Using Lightrun for Effective Debugging of Third-Party Libraries

Current software development ecosystem relies heavily on open-source libraries and frameworks. Rather than building everything from scratch, developers use third-party libraries to handle standard functionalities, reducing development costs and time. This approach enables developers to concentrate on their application’s unique aspects while relying on tested and established code for routine tasks.

Using third-party libraries has multiple advantages, such as improving efficiency and quality, lowering risks, and accelerating the time-to-market. Managing the software supply chain has become crucial, where software components are sourced from various vendors and integrated into larger systems. Software development is not only about writing code but also managing and integrating multiple sources of software components.

To address these challenges, performing thorough testing and evaluating third-party libraries before integrating them into the codebase is crucial. Developers should also proactively monitor library updates and changes and establish a process to report and resolve any issues. Also, third-party library quality can vary, and community support can be lacking, making it challenging to debug anomalous behavior in third-party libraries.

Common Challenges

Debugging third-party libraries can be a difficult task for developers. Several factors make it challenging.

First, limited documentation can be a significant obstacle. The documentation may be incomplete, outdated, or inaccurate, making it hard to understand the library’s inner workings and logic. Without comprehensive documentation, developers may struggle to identify the root cause of the issues and fix them effectively.

Second, third-party libraries can be updated without warning, leading to a lack of control over the version lifecycle. This is particularly annoying and dangerous when such changes include an API modification. While updates can introduce new features and functionalities, they may also introduce new bugs or incompatibilities, making it challenging to diagnose and fix issues that arise.

Third, while open-source libraries usually include logging, developers usually miss some logs when going deeper during a debugging and troubleshooting session. Adding logs to a third-party library can be complicated, as you need to rebuild it.

Fourth, limited community support can be a significant complication during debugging. Third-party libraries may have little user community or support, making it difficult to find answers to issues that arise during debugging.

Finally, the main issue in debugging third-party libraries is that developers don’t have time to become familiar with the library’s codebase, which can hinder debugging. Not being familiar with the internal code structure or programming patterns used in the library can make it challenging to locate the source of errors or bugs. Developers may need to spend significant time understanding the codebase before they can effectively debug the library.

Lightrun Dynamic Observability for third-party library integration and debugging

Lightrun’s Developer Observability Platform offers a simplified approach to application troubleshooting by streamlining the process of debugging live applications. Lightrun allows developers to instrument logs for remote applications running on production servers. This is accomplished by dynamically adding logs, metrics, and virtual breakpoints without requiring code changes, application restarts, or redeployment. Third-party libraries can benefit from Lightrun’s features as long as the code is loaded in your IDE.

Using Lightrun, developers can overcome some common difficulties associated with debugging third-party components. For instance, the inner workings and application logic can be reverse-engineered and debugged by adding dynamic logs and placing virtual breakpoints triggered by specific code conditions. Furthermore, changes in behavior after a version update can be explored by showing the difference in response payloads and adding performance metrics that measure the execution times of code portions. Lightrun allows you to do all the debugging in the remote environment: reproducing tricky production behaviors on your local machine is no longer necessary, as the debugging can happen directly on the target application.

The findings obtained through Lightrun can be used to open more specific support tickets to the community, leveraging the community knowledge and providing precious hints without requiring other contributors to engage in the full reproduction and debugging of the issue. Open-source contributors usually appreciate a user doing her homework and be more open to helping out.

To provide a seamless debugging experience, Lightrun has been integrated with developer IDEs. This integration allows developers to stay focused on their local environment and use the IDE to download the library source code and use Lightrun to debug it. The platform works as a debugger that can be used anywhere the application is deployed, offering a faster feedback loop during the development and debugging phases.

Conclusions

Achieving seamless integration between third-party libraries and in-house software is critical to software development. This requires developers to troubleshoot the behavior of third-party components and use effective techniques and tools to identify and resolve any issues quickly.

Lightrun is a comprehensive developer observability platform that enables you to add telemetry to live applications, including third-party components. By using Lightrun, you can efficiently address the challenges related to debugging and integration, delivering a better user experience and reducing time to market.

If you want to explore Lightrun further, you can try it out on the playground or book a demo to discover its full capabilities.