Is there a supported way to access exception events in spans?

[io7m]

Hello!

If I'm implementing the SpanExporter interface, then I'm going to be inspecting spans and the events within those spans. It's possible to access the contents of events via the public EventData interface.

Unfortunately, if an event represents a recorded exception, then it'll be delivered using the AutoValue_ImmutableExceptionEventData class, which is descendant of the ExceptionEventData interface, which isn't public. There doesn't appear to be any other way to get at the exception data via a public API.

Am I missing something?

[jkwatson]

ExceptionEventData is public, it's just in an internal package. I believe (@jack-berg might have better memory here) that we haven't stabilized that interface, as we have been waiting for feedback on whether it works for people. So, you are free to use ExceptionEventData for now, but it almost certainly will change at some point in the future, so you might need to be alert for any changes we might make to it (repackaging, in particular).

[io7m]

The JavaDoc says otherwise:

opentelemetry-java/sdk/trace/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/sdk/trace/internal/data/ExceptionEventData.java

Line 15 in 6fc1d21

* <p>This class is internal and is hence not for public use. Its APIs are unstable and can change

This class is internal and is hence not for public use.

[io7m]

I suppose there's more than one definition of public here. It's public in the language access modifier sense, but it's not public in the sense that it's marked as internal and the documentation says not to use it. 🙂

[jkwatson]

Yes. @jack-berg do you recall if we had plans to promote this to an official public API?

[jack-berg]

I think we've just waiting for feedback, positive or negative. Personally, its simple enough that I'm willing to go out on a limb and stabilize it. Waiting for feedback may be overkill.

[jack-berg]

Opened #6630 to track.