ability to capture errors from exporters

[nferch]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

It's not clear to me how one could programmatically capture errors from an exporter, e.g. when the URL or authentication is misconfigured or the endpoint is down.

You can set a logger with diag.setLogger() to log errors which is better than nothing, but without this there will be nothing to indicate a error condition.

Describe the solution you'd like

Exporters could provide an event or callback that gets invoked when there's a fatal error so the application or middleware can act accordingly. Depending on the circumstance, it might want to ignore the error, disable or backoff the exporting, or completely crash the program.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Implementing a DiagLogger that acts when it is asked to log an Error could work, but it seems like a misuse of a Logging interface and places the behavioral logic far from the caller.

I also believe this would be global for all errors in the API, not just errors from an Exporter, or a specific Exporter.

Additional context

Apologies in advance if there's some existing solution for this problem, as I'm a bit new to this implementation.

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[nferch]

Hi,

Any feedback or guidance on this issue?

[olabodeIdowu]

@nferch to capture errors programmatically using OpenTelemetry, you can create an exporter class that integrates with OpenTelemetry's tracing capabilities. This implementation will allow you to track errors when exporting data and invoke appropriate callbacks based on the circumstances.

Below is an example code that demonstrates this concept:

const { trace } = require('@opentelemetry/api');

class Exporter {
    constructor(url, auth, errorCallback = null) {
        this.url = url;
        this.auth = auth;
        this.errorCallback = errorCallback;
        this.tracer = trace.getTracer('exporter');
    }

    async exportData(data) {
        const span = this.tracer.startSpan('exportData');

        try {
            // Simulate a data export attempt
            if (!this.url || !this.auth) {
                throw new Error("URL or Authentication is misconfigured.");
            }

            // Simulate a network error
            if (this.url === "http://down.endpoint") {
                throw new Error("The endpoint is down.");
            }

            // Simulate successful data export
            console.log(`Data exported successfully to ${this.url}.`);
            span.setStatus({ code: 0 }); // OK

        } catch (error) {
            span.setStatus({ code: 2, message: error.message }); // Error
            this.handleError(error);
        } finally {
            span.end();
        }
    }

    handleError(error) {
        console.error(`Error occurred: ${error.message}`);
        if (this.errorCallback) {
            this.errorCallback(error);
        }
    }
}

// Example error handling functions
function ignoreError(error) {
    console.log("Ignoring the error.");
}

function disableExporter(error) {
    console.log("Disabling the exporter due to error.");
}

function crashProgram(error) {
    console.error("Crashing the program due to fatal error.");
    throw new Error(error.message);
}

// Usage example const url = "http://down.endpoint"; // Change this to test different scenarios const auth = "my-auth-token";

// Set the error callback based on the desired behavior const exporter = new Exporter(url, auth, crashProgram);

// Attempt to export data exporter.exportData({ key: "value" });

Explanation:

1. OpenTelemetry Integration: The code uses OpenTelemetry's tracing API to create a span for the exportData operation, allowing you to capture traces and errors.
2. Exporter Class: This class contains methods for configuring the exporter, exporting data, and error handling.
3. exportData Method: This method simulates exporting data and throws errors based on misconfiguration or simulated network conditions. It tracks the status of the operation via spans.
4. Error Handling: The handleError method logs the error and invokes the specified error callback.
5. Error Handling Functions: You can define various functions to handle errors differently, like ignoring them, disabling the exporter, or crashing the program.
6. Usage Example: An instance of the Exporter is created with a potentially faulty URL to demonstrate error handling. You can modify the URL or authentication details to test different scenarios.

Note:

To use this code, you need to have OpenTelemetry set up in your project. Make sure to install the necessary OpenTelemetry packages, such as @opentelemetry/api, and configure the OpenTelemetry SDK as required for your application.