Opentelemetry-js: High-cardinality HTTP span names

[pauldraper]

The spans are GET /the/path/123 which are high-cardinality.

Instead, I suggest http.request:GET.

[dyladan]

Spec states http spans specifically should be named after the method (GET, POST, etc) if the route name is not available. https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/blob/master/specification/data-http.md#name

[naseemkullah]

Correct me if I am wrong but I'm under the impression that high cardinality is the point of tracing data?

[dyladan]

Names are not meant to uniquely identify a trace, but a class of traces. for instance, GET /user/:id is a good name, but GET /user/123 is bad because you can't easily search for all traces for the same route. @pauldraper's argument is that if you don't have enough information to get the route name, you should just use http GET rather than using the full URL.

[vmarchaud]

@dyladan Using the route would require to the modify the span after it has been created (inside the express plugin for example).Correct me if i'm wrong but i believe there are no way to do that right now ?

[dyladan]

That is the core issue at question in this issue https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/issues/468

It seems like they're leaning towards keeping updateName but with a different name.

[gecgooden]

I'm interested in picking up this issue, but just wanted to clarify the solution.

I think the change is going to be in the framework plugins (eg express/koa/hapi), having it call updateName on the parent span when it has the route name available.

Also, if that is correct and the change will be in the opentelemetry-js-contrib repo, should this issue be closed or moved over to that repo?

[vmarchaud]

@gecgooden There are some code on the http plugin that should be removed too

[morigs]

Any progress on this? This is critical issue imho.
Are there any suggestions for implementation? Maybe add an option to disable adding path in the span name?

[morigs]

Spec says

Instrumentation MUST NOT default to using URI path as span name

[dyladan]

Assigning @morigs because he opened the PR