React Native has become the predominant development framework for cross-platform mobile applications. By interacting with native APIs largely under the hood and requiring only a fractional proportion of platform-specific code, it allows you to build applications for iOS, Android, and the browser using the same declarative JavaScript. But this cross-platform adaptability has its downsides. Because errors in React Native applications may originate either in the JavaScript in which the framework is written or in native iOS or Android code, detecting and troubleshooting these errors can be complicated. Error logs from mobile applications typically refer to inscrutable minified or unsymbolicated code, presenting a significant hurdle for troubleshooting. But getting a handle on these errors is critically important, particularly when it comes to crashes: the correlation between unstable applications and churn is well-established, making crash-free sessions a cardinal objective for mobile developers.

We’re pleased to announce that Datadog Crash Reporting and Error Tracking are now available for React Native via Real User Monitoring (RUM). RUM now generates comprehensive human-readable error reports, automatically detects crashes, provides analytics, and alerts on error trends for applications built in React Native. These features supply a wealth of contextual insight, both pinpointing bugs in your JavaScript, native iOS, and native Android code and helping you understand precisely when and where errors have occurred for your users. Onboarding is easy: with a single command to our CLI, source maps for your code will automatically be generated, detected and uploaded to Datadog upon each build of your application.

In this post, we’ll provide an overview of tracking recurring errors and pinpointing bugs with readable reports, as well as alerting on critical errors with Crash Reporting for React Native.

Track recurring errors and pinpoint bugs with readable reports

Once you’ve set up the RUM React Native SDK, Error Tracking will be enabled by default, and the Error Tracking Explorer will provide a detailed overview of any and all errors in your application. Error Tracking enables you to easily identify important application errors by automatically grouping closely related errors into issues.

Datadog Error Tracking now renders stack traces for React Native applications as easy-to-read error reports. With the Datadog React Native Wizard, all relevant source maps (including those for JavaScript, as well as dSYMs for native iOS code and Proguard mapping files for obfuscated native Android code) will be automatically uploaded to Datadog with each build of your React Native application. These source maps allow Datadog to symbolicate your stack traces and unminify your code, creating clear reports that point you directly to the sources of any errors.

RUM provides further insight, giving you detailed visibility into the precise context in which any errors have occurred within the affected user sessions.

The Sessions & Replays view allows you to home in on errors and extensively slice and dice error data by isolating facets. In the context of React Native applications, filtering by the error.source_type facet can be particularly illuminating, since errors in this context may stem from a variety of sources.

Where other tools may only detect JavaScript or native iOS or Android errors, Datadog Error Tracking ensures comprehensive oversight of every potential error source for React Native applications.

Alert on critical errors with Crash Reporting

Vigilance toward crashes, which are a major source of user frustration and churn, is critically important for developers of mobile applications. By enabling Crash Reporting in RUM, you can help to ensure a timely and thoroughgoing response to the most urgent errors in your React Native applications. You can configure Error Tracking Monitors to detect and alert you to new and escalating issues. And RUM Application Overviews can provide valuable insights into crash data to help you determine the precise queries on which to build the most effective monitors.

Quickly get to the root of errors in React Native applications

Debugging React Native applications can be challenging. Crash Reporting and Error Tracking in RUM provide crucial visibility for these applications, with comprehensive, cross-platform error detection and readable error reports. Get started with RUM today to simplify and expedite critical troubleshooting and gain continuous, comprehensive insight into the overall usage and performance of your React Native applications. If you’re brand new to Datadog get started with a 14-day free trial.