9. Span lifecycle

You can manually create spans by using the Tracer, as shown in the following example:

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

In the preceding example, we could see how to create a new instance of the span. If there is already a span in this thread, it becomes the parent of the new span.

	Important
	Always clean after you create a span. Also, always finish any span that you want to send to Zipkin.

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

Sometimes, you do not want to create a new span but you want to continue one. An example of such a situation might be as follows:

To continue a span, you can use brave.Tracer, as shown in the following example:

// let's assume that we're in a thread Y and we've received
// the `initialSpan` from thread X
Span continuedSpan = this.tracer.toSpan(newSpan.context());
try {
	// ...
	// You can tag a span
	continuedSpan.tag("taxValue", taxValue);
	// ...
	// You can log an event on a span
	continuedSpan.annotate("taxCalculated");
} finally {
	// Once done remember to flush the span. That means that
	// it will get reported but the span itself is not yet finished
	continuedSpan.flush();
}

You might want to start a new span and provide an explicit parent of that span. Assume that the parent of a span is in one thread and you want to start a new span in another thread. In Brave, whenever you call nextSpan(), it creates a span in reference to the span that is currently in scope. You can put the span in scope and then call nextSpan(), as shown in the following example:

// 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 = null;
try (Tracer.SpanInScope ws = this.tracer.withSpanInScope(initialSpan)) {
	newSpan = this.tracer.nextSpan().name("calculateCommission");
	// ...
	// You can tag a span
	newSpan.tag("commissionValue", commissionValue);
	// ...
	// You can log an event on a span
	newSpan.annotate("commissionCalculated");
} finally {
	// Once done remember to finish 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
	if (newSpan != null) {
		newSpan.finish();
	}
}

	Important
	After creating such a span, you must finish it. Otherwise it is not reported (for example, to Zipkin).