Dependency data in DependencyMeasurement is not always used

[stijnmoreels]

Describe the bug
When tracking an dependency, you can use the DependencyMeasurement tracking model. This contains a way of specifying a dependency data value, but this value doesn't always corresponds with the dependency data of Application Insights.

To Reproduce
Assign dependency data via the DependencyMeasurement tracking model (DependencyMeasurement.Start(dependencyData: "Process") and look for the dependency data upon logging.

Expected behavior
Passed-allong dependency data matches.

Additional context
Add any other context about the problem here.

• v2.3.0, current master.

[stijnmoreels]

In almost all cases, there is already something passed-along to the dependency data (the table name, in case of Azure Table Storage, for example), which raises the question if we should have a dependency data in the measurement after all...

public static void LogEventHubsDependency(
            this ILogger logger, 
            string namespaceName, 
            string eventHubName, 
            bool isSuccessful, 
            DateTimeOffset startTime, 
            TimeSpan duration, 
            Dictionary<string, object> context = null)
        {
            logger.LogWarning(DependencyFormat, new DependencyLogEntry(
                dependencyType: "Azure Event Hubs",
                dependencyName: eventHubName,
                dependencyData: namespaceName, // <-- already assigned.
                targetName: eventHubName,
                duration: duration,
                startTime: startTime,
                resultCode: null,
                isSuccessful: isSuccessful,
                context: context));
        }

[fgheysels]

Actually, I do not see why you want to add additional dependency - data to the measurement.
The measurement should just measure the duration of the dependency call, and that measurement should be used when writing the dependency tracking to the logger.
At this moment, I do not see a reason why we would have this dependency data in the first place.

On the other hand, is it necessary to remove this right now ?
Also, if we remove this, is there still a reason to differentiate between RequestMeasurement & DependencyMeasurement ? We could create one type Measurement or DurationMeasurement for this.

[stijnmoreels]

Reusability comes to mind. If you want to track several dependencies with the same data.
But otherwise, yeah, something like TelemetryMeasurement can be made instead. 😉

I would want to do this change before the release bc otherwise we end up with RequestMeasurement that would directly be made obsolete.

[fgheysels]

True.

So, how do we agree on this ?
We rename the RequestMeasurement to DurationMeasurement, and use DurationMeasurement also in measuring dependencies , so the DependencyMeasurement class, and methods that use DependencyMeasurement become obsolete ?

[stijnmoreels]

Yes, I think that would be good. It would take a bit of work to mark all those signatures obsolete and create new ones. But yeah, that would be good to do this. 👍

[stijnmoreels]

Ok, let's close this in favor of #283 and #284 .