Support adding links to Activity after it is created

[vishweshbankwar]

OpenTelemetry has added spec for supporting link addition to spans after the span is created. PR marking spec as stable - open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification#3887.

This is currently not possible in .NET. Links can only be added when the activity is being created see this

Opening the issue for tracking as supporting this new feature would require addition of new API in System.Diagnostics.DiagnosticSource.

API Proposal

namespace System.Diagnostics
{
    public partial class Activity : IDisposable
    {
        public System.Diagnostics.Activity AddLink(System.Diagnostics.ActivityLink link);
    }
}

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Issue Details

---

OpenTelemetry has added experimental spec for supporting link addition to spans after the span is created. This is currently not possible in .NET. Links can only be added when the activity is being created see this

opening the issue for tracking as supporting this new feature would require addition of new API in System.Diagnostics.DiagnosticSource.

Author:	vishweshbankwar
Assignees:	-
Labels:	area-System.Diagnostics.Tracing
Milestone:	-

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Tagging subscribers to this area: @dotnet/area-system-diagnostics-activity
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Issue Details

---

OpenTelemetry has added experimental spec for supporting link addition to spans after the span is created. This is currently not possible in .NET. Links can only be added when the activity is being created see this

opening the issue for tracking as supporting this new feature would require addition of new API in System.Diagnostics.DiagnosticSource.

Author:	vishweshbankwar
Assignees:	-
Labels:	untriaged, area-System.Diagnostics.Activity
Milestone:	-

[tarekgh]

@vishweshbankwar I have marked this for future release till we get the OTel stable and then we can bring it back to current release as needed.

[hahn-kev]

I'm also interested in this, there's a library that I'd like to enrich an activity with a link but I can't since it's already been created.

[martinjt]

@tarekgh this has now been marked stable in the spec.

open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification#3887

[tarekgh]

https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/blob/main/specification/trace/api.md#link

@vishweshbankwar could you please add the API proposal on the top? I guess this will be a simple like Activity.AddLink(ActivityLike link)

[vishweshbankwar]

https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/blob/main/specification/trace/api.md#link

@vishweshbankwar could you please add the API proposal on the top? I guess this will be a simple like Activity.AddLink(ActivityLike link)

@tarekgh Added.

[antonfirsov]

System.Diagnostics.Activity AddLink(System.Diagnostics.ActivityLink link);

Do we really need AddLink to create & return an activity? Would this cover all activity creation concerns? ActivitySource.CreateActivity has multiple overloads with many args.

[vishweshbankwar]

System.Diagnostics.Activity AddLink(System.Diagnostics.ActivityLink link);

Do we really need AddLink to create & return an activity? Would this cover all activity creation concerns? ActivitySource.CreateActivity has multiple overloads with many args.

@antonfirsov - The proposal is consistent with how the current Add* extensions work

e.g. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.diagnostics.activity.addevent?view=net-8.0

[antonfirsov]

Ok, missed that Activity has fluent APIs.

Anything preventing us from marking this api-ready-for-review? It is a prerequisite for an optimal implementation of #93832, so it would be nice to have a review scheduled soonish.

[bartonjs]

Video

• We generally don't do the fluent pattern, but that's consistent with the type already.
• So, looks good as proposed.

namespace System.Diagnostics
{
    public partial class Activity
    {
        public System.Diagnostics.Activity AddLink(System.Diagnostics.ActivityLink link);
    }
}