Integrate Events, Exceptions, and Status into Spans

OpenTelemetry (OTEL) provides support for adding Events, Exceptions, and Status into spans.

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Overview

• Basic Event Logging in OpenTelemetry: Captures significant events during a code path’s execution within a trace span, offering insights into specific actions in your application’s workflow.

• Handling Errors with Span Status in OpenTelemetry: Assigns an error status to a trace span when an exception arises, helpful in the identify and troubleshoot issues in distributed systems.

• Recording Errors and Exceptions in OpenTelemetry: Updates a span’s status to reflect errors and logs detailed exception information, providing a comprehensive view of failures for enhanced debugging.

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Adding Events

Events are readable messages that signify “something happening” at a specific moment during a span’s lifecycle. They can be considered as basic logs.

from opentelemetry import trace

current_span = trace.get_current_span()

current_span.add_event("Attempting the operation!")

# Execute the operation

current_span.add_event("Operation completed!")

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Define Span Status

Span status is used to indicate the success or failure of the code executed within the span.

from opentelemetry import trace
from opentelemetry.trace import Status, StatusCode

current_span = trace.get_current_span()

try:
    # operation that might fail
except:
    current_span.set_status(Status(StatusCode.ERROR))

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Log Exceptions in Spans

Recording exceptions when they occur is advisable. This should be done alongside setting the span status.

from opentelemetry import trace
from opentelemetry.trace import Status, StatusCode

current_span = trace.get_current_span()

try:
    # operation that might fail

# Consider catching a more specific exception in your code
except Exception as ex:
    current_span.set_status(Status(StatusCode.ERROR))
    current_span.record_exception(ex)