Merge pull request #4339 from backstage/freben/google-analytics

docs: add a miniature article about observability

.github/styles/vocab.txt

@@ -218,6 +218,7 @@ Spotify
 sqlite
 squidfunk
 src
+stdout
 stefanalund
 subkey
 subtree
@@ -258,6 +259,7 @@ Voi
 Wealthsimple
 Weaveworks
 Webpack
+winston
 www
 WWW
 xyz

docs/plugins/observability.md

@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+---
+id: observability
+title: Observability
+# prettier-ignore
+description: Adding Observability to Your Plugin
+---
+
+This article briefly describes the observability options that are available to a
+Backstage integrator.
+
+## Google Analytics
+
+There is a basic Google Analytics integration built into Backstage. You can
+enable it by adding the following to your app configuration:
+
+```yaml
+app:
+  googleAnalyticsTrackingId: UA-000000-0
+```
+
+Replace the tracking ID with your own.
+
+For more information, learn about Google Analytics
+[here](https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/).
+
+## Logging
+
+The backend supplies a central [winston](https://github.com/winstonjs/winston)
+root logger that plugins are expected to use for their logging needs. In the
+default production setup, it emits structured JSON logs on stdout, with a field
+`"service": "backstage"` and also tagged on a per-plugin basis. Plugins that
+want to more finely specify what part of their processes that emitted the log
+message should add a `"component"` field to do so.
+
+An example log line could look as follows:
+
+```json
+{
+  "service": "backstage",
+  "type": "plugin",
+  "plugin": "catalog",
+  "component": "catalog-all-locations-refresh",
+  "level": "info",
+  "message": "Locations Refresh: Refreshing location bootstrap:bootstrap"
+}
+```
+
+## Health Checks
+
+The example backend in the Backstage repository
+[supplies](https://github.com/backstage/backstage/blob/bc18571b7a742863a770b2a54e785d6bbef7e184/packages/backend/src/index.ts#L99)
+a very basic health check endpoint on the `/healthcheck` route. You may add such
+a handler to your backend as well, and supply your own logic to it that fits
+your particular health checking needs.

microsite/sidebars.json

@@ -129,7 +129,8 @@
         "ids": [
           "plugins/publishing",
           "plugins/publish-private",
-          "plugins/add-to-marketplace"
+          "plugins/add-to-marketplace",
+          "plugins/observability"
         ]
       }
     ],

mkdocs.yml

@@ -80,6 +80,7 @@ nav:
       - Publishing:
           - Open source and npm: 'plugins/publishing.md'
           - Private/internal (non-open source): 'plugins/publish-private.md'
+          - Observability: 'plugins/observability.md'
   - Configuration:
       - Overview: 'conf/index.md'
       - Reading Configuration: 'conf/reading.md'