dd-trace is OpenTracing compliant. You can use the OpenTracing JavaScript API with dd-trace as the backing implementation.
Setup
const tracer = require('dd-trace').init()
const opentracing = require('opentracing')
opentracing.initGlobalTracer(tracer)
initGlobalTracer, all OpenTracing API calls use dd-trace as the backend:
const opentracing = require('opentracing')
const globalTracer = opentracing.globalTracer()
const span = globalTracer.startSpan('web.request')
span.setTag('http.method', 'GET')
span.finish()
| Tag | Description |
|---|
service.name | The service name for the span. Falls back to the tracer’s service name if not set. |
resource.name | The resource name for the span. Falls back to the operation name if not set. |
span.type | The span type (e.g., web, db, cache, rpc). Falls back to custom if not set. |
const span = opentracing.globalTracer().startSpan('web.request')
span.setTag('service.name', 'my-api')
span.setTag('resource.name', '/users/:id')
span.setTag('span.type', 'web')
Context propagation
Use the OpenTracing inject and extract methods to propagate spans across service boundaries:
const tracer = opentracing.globalTracer()
// Producer: inject span context into headers
const span = tracer.startSpan('http.request')
const carrier = {}
tracer.inject(span.context(), opentracing.FORMAT_HTTP_HEADERS, carrier)
await fetch('https://service-b/api', { headers: carrier })
span.finish()
// Consumer: extract span context from incoming headers
app.use((req, res, next) => {
const parentCtx = tracer.extract(opentracing.FORMAT_HTTP_HEADERS, req.headers)
const span = tracer.startSpan('http.server', {
childOf: parentCtx,
})
// ...
span.finish()
})
| Format constant | String value | Description |
|---|
FORMAT_HTTP_HEADERS | 'http_headers' | HTTP header map |
FORMAT_TEXT_MAP | 'text_map' | Plain text key-value map |
FORMAT_BINARY | 'binary' | Binary buffer |
Migration from OpenTracing
If you are migrating existing OpenTracing instrumentation to use dd-trace directly:
- Replace
opentracing.globalTracer() calls with the dd-trace tracer singleton.
- Replace
tracer.startSpan() / span.finish() with tracer.trace() or tracer.wrap() where possible — these manage span lifecycle automatically.
- Use
span.setTag() or span.addTags() instead of the OpenTracing tag methods.
// Before (OpenTracing)
const span = opentracing.globalTracer().startSpan('operation')
span.setTag('key', 'value')
span.finish()
// After (dd-trace native API)
tracer.trace('operation', span => {
span.setTag('key', 'value')
// span finishes automatically
})
dd-trace extends the OpenTracing Tracer interface. All OpenTracing API methods work correctly. However, using the dd-trace native API (tracer.trace(), tracer.wrap(), tracer.scope()) is recommended for new code, as it provides automatic scope and lifecycle management.
