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Major JavaScript source map updates

Major JavaScript source map updates
Table of Contents

We’re excited to introduce a major update to JavaScript source map support in Rollbar! This update introduces several features unique to Rollbar (source map search, source map failure logs, inline warnings in stack traces) that are critical to anyone using client-side JavaScript in a large-scale, continuous deployment environment.

Why Use Source Maps?

If your application uses client-side javascript, then you’re probably minifying your code to reduce file sizes and improve page load times. The benefits of minified Javascript are clear, but minification also introduces the need for source maps in order to debug errors that were detected in minified code. Without a source map, it's nearly impossible to determine where an error occurred in your Javascript code.

Due to the need for source maps, debugging minified code will always be inherently problematic, but we’ve just introduced several improvements to Rollbar’s source map handling that will make troubleshooting much, much easier.

Something didn’t work right…

When a Rollbar stack trace includes a minified file that doesn’t have a matching source map, you’ll now see an information message that links you to your project’s source map screen where you can further troubleshoot why the source map wasn’t available.

traceback message

View failed source map uploads and downloads

More often than not, you look at your source maps because something didn’t work as expected. You can now see when Rollbar fails to access a source map, including detailed information about what happened.

sourcemap failure

Filter and search your source maps

On large projects with frequent deployments, you may have a lot of source maps generated from a lot of different code versions. With our new search capability, you can find source maps based on code version or filename.

sourcemap search

Easier pruning of old source maps

Finally, we’ve fixed a bug that many of you told us about - When deleting a source map, you will remain on the same page you were previously viewing. This makes it much easier to clean out old source maps that are no longer needed in your project.

Want to learn more about source maps?

Check out our previous blog post Using JavaScript Source Maps to Debug Errors and our detailed source map docs.


If you haven’t already, sign up for a 14-day free trial of Rollbar and let us help you take control of your JavaScript errors.

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