feat(browser): Add navigation activationStart timestamp to pageload span (#13658)

Add the navigation performance entry `activationStart` property as a span attribute to the
pageload span. The attribute is called `performance.activationStart` and it is measured in ms
relative to performance.timeOrigin.

Author: Lms24

dev-packages/browser-integration-tests/suites/tracing/metrics/web-vitals/test.ts

@@ -59,23 +59,30 @@ sentryTest('paint web vitals values are greater than TTFB', async ({ browserName
   expect(fpValue).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(ttfbValue!);
 });
 
-sentryTest('captures time origin as span attribute', async ({ getLocalTestPath, page }) => {
-  // Only run in chromium to ensure all vitals are present
-  if (shouldSkipTracingTest()) {
-    sentryTest.skip();
-  }
+sentryTest(
+  'captures time origin and navigation activationStart as span attributes',
+  async ({ getLocalTestPath, page }) => {
+    // Only run in chromium to ensure all vitals are present
+    if (shouldSkipTracingTest()) {
+      sentryTest.skip();
+    }
 
-  const url = await getLocalTestPath({ testDir: __dirname });
-  const [eventData] = await Promise.all([getFirstSentryEnvelopeRequest<Event>(page), page.goto(url)]);
+    const url = await getLocalTestPath({ testDir: __dirname });
+    const [eventData] = await Promise.all([getFirstSentryEnvelopeRequest<Event>(page), page.goto(url)]);
 
-  const timeOriginAttribute = eventData.contexts?.trace?.data?.['performance.timeOrigin'];
-  const transactionStartTimestamp = eventData.start_timestamp;
+    const timeOriginAttribute = eventData.contexts?.trace?.data?.['performance.timeOrigin'];
+    const activationStart = eventData.contexts?.trace?.data?.['performance.activationStart'];
 
-  expect(timeOriginAttribute).toBeDefined();
-  expect(transactionStartTimestamp).toBeDefined();
+    const transactionStartTimestamp = eventData.start_timestamp;
 
-  const delta = Math.abs(transactionStartTimestamp! - timeOriginAttribute);
+    expect(timeOriginAttribute).toBeDefined();
+    expect(transactionStartTimestamp).toBeDefined();
 
-  // The delta should be less than 1ms if this flakes, we should increase the threshold
-  expect(delta).toBeLessThanOrEqual(1);
-});
+    const delta = Math.abs(transactionStartTimestamp! - timeOriginAttribute);
+
+    // The delta should be less than 1ms if this flakes, we should increase the threshold
+    expect(delta).toBeLessThanOrEqual(1);
+
+    expect(activationStart).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(0);
+  },
+);

dev-packages/e2e-tests/test-applications/react-create-hash-router/tests/transactions.test.ts

@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ test('Captures a pageload transaction', async ({ page }) => {
       'sentry.sample_rate': 1,
       'sentry.source': 'route',
       'performance.timeOrigin': expect.any(Number),
+      'performance.activationStart': expect.any(Number),
     },
     op: 'pageload',
     span_id: expect.any(String),

packages/browser-utils/src/metrics/browserMetrics.ts

@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ import {
   addTtfbInstrumentationHandler,
 } from './instrument';
 import { getBrowserPerformanceAPI, isMeasurementValue, msToSec, startAndEndSpan } from './utils';
+import { getActivationStart } from './web-vitals/lib/getActivationStart';
 import { getNavigationEntry } from './web-vitals/lib/getNavigationEntry';
 import { getVisibilityWatcher } from './web-vitals/lib/getVisibilityWatcher';
 
@@ -383,6 +384,14 @@ export function addPerformanceEntries(span: Span, options: AddPerformanceEntries
     // Set timeOrigin which denotes the timestamp which to base the LCP/FCP/FP/TTFB measurements on
     span.setAttribute('performance.timeOrigin', timeOrigin);
 
+    // In prerendering scenarios, where a page might be prefetched and pre-rendered before the user clicks the link,
+    // the navigation starts earlier than when the user clicks it. Web Vitals should always be based on the
+    // user-perceived time, so they are not reported from the actual start of the navigation, but rather from the
+    // time where the user actively started the navigation, for example by clicking a link.
+    // This is user action is called "activation" and the time between navigation and activation is stored in
+    // the `activationStart` attribute of the "navigation" PerformanceEntry.
+    span.setAttribute('performance.activationStart', getActivationStart());
+
     _setWebVitalAttributes(span);
   }