When you build a full stack application, it has many moving parts. You have the front-end where users interact, the back-end where logic happens, and the database where data is stored. If something goes wrong, it can be hard to find where the problem is. This is why monitoring your application is important.

One of the best tools for this is OpenTelemetry. It helps you comprehend how your app is performing by collecting data from different parts of your system. This blog will explain what OpenTelemetry is, why it’s useful, and how to use it in your full stack applications.

If you’re learning in a full stack developer course in Hyderabad, this is a great topic to explore because it teaches you how to build better apps that are easy to monitor and fix.

What Is OpenTelemetry?

It is an open-source project that aid developers monitor their applications. It collects three types of information:

  1. Traces – the path a request takes through your app
  2. Metrics – numbers like memory usage, request time, and errors
  3. Logs – messages your app writes while running

With OpenTelemetry, you can see what happens from the moment a user clicks a button to the time a response is sent from your server.

This is useful because it helps you:

  • Find bugs faster
  • Improve app performance
  • Understand user behavior
  • Reduce downtime

It works with multiple programming languages and tools like Node.js, JavaScript, Python, and more. It also works with many cloud platforms and databases.

Why Use OpenTelemetry in Full Stack Apps?

In a full stack app, there are usually many systems working together. You might have:

  • A front-end built in React or Angular
  • A back-end using Node.js or Express
  • A database like MongoDB or PostgreSQL
  • APIs or microservices
  • Third-party services like payment or email

When something goes wrong, it’s not easy to know where the issue is. OpenTelemetry helps you follow the journey of a user request across all parts of the app. This is called end-to-end monitoring.

If you’re enrolled in a developer course, you’ll learn how important it is to make sure apps are not only functional but also reliable and easy to maintain. Monitoring tools like OpenTelemetry make that possible.

How OpenTelemetry Works

OpenTelemetry works by using instrumentation. This means it watches your code while it runs and collects information about what’s happening.

Here’s how it works step by step:

  1. Instrumentation: Add OpenTelemetry code to your app so it knows what to monitor.
  2. Collection: It collects traces, metrics, and logs as your app runs.
  3. Exporting: It sends the collected data to a monitoring tool like Jaeger, Prometheus, or Grafana.
  4. Visualization: These tools show the data in graphs and charts so you can understand it easily.

You can set up OpenTelemetry in both the front-end and the back-end to get a full picture of how your app works.

Tools That Work With OpenTelemetry

OpenTelemetry works with many tools. Here are some common ones:

  • Jaeger: For viewing traces
  • Prometheus: For storing and showing metrics
  • Grafana: For creating dashboards and alerts
  • Zipkin: For tracking requests across systems
  • DataDog, New Relic, AWS X-Ray: Cloud services that support OpenTelemetry

These tools help you see things like:

  • How long requests take
  • Which API routes are slow
  • Where errors are happening
  • Which part of your app is using too much memory

If you’re part of a developer course in Hyderabad, your instructors might show you how to use these tools together with OpenTelemetry to monitor live applications.

How to Add OpenTelemetry to Your Back-End (Node.js Example)

Here’s a simple way to set up OpenTelemetry in a Node.js app:

Step 1: Install Packages

npm install @opentelemetry/api @opentelemetry/sdk-node @opentelemetry/instrumentation-http @opentelemetry/exporter-jaeger

Step 2: Create a File otel.js

const { NodeSDK } = require(‘@opentelemetry/sdk-node’);

const { JaegerExporter } = require(‘@opentelemetry/exporter-jaeger’);

const sdk = new NodeSDK({

traceExporter: new JaegerExporter({

serviceName: ‘my-fullstack-app’

}),

});

sdk.start();

Step 3: Start OpenTelemetry Before Your App

In your index.js or server.js, load the otel.js file first.

require(‘./otel’);

const express = require(‘express’);

const app = express();

Now your back-end is sending tracing data to Jaeger.

How to Monitor the Front-End

You can also monitor your React or Angular app using OpenTelemetry. This helps you see how long pages take to load or where users face issues.

For React:

  1. Install the browser SDK:
    npm install @opentelemetry/api @opentelemetry/sdk-trace-web
  2. In your main file (e.g., index.js):

import { WebTracerProvider } from ‘@opentelemetry/sdk-trace-web’;

import { ConsoleSpanExporter, SimpleSpanProcessor } from ‘@opentelemetry/sdk-trace-base’;

const provider = new WebTracerProvider();

provider.addSpanProcessor(new SimpleSpanProcessor(new ConsoleSpanExporter()));

provider.register();

  1. Now you can add custom traces when users click buttons or navigate pages.

This setup logs data to the browser console. You can also connect it to a cloud exporter to view the data in a dashboard.

Best Practices When Using OpenTelemetry

To make the most of OpenTelemetry, follow these tips:

  • Only collect what you need. Too much data can slow your app.
  • Use tags to group traces and metrics. For example, tag user ID, route name, or product ID.
  • Set up alerts for things like high error rates or slow responses.
  • Always test your monitoring in development before going live.
  • Clean up unused or outdated code.

These best practices are often taught in a full stack developer course so students learn how to keep their code clean and apps efficient.

Benefits of End-to-End Monitoring

Here’s why end-to-end monitoring is useful:

  1. Faster Debugging: Find problems quickly across your entire app.
  2. Better Performance: See what’s slowing down your app.
  3. Happier Users: Fix issues before users complain.
  4. Smarter Decisions: Use data to decide where to improve your app.
  5. Team Collaboration: Front-end and back-end teams can work better together.

Monitoring is not just for big companies. Even small apps can benefit from understanding what’s going on behind the scenes.

Real-World Example

Let’s say you have a shopping app. A user clicks “Buy Now” and nothing happens. Without monitoring, it’s hard to know why. Is it the front-end? The API? The payment service?

With OpenTelemetry, you can trace the request:

  • It left the front-end in 30ms
  • It reached the server in 200ms
  • It failed at the payment API due to a timeout

Now you know the problem and can fix it quickly.

Final Thoughts

OpenTelemetry is a powerful tool for full stack developers. It helps you collect important data about your app and understand how it works from end to end.

In this blog, we learned what OpenTelemetry is, how it works, and how to add it to full stack apps. We also looked at the tools it works with and how it helps you build better apps.

If you’re serious about becoming a full stack developer, learning tools like OpenTelemetry will set you apart. A good developer course in Hyderabad will include lessons on how to monitor and debug apps using modern tools like this.

Start small. Add monitoring to one part of your app. Then expand it step by step. The more you know about how your app runs, the better you can make it.

Keep learning, keep building, and don’t be afraid to try new tools. OpenTelemetry is a smart choice for any full stack developer.

Contact Us:

Name: ExcelR – Full Stack Developer Course in Hyderabad

Address: Unispace Building, 4th-floor Plot No.47 48,49, 2, Street Number 1, Patrika Nagar, Madhapur, Hyderabad, Telangana 500081

Phone: 087924 83183