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There are a few reasons why Scope attributes are a good idea: - There are 2 known use cases where Scope attributes can solve specific problems: - Add support for [Meter "short_name"](open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification#2422), represented as an attribute of Meter's Scope. - Add support for differentiating the type of data emitted from the scopes that belong to different data domains, e.g. profiling data emitted as log records or client-side data emitted as log records needs to be differentiated so that it can be easily routed and processed differently in the backends. We don't have a good way to handle this today. The type of the data can be recorded as an attribute Logger's Scope. - It makes Scope consistent with other primary data types: Resource, Span, Metric, LogRecord. See additional [discussion here](open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification#2450).
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# Introduce Scope Attributes | ||
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This OTEP adds attributes to the Scope. | ||
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## Motivation | ||
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There are a few reasons why Scope attributes are a good idea: | ||
- There are 2 known use cases where Scope attributes can solve specific problems: | ||
- Add support for [Meter "short_name"](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/pull/2422), | ||
represented as an attribute of Meter's Scope. | ||
- Add support for differentiating the type of data emitted from the scopes that belong | ||
to different data domains, e.g. profiling data emitted as log records or client-side | ||
data emitted as log records needs to be differentiated so that it can be easily | ||
routed and processed differently in the backends. We don't have a good way to handle | ||
this today. The type of the data can be recorded as an attribute Logger's Scope. | ||
- It makes Scope consistent with other primary data types: Resource, Span, Metric, LogRecord. | ||
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See additional [discussion here](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/issues/2450). | ||
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## Explanation | ||
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The following is the summary of proposed changes: | ||
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- Extend OpenTelemetry API to allow specifying Scope attributes when obtaining a Tracer, | ||
Meter or LogEmitter. Scope attributes will be optional. | ||
- Add `attributes` field to the [InstrumentationScope](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-proto/blob/88faab1197a2a105c7da659951e94bc951d37ab9/opentelemetry/proto/common/v1/common.proto#L83) | ||
message of OTLP. | ||
- Telemetry emitted via a Scope-ed Tracer, Meter or LogEmitter will be associated | ||
with the Scope's attributes. | ||
- OTLP Exporter will record the attributes in the InstrumentationScope message. | ||
- Non-OTLP Exporters will record the attributes at the most suitable place in their | ||
corresponding format and prefix the attribute names by `otel.scope.`. | ||
- Create a section for Scope attributes' semantic conventions in the specification. | ||
- When converting from OTLP to other formats OpenTelemetry Collector will record | ||
the attributes at the most suitable place in the target format and prefix the attribute | ||
names by `otel.scope.`. | ||
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## Internal details | ||
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### API Changes | ||
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`Get a Tracer` API will be extended to add the following parameter: | ||
- `attributes` (optional): Specifies the instrumentation scope attributes to associate | ||
with emitted telemetry. | ||
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`Get a Metter` API will be extended to add the following parameter: | ||
- `attributes` (optional): Specifies the instrumentation scope attributes to associate | ||
with emitted telemetry. | ||
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`Get LogEmitter` SDK call will be altered to the following: | ||
Accepts the instrumentation scope name and optional version and attributes and | ||
returns a LogEmitter associated with the instrumentation scope. | ||
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Since the attributes are optional this is a backwards compatible change. | ||
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### OTLP Changes | ||
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The InstrumentationScope message in OTLP will be modified to add 2 new fields: | ||
attributes and dropped_attributes_count: | ||
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```protobuf | ||
message InstrumentationScope { | ||
string name = 1; | ||
string version = 2; | ||
repeated KeyValue attributes = 3; | ||
uint32 dropped_attributes_count = 4; | ||
} | ||
``` | ||
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This change is backwards compatible from OTLP's interoperability perspective. Recipients | ||
of old OTLP versions will not see the Scope attributes and will ignore them, which we | ||
consider acceptable from interoperability perspective. This is aligned with our general | ||
stance on what happens when telemetry sources _add_ new data which old recipients | ||
don't understand: we expect the new data to be safely ignored. | ||
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## Trade-offs and mitigations | ||
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What are some (known!) drawbacks? What are some ways that they might be mitigated? | ||
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Note that mitigations do not need to be complete *solutions*, and that they do not need to be accomplished directly through your proposal. A suggested mitigation may even warrant its own OTEP! | ||
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## Prior art and alternatives | ||
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The [Meter "short_name" PR](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/pull/2422) | ||
had an alternate approach where the "short_name" was added as the only attribute to the | ||
InstrumentationScope. This OTEP's proposal generalizes this and allows arbitrary | ||
attributes which allows them to be used for use cases. | ||
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Differentiating the type of data emitted from the scopes that belong to different data | ||
domains can be alternatively done by recording attributes on the Span, Metric or LogRecord. | ||
However, this will be less efficient since it will require the same attributes to be | ||
specified repeatedly on the wire. It will be also cumbersome to require the callers | ||
to always specify such attributes when creating a Span, Metric or a LogRecord as | ||
opposed to specifying them once when obtaining the Trace, Meter or LogEmitter. | ||
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## Open questions | ||
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- When emitting telemetry in non-OTLP formats is prefixing the attribute names with | ||
`otel.scope` the right approach or we should just record the attributes as is? | ||
The answer to this probably depends on whether we want to see Scope attributes | ||
as a totally separate namespace from Span/Metric/LogRecord attributes (see also next | ||
question). | ||
- Should allow/encourage recording Span/Metric/LogRecord attributes at the Scope level | ||
and when done so do they carry exactly the same semantics as if they were recorded | ||
on Span/Metric/LogRecord? If we allow this do we need to introduce any precendce rules | ||
in case the same attribute is recorded in both places? | ||
The alternate is to disallow this and have completely separate set of semantic | ||
conventions that are allowed for Scope attributes. | ||
- Can all existing APIs in all languages be safely modified to ensure the addition | ||
of the optional attributes is not a breaking change? (It should be, since we did a very | ||
similar change when we [introduced the Scope](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/pull/2276)) | ||
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## Future possibilities | ||
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If this OTEP is accepted we need to then introduce the relevant semantic conventions | ||
that will make the 2 use cases [described earlier](#motivation) possible. |