Monitoring App Health and Stability

Tutorial 3 of 5

Introduction

In this tutorial, our main goal is to use Firebase Crashlytics to effectively monitor the health and stability of your web application. Firebase Crashlytics is a lightweight, real-time crash reporter that helps you track, prioritize, and fix stability issues that erode your app quality. By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to understand the metrics provided by Firebase Crashlytics and use them to improve your app's stability.

You will learn:

How to set up Firebase Crashlytics
How to use the Crashlytics dashboard
How to interpret the metrics provided
How to handle and fix crashes

Prerequisites:

Basic understanding of web development
A Firebase account
A web app to monitor

Step-by-Step Guide

In this section, we will go through the steps required to set up Firebase Crashlytics and use it to monitor your app's health and stability.

1. Setting up Firebase Crashlytics:

First, you need to add Firebase to your web app. Head over to the Firebase console, create a new project, and follow the instructions to add Firebase to your web app.

Next, you need to add the Firebase Crashlytics SDK to your app. Install it using npm:

npm install @firebase/crashlytics

Then, initialize it in your app:

import { initializeApp } from 'firebase/app';
import { getCrashlytics } from "firebase/crashlytics";

const app = initializeApp({ /* your firebase config */ });
const crashlytics = getCrashlytics(app);

2. Using the Crashlytics dashboard:

Once Crashlytics is set up, you can access the dashboard in your Firebase console. Here, you will see a list of all the issues your app has encountered, sorted by the impact level.

3. Interpreting the metrics:

Crashlytics provides several metrics, including the number of users affected, the number of crashes, the crash-free users percentage, and more. Use these metrics to identify the most critical issues and prioritize fixes.

4. Handling and fixing crashes:

Firebase Crashlytics provides detailed crash reports that can help you diagnose and fix problems. When a crash occurs, Crashlytics captures the state of your app, generates a report, and sends it to the Firebase console.

Code Examples

Example 1: Logging non-fatal exceptions

With Firebase Crashlytics, you can log non-fatal exceptions. These exceptions are reported to the Firebase console, but they don't cause your app to crash.

import { log } from "firebase/crashlytics";

try {
  // risky operation
} catch (error) {
  log(crashlytics, error.toString());
}

Example 2: Adding custom keys

You can attach custom key-value pairs to your crash reports, which can provide more context about the state of your app at the time of a crash.

import { setCustomKey } from "firebase/crashlytics";

setCustomKey(crashlytics, 'user_id', '123456');

Summary

In this tutorial, we have learned how to use Firebase Crashlytics to monitor the health and stability of your web app. We have covered setting up Firebase Crashlytics, using the Crashlytics dashboard, interpreting the provided metrics, and handling and fixing crashes.

Practice Exercises

Exercise 1:

Set up Firebase Crashlytics for a new web app and explore the Crashlytics dashboard.

Exercise 2:

Simulate a crash in your app and analyze the crash report in the Firebase console.

Exercise 3:

Use custom keys to provide more context for crashes in your app.

Remember, practice is key to mastering any skill. Continue experimenting with Firebase Crashlytics, and you'll become a pro at monitoring app health and stability.