Add blog covering complex attributes by lmolkova · Pull Request #8127 · open-telemetry/opentelemetry.io

lmolkova · 2025-10-17T00:16:01Z

Following up on open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification#4485
we want to get more eyes from the OTel community on expanding complex attribute support across all signals.

/cc @trask @pellared @austinlparker

Co-authored-by: Severin Neumann <severin.neumann@altmuehlnet.de> Co-authored-by: Trask Stalnaker <trask.stalnaker@gmail.com>

Copilot

Pull Request Overview

This PR introduces a new blog post announcing support for complex attribute types across all OpenTelemetry signals. The post explains the expansion of support for maps, heterogeneous arrays, byte arrays, and empty values beyond logs to include metrics and traces.

Key changes:

New blog post explaining the rationale and use cases for complex attribute types
Guidance for backend implementers on handling complex attributes
Best practices for when to use complex vs. flat attributes

Co-authored-by: Robert Pająk <pellared@hotmail.com>

Co-authored-by: Trask Stalnaker <trask.stalnaker@gmail.com>

lmolkova · 2025-10-31T20:35:05Z

/fix:refcache

otelbot-docs · 2025-10-31T20:42:33Z

✅ fix:refcache applied successfully in run 18984548222.

pellared

Thanks!

lmolkova · 2025-11-03T22:13:26Z

@open-telemetry/docs-approvers could someone please take a look? thanks!

PS: we (Logs SIG) would like to merge it before KubeCon (next week)

tiffany76

Thanks for the ping, @lmolkova! This post looks great to me. One small change: I think headings work better in the "alternatives" section, so I've made those suggestions.

We should be able to get this published tomorrow.

Co-authored-by: Tiffany Hrabusa <30397949+tiffany76@users.noreply.github.com>

Co-authored-by: Severin Neumann <severin.neumann@altmuehlnet.de> Co-authored-by: Trask Stalnaker <trask.stalnaker@gmail.com> Co-authored-by: Robert Pająk <pellared@hotmail.com> Co-authored-by: otelbot <197425009+otelbot@users.noreply.github.com> Co-authored-by: Tiffany Hrabusa <30397949+tiffany76@users.noreply.github.com>

github-project-automation bot added this to SIG Comms: PRs & Issues Oct 17, 2025

otelbot-docs bot requested a review from a team October 17, 2025 00:16

github-actions bot added the docs:blog An issue requesting a blog post, or a PR for a new blog post label Oct 17, 2025

lmolkova added 2 commits October 17, 2025 15:59

Complex attributes blog

b6e03ff

up

2f10a42

lmolkova force-pushed the complex-attributes-blog branch from 277c6ac to 2f10a42 Compare October 17, 2025 23:00

up

cc45ca5

svrnm reviewed Oct 20, 2025

View reviewed changes

Comment thread content/en/blog/2025/complex-attribute-types.md

trask reviewed Oct 20, 2025

View reviewed changes

Comment thread content/en/blog/2025/complex-attribute-types.md Outdated

Comment thread content/en/blog/2025/complex-attribute-types.md Outdated

Comment thread content/en/blog/2025/complex-attribute-types.md Outdated

Comment thread content/en/blog/2025/complex-attribute-types.md Outdated

Apply suggestions from code review

bcd412d

Co-authored-by: Severin Neumann <severin.neumann@altmuehlnet.de> Co-authored-by: Trask Stalnaker <trask.stalnaker@gmail.com>

otelbot-docs bot requested a review from a team October 23, 2025 21:51

address review feedback

7cdc94d

lmolkova commented Oct 23, 2025

View reviewed changes

Comment thread content/en/blog/2025/complex-attribute-types.md Outdated

Merge branch 'main' into complex-attributes-blog

baf54a1

lmolkova marked this pull request as ready for review October 23, 2025 22:14

lmolkova requested a review from a team as a code owner October 23, 2025 22:14

lmolkova force-pushed the complex-attributes-blog branch 2 times, most recently from d2bfd2c to a10c66f Compare October 23, 2025 22:17

lint

cebea1c

lmolkova force-pushed the complex-attributes-blog branch from a10c66f to cebea1c Compare October 23, 2025 22:18

