extensions and user behaviors.

Common tools for frontend monitoring include synthetic monitoring for controlled experiments and real user monitoring (RUM) to track actual user interactions and performance.

Synthetic monitoring involves controlled tests to simulate user interactions, while real user monitoring tracks actual user interactions to provide insights into real-world user experiences.

Yash Varma suggests adopting observability as a culture within organizations, breaking down silos between frontend and backend teams to improve overall system resilience.

Yash Varma uses the analogy of a noisy PC fan to explain observability, where the external noise indicates an internal issue like high GPU usage, similar to understanding system behavior through output observations.

Yash Varma is a software engineer and computer researcher who specializes in observability, covering everything from backend performance to databases, and frontend development.

OpenTelemetry is a project under the CNCF (Cloud Native Computing Foundation) that aims to create a vendor-neutral observability framework for logs, metrics, traces, and other signals.

Yash Verma
Yash Verma
24 min
21 Nov, 2024

Comments

Sign in or register to post your comment.
Video transcription
Sign in to access video transcription and chapter summary.

Check out more articles and videos

We constantly think of articles and videos that might spark Git people interest / skill us up or help building a stellar career

A Guide to React Rendering Behavior
React Advanced 2022React Advanced 2022
25 min
A Guide to React Rendering Behavior
Top Content
This transcription provides a brief guide to React rendering behavior. It explains the process of rendering, comparing new and old elements, and the importance of pure rendering without side effects. It also covers topics such as batching and double rendering, optimizing rendering and using context and Redux in React. Overall, it offers valuable insights for developers looking to understand and optimize React rendering.
Speeding Up Your React App With Less JavaScript
React Summit 2023React Summit 2023
32 min
Speeding Up Your React App With Less JavaScript
Top Content
Watch video: Speeding Up Your React App With Less JavaScript
Mishko, the creator of Angular and AngularJS, discusses the challenges of website performance and JavaScript hydration. He explains the differences between client-side and server-side rendering and introduces Quik as a solution for efficient component hydration. Mishko demonstrates examples of state management and intercommunication using Quik. He highlights the performance benefits of using Quik with React and emphasizes the importance of reducing JavaScript size for better performance. Finally, he mentions the use of QUIC in both MPA and SPA applications for improved startup performance.
React Concurrency, Explained
React Summit 2023React Summit 2023
23 min
React Concurrency, Explained
Top Content
Watch video: React Concurrency, Explained
React 18's concurrent rendering, specifically the useTransition hook, optimizes app performance by allowing non-urgent updates to be processed without freezing the UI. However, there are drawbacks such as longer processing time for non-urgent updates and increased CPU usage. The useTransition hook works similarly to throttling or bouncing, making it useful for addressing performance issues caused by multiple small components. Libraries like React Query may require the use of alternative APIs to handle urgent and non-urgent updates effectively.
The Future of Performance Tooling
JSNation 2022JSNation 2022
21 min
The Future of Performance Tooling
Top Content
Today's Talk discusses the future of performance tooling, focusing on user-centric, actionable, and contextual approaches. The introduction highlights Adi Osmani's expertise in performance tools and his passion for DevTools features. The Talk explores the integration of user flows into DevTools and Lighthouse, enabling performance measurement and optimization. It also showcases the import/export feature for user flows and the collaboration potential with Lighthouse. The Talk further delves into the use of flows with other tools like web page test and Cypress, offering cross-browser testing capabilities. The actionable aspect emphasizes the importance of metrics like Interaction to Next Paint and Total Blocking Time, as well as the improvements in Lighthouse and performance debugging tools. Lastly, the Talk emphasizes the iterative nature of performance improvement and the user-centric, actionable, and contextual future of performance tooling.
Optimizing HTML5 Games: 10 Years of Learnings
JS GameDev Summit 2022JS GameDev Summit 2022
33 min
Optimizing HTML5 Games: 10 Years of Learnings
Top Content
Watch video: Optimizing HTML5 Games: 10 Years of Learnings
PlayCanvas is an open-source game engine used by game developers worldwide. Optimization is crucial for HTML5 games, focusing on load times and frame rate. Texture and mesh optimization can significantly reduce download sizes. GLTF and GLB formats offer smaller file sizes and faster parsing times. Compressing game resources and using efficient file formats can improve load times. Framerate optimization and resolution scaling are important for better performance. Managing draw calls and using batching techniques can optimize performance. Browser DevTools, such as Chrome and Firefox, are useful for debugging and profiling. Detecting device performance and optimizing based on specific devices can improve game performance. Apple is making progress with WebGPU implementation. HTML5 games can be shipped to the App Store using Cordova.
How React Compiler Performs on Real Code
React Advanced 2024React Advanced 2024
31 min
How React Compiler Performs on Real Code
Top Content
I'm Nadia, a developer experienced in performance, re-renders, and React. The React team released the React compiler, which eliminates the need for memoization. The compiler optimizes code by automatically memoizing components, props, and hook dependencies. It shows promise in managing changing references and improving performance. Real app testing and synthetic examples have been used to evaluate its effectiveness. The impact on initial load performance is minimal, but further investigation is needed for interactions performance. The React query library simplifies data fetching and caching. The compiler has limitations and may not catch every re-render, especially with external libraries. Enabling the compiler can improve performance but manual memorization is still necessary for optimal results. There are risks of overreliance and messy code, but the compiler can be used file by file or folder by folder with thorough testing. Practice makes incredible cats. Thank you, Nadia!

Workshops on related topic

React Performance Debugging Masterclass
React Summit 2023React Summit 2023
170 min
React Performance Debugging Masterclass
Top Content
Featured WorkshopFree
Ivan Akulov
Ivan Akulov
Ivan’s first attempts at performance debugging were chaotic. He would see a slow interaction, try a random optimization, see that it didn't help, and keep trying other optimizations until he found the right one (or gave up).
Back then, Ivan didn’t know how to use performance devtools well. He would do a recording in Chrome DevTools or React Profiler, poke around it, try clicking random things, and then close it in frustration a few minutes later. Now, Ivan knows exactly where and what to look for. And in this workshop, Ivan will teach you that too.
Here’s how this is going to work. We’ll take a slow app → debug it (using tools like Chrome DevTools, React Profiler, and why-did-you-render) → pinpoint the bottleneck → and then repeat, several times more. We won’t talk about the solutions (in 90% of the cases, it’s just the ol’ regular useMemo() or memo()). But we’ll talk about everything that comes before – and learn how to analyze any React performance problem, step by step.
(Note: This workshop is best suited for engineers who are already familiar with how useMemo() and memo() work – but want to get better at using the performance tools around React. Also, we’ll be covering interaction performance, not load speed, so you won’t hear a word about Lighthouse 🤐)
Building WebApps That Light Up the Internet with QwikCity
JSNation 2023JSNation 2023
170 min
Building WebApps That Light Up the Internet with QwikCity
Featured WorkshopFree
Miško Hevery
Miško Hevery
Building instant-on web applications at scale have been elusive. Real-world sites need tracking, analytics, and complex user interfaces and interactions. We always start with the best intentions but end up with a less-than-ideal site.
QwikCity is a new meta-framework that allows you to build large-scale applications with constant startup-up performance. We will look at how to build a QwikCity application and what makes it unique. The workshop will show you how to set up a QwikCitp project. How routing works with layout. The demo application will fetch data and present it to the user in an editable form. And finally, how one can use authentication. All of the basic parts for any large-scale applications.
Along the way, we will also look at what makes Qwik unique, and how resumability enables constant startup performance no matter the application complexity.
Next.js 13: Data Fetching Strategies
React Day Berlin 2022React Day Berlin 2022
53 min
Next.js 13: Data Fetching Strategies
Top Content
WorkshopFree
Alice De Mauro
Alice De Mauro
- Introduction- Prerequisites for the workshop- Fetching strategies: fundamentals- Fetching strategies – hands-on: fetch API, cache (static VS dynamic), revalidate, suspense (parallel data fetching)- Test your build and serve it on Vercel- Future: Server components VS Client components- Workshop easter egg (unrelated to the topic, calling out accessibility)- Wrapping up
React Performance Debugging
React Advanced 2023React Advanced 2023
148 min
React Performance Debugging
Workshop
Ivan Akulov
Ivan Akulov
Ivan’s first attempts at performance debugging were chaotic. He would see a slow interaction, try a random optimization, see that it didn't help, and keep trying other optimizations until he found the right one (or gave up).
Back then, Ivan didn’t know how to use performance devtools well. He would do a recording in Chrome DevTools or React Profiler, poke around it, try clicking random things, and then close it in frustration a few minutes later. Now, Ivan knows exactly where and what to look for. And in this workshop, Ivan will teach you that too.
Here’s how this is going to work. We’ll take a slow app → debug it (using tools like Chrome DevTools, React Profiler, and why-did-you-render) → pinpoint the bottleneck → and then repeat, several times more. We won’t talk about the solutions (in 90% of the cases, it’s just the ol’ regular useMemo() or memo()). But we’ll talk about everything that comes before – and learn how to analyze any React performance problem, step by step.
(Note: This workshop is best suited for engineers who are already familiar with how useMemo() and memo() work – but want to get better at using the performance tools around React. Also, we’ll be covering interaction performance, not load speed, so you won’t hear a word about Lighthouse 🤐)
High-performance Next.js
React Summit 2022React Summit 2022
50 min
High-performance Next.js
Workshop
Michele Riva
Michele Riva
Next.js is a compelling framework that makes many tasks effortless by providing many out-of-the-box solutions. But as soon as our app needs to scale, it is essential to maintain high performance without compromising maintenance and server costs. In this workshop, we will see how to analyze Next.js performances, resources usage, how to scale it, and how to make the right decisions while writing the application architecture.
Maximize App Performance by Optimizing Web Fonts
Vue.js London 2023Vue.js London 2023
49 min
Maximize App Performance by Optimizing Web Fonts
WorkshopFree
Lazar Nikolov
Lazar Nikolov
You've just landed on a web page and you try to click a certain element, but just before you do, an ad loads on top of it and you end up clicking that thing instead.
That…that’s a layout shift. Everyone, developers and users alike, know that layout shifts are bad. And the later they happen, the more disruptive they are to users. In this workshop we're going to look into how web fonts cause layout shifts and explore a few strategies of loading web fonts without causing big layout shifts.
Table of Contents:What’s CLS and how it’s calculated?How fonts can cause CLS?Font loading strategies for minimizing CLSRecap and conclusion