6. Span lifecycle

You can manually create spans by using the Tracer interface.

// Start a span. If there was a span present in this thread it will become
// the `newSpan`'s parent.
Span newSpan = this.tracer.createSpan("calculateTax");
try {
	// ...
	// You can tag a span
	this.tracer.addTag("taxValue", taxValue);
	// ...
	// You can log an event on a span
	newSpan.logEvent("taxCalculated");
} finally {
	// Once done remember to close the span. This will allow collecting
	// the span to send it to Zipkin
	this.tracer.close(newSpan);
}

In this example we could see how to create a new instance of span. Assuming that there already was a span present in this thread then it would become the parent of that span.

	Important
	Always clean after you create a span! Don’t forget to close a span if you want to send it to Zipkin.

	Important
	If your span contains a name greater than 50 chars, then that name will be truncated to 50 chars. Your names have to be explicit and concrete. Big names lead to latency issues and sometimes even thrown exceptions.

Sometimes you don’t want to create a new span but you want to continue one. Example of such a situation might be (of course it all depends on the use-case):

The continued instance of span is equal to the one that it continues:

Span continuedSpan = this.tracer.continueSpan(spanToContinue);
assertThat(continuedSpan).isEqualTo(spanToContinue);

To continue a span you can use the Tracer interface.

// let's assume that we're in a thread Y and we've received
// the `initialSpan` from thread X
Span continuedSpan = this.tracer.continueSpan(initialSpan);
try {
	// ...
	// You can tag a span
	this.tracer.addTag("taxValue", taxValue);
	// ...
	// You can log an event on a span
	continuedSpan.logEvent("taxCalculated");
} finally {
	// Once done remember to detach the span. That way you'll
	// safely remove it from the current thread without closing it
	this.tracer.detach(continuedSpan);
}

	Important
	Always clean after you create a span! Don’t forget to detach a span if some work was done started in one thread (e.g. thread X) and it’s waiting for other threads (e.g. Y, Z) to finish. Then the spans in the threads Y, Z should be detached at the end of their work. When the results are collected the span in thread X should be closed.

There is a possibility that you want to start a new span and provide an explicit parent of that span. Let’s assume that the parent of a span is in one thread and you want to start a new span in another thread. The startSpan method of the Tracer interface is the method you are looking for.

// let's assume that we're in a thread Y and we've received
// the `initialSpan` from thread X. `initialSpan` will be the parent
// of the `newSpan`
Span newSpan = this.tracer.createSpan("calculateCommission", initialSpan);
try {
	// ...
	// You can tag a span
	this.tracer.addTag("commissionValue", commissionValue);
	// ...
	// You can log an event on a span
	newSpan.logEvent("commissionCalculated");
} finally {
	// Once done remember to close the span. This will allow collecting
	// the span to send it to Zipkin. The tags and events set on the
	// newSpan will not be present on the parent
	this.tracer.close(newSpan);
}

	Important
	After having created such a span remember to close it. Otherwise you will see a lot of warnings in your logs related to the fact that you have a span present in the current thread other than the one you’re trying to close. What’s worse your spans won’t get closed properly thus will not get collected to Zipkin.