pellared requested a review from Copilot October 27, 2025 09:24

Copilot AI reviewed Oct 27, 2025

View reviewed changes

Comment thread content/en/blog/2025/complex-attribute-types.md Outdated

pellared reviewed Oct 27, 2025

View reviewed changes

Comment thread content/en/blog/2025/complex-attribute-types.md Outdated

Comment thread content/en/blog/2025/complex-attribute-types.md Outdated

Comment thread content/en/blog/2025/complex-attribute-types.md Outdated

pellared mentioned this pull request Oct 28, 2025

Allow adding new attribute types open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification#4602

Closed

Apply suggestions from code review

ddbb4d7

Co-authored-by: Robert Pająk <pellared@hotmail.com>

lmolkova changed the title ~~Add a blog covering complex attributes~~ Add blog covering complex attributes Oct 31, 2025

lmolkova mentioned this pull request Oct 31, 2025

Extended attributes feedback open-telemetry/community#3119

Closed

review

41aabb0

lmolkova force-pushed the complex-attributes-blog branch from ddbb4d7 to baf54a1 Compare October 31, 2025 20:01

trask reviewed Oct 31, 2025

View reviewed changes

Comment thread content/en/blog/2025/complex-attribute-types.md Outdated

Comment thread content/en/blog/2025/complex-attribute-types.md Outdated

Comment thread content/en/blog/2025/complex-attribute-types.md Outdated

lmolkova and others added 4 commits October 31, 2025 13:04

Apply suggestions from code review

b94cf11

Co-authored-by: Trask Stalnaker <trask.stalnaker@gmail.com>

more review

1666c8b

Merge branch 'main' into complex-attributes-blog

9536b4e

format

b34ea03

lmolkova commented Oct 31, 2025

View reviewed changes

Comment thread content/en/blog/2025/complex-attribute-types.md Outdated

Results from /fix directive

39f8bad

pellared approved these changes Nov 3, 2025

View reviewed changes

tiffany76 approved these changes Nov 5, 2025

View reviewed changes

Comment thread content/en/blog/2025/complex-attribute-types.md Outdated

Comment thread content/en/blog/2025/complex-attribute-types.md Outdated

Comment thread content/en/blog/2025/complex-attribute-types.md Outdated

Comment thread content/en/blog/2025/complex-attribute-types.md Outdated

trask approved these changes Nov 5, 2025

View reviewed changes

lmolkova and others added 2 commits November 5, 2025 08:17

Apply suggestion from @tiffany76

49b30fe

Co-authored-by: Tiffany Hrabusa <30397949+tiffany76@users.noreply.github.com>

Apply suggestion from @tiffany76

394fd3f

Co-authored-by: Tiffany Hrabusa <30397949+tiffany76@users.noreply.github.com>

otelbot-docs bot requested a review from a team November 5, 2025 16:17

lmolkova and others added 3 commits November 5, 2025 08:17

Apply suggestion from @tiffany76

5b7d8fd

Co-authored-by: Tiffany Hrabusa <30397949+tiffany76@users.noreply.github.com>

Apply suggestion from @tiffany76

8312c6b

Co-authored-by: Tiffany Hrabusa <30397949+tiffany76@users.noreply.github.com>

Merge branch 'main' into complex-attributes-blog

20d9d8c

austinlparker approved these changes Nov 5, 2025

View reviewed changes

lmolkova moved this to Ready to be merged in SIG Comms: PRs & Issues Nov 5, 2025

tiffany76 added this pull request to the merge queue Nov 5, 2025

Merged via the queue into open-telemetry:main with commit bc0d2bf Nov 5, 2025
22 checks passed

github-project-automation bot moved this from Ready to be merged to Done in SIG Comms: PRs & Issues Nov 5, 2025

Conversation

lmolkova commented Oct 17, 2025

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Pull Request Overview

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

lmolkova commented Oct 31, 2025

Uh oh!

otelbot-docs bot commented Oct 31, 2025

Uh oh!

pellared left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

lmolkova commented Nov 3, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

tiffany76 left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

7 participants

lmolkova commented Nov 3, 2025 •

edited

Loading