Use OpenTelemetry to instrument a PHP application and report the trace data of the application - Application Real-Time Monitoring Service

After you use OpenTelemetry to instrument an application and report the trace data to Managed Service for OpenTelemetry, Managed Service for OpenTelemetry starts to monitor the application. You can view the monitoring data of the application such as application topology, traces, abnormal transactions, slow transactions, and SQL analysis. This topic describes how to use OpenTelemetry SDK for PHP to automatically or manually instrument a PHP application and report the trace data of the PHP application.

Prerequisites

To obtain the endpoint of Managed Service for OpenTelemetry, perform the following steps:

Log on to the Managed Service for OpenTelemetry console.
In the left-side navigation pane, click Cluster Configurations. On the page that appears, click the Access point information tab.
In the top navigation bar, select a region. In the Cluster Information section, turn on Show Token.
Set the Client parameter to OpenTelemetry.
Obtain the endpoint of Managed Service for OpenTelemetry in the Related Information column of the table in the lower part.
Note
If your application is deployed in an Alibaba Cloud production environment, use the Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) endpoint. Otherwise, use the public endpoint.

Background information

OpenTelemetry SDK for PHP allows you to automatically or manually instrument a PHP application by using different versions of PHP.

To automatically instrument a PHP application, use PHP 8.0 or later.
To manually instrument a PHP application, use PHP 7.4 or later.

OpenTelemetry SDK for PHP supports automatic instrumentation based on multiple frameworks. For more information, see Registry.

Frameworks based on which OpenTelemetry SDK for PHP supports automatic instrumentation

CodeIgniter Framework
PHP HTTP Async Client
PHP IO
Laravel
MongoDB
PDO
PSR-15 middleware
PSR-18 HTTP clients
PSR-3
Slim
Symfony
WordPress
Yii

Sample code

Download the sample code from php-demo.

Use the OpenTelemetry PHP extension to automatically instrument an application and report trace data

This section describes how to create a PHP application that simulates dice rolling based on the Slim framework. This section also describes how to use OpenTelemetry to automatically instrument the application to report the trace data of the application in a non-intrusive manner. During this process, OpenTelemetry automatically generates trace data and span data.

OpenTelemetry supports automatic instrumentation based on multiple frameworks, including Slim. For more information, see Registry.

Prerequisites

PHP 8.0 or later, Composer, and PHP Extension Community Library (PECL) are installed.

Procedure

Create a dice-rolling application.

Initialize the application.

mkdir <project-name> && cd <project-name>


composer init \
 --no-interaction \
 --stability beta \
 --require slim/slim:"^4" \
 --require slim/psr7:"^1"
composer update

Write the application code.

Create an index.php file in the <project-name> folder and add the following code.

The following sample code simulates a dice-rolling game that rolls a dice and returns a random number in the range of one to six:

<?php
use Psr\Http\Message\ResponