Question about Exporters for JS

[lmcmazh]

We see opentelemetry-exporter-zipkin package under https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js/tree/main/packages, but why in Exporters section in spec-compliance-matrix.md (https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/blob/main/spec-compliance-matrix.md#exporters), the following 4 Zipkin interfaces for JS showing blank box, which means status not known?
Zipkin V1 JSON
Zipkin V1 Thrift
Zipkin V2 JSON
Zipkin V2 Protobuf

Also for OTLP, the matrix shows JS does support it, but the packages are under experimental: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js/tree/main/experimental/packages, so if it is under experimental, is it safe to use it or not yet?

For Jaeger exporter, I saw it has been removed from the matrix, the package of opentelemetry-exporter-jaeger are still there, it will be ended March 2024 as it mentioned? It also suggests to use the experimental package for OTLP.

So we just want to confirm if experimental package for OTLP are good enough to use? how about zipkin package? is it really supported for JS?

[seemk]

Zipkin V2 JSON is supported, I believe the matrix is outdated.

As for OTLP, we have been using these exporters for a long time without any issues, but do note that there was a bug in the latest OTLP JSON exporter (#4216) and the fix is currently waiting for review. The protobuf over gRPC / HTTP are both fine, never had issues with them.

[lmcmazh]

Thanks a lot for your answers!

[pichlermarc]

Hi thanks for reaching out. I tried to anwser all the questions, please let me know if all of them are answered.

We see opentelemetry-exporter-zipkin package under main/packages, but why in Exporters section in spec-compliance-matrix.md (open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification@main/spec-compliance-matrix.md#exporters), the following 4 Zipkin interfaces for JS showing blank box, which means status not known? Zipkin V1 JSON Zipkin V1 Thrift Zipkin V2 JSON Zipkin V2 Protobuf

This is likely an oversight. As the compliance maxtrix lives in another repo they sometimes get out of sync. The exporter predates my time on the project, but if I recall correctly we support Zipkin V2 JSON.

Also for OTLP, the matrix shows JS does support it, but the packages are under experimental: main/experimental/packages, so if it is under experimental, is it safe to use it or not yet?

It is safe to use IF treated as a SpanExporter/PushMetricExporter/LogRecordExporter. The constructor is de-facto stable, however some of the exporter's instance fields like headers and compression may become private in the future (hence the need to treat the instance as a SpanExporter/PushMetricExporter/LogRecordExporter)

For Jaeger exporter, I saw it has been removed from the matrix, the package of opentelemetry-exporter-jaeger are still there, it will be ended March 2024 as it mentioned? It also suggests to use the experimental package for OTLP.

We do intend to relesae OTLP exporters as stable before we formally end support for the Jaeger exporter. If they are not stable by then we will not desupport for the Jaeger Exporter in March 2024

So we just want to confirm if experimental package for OTLP are good enough to use?

It is, % the caveats listed above. The OTLP exporters were listed as experimental as OTLP (the protocol itself) was not stable yet. This has changed recently so we're working towards formally stabilizing the exporters.

how about zipkin package? is it really supported for JS?

The Zipkin package is supported and stable with it's current featureset, and we'll continue supporting it as long as it is required by the opentelmetry specfication. The public interface may only break with a major release.

[pichlermarc]

@lmcmazh closing this issue as completed for now. Please let me know if there's additional questions regarding this topic, happy to re-open the issue then. 🙂