Add blog covering complex attributes #8127
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Oct 20, 2025
trask
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Oct 20, 2025
Co-authored-by: Severin Neumann <severin.neumann@altmuehlnet.de> Co-authored-by: Trask Stalnaker <trask.stalnaker@gmail.com>
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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
pellared
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Oct 27, 2025
Co-authored-by: Robert Pająk <pellared@hotmail.com>
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trask
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Oct 31, 2025
Co-authored-by: Trask Stalnaker <trask.stalnaker@gmail.com>
lmolkova
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Oct 31, 2025
| --- | ||
| title: Announcing Support for Complex Attribute Types in OTel | ||
| linkTitle: Announcing Support for Complex Attribute Types in OTel | ||
| date: 2025-10-25 |
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/fix:refcache |
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✅ |
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@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
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Nov 5, 2025
| Before extending support for complex attributes to all signals, we explored | ||
| several alternatives: | ||
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| **Limiting support to logs (and spans).** |
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Suggested change
| **Limiting support to logs (and spans).** | |
| ### Limiting support to logs (and spans) |
| Having different attribute collection types for different signals affects API | ||
| ergonomics, making it less convenient and efficient to work with attributes. | ||
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| **Flattening.** |
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Suggested change
| **Flattening.** | |
| ### Flattening |
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| Both approaches are limited and lead to a poor user experience. | ||
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| **String serialization.** |
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Suggested change
| **String serialization.** | |
| ### String serialization |
| --- | ||
| title: Announcing Support for Complex Attribute Types in OTel | ||
| linkTitle: Announcing Support for Complex Attribute Types in OTel | ||
| date: 2025-10-25 |
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Suggested change
| date: 2025-10-25 | |
| date: 2025-11-05 |
trask
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Nov 5, 2025
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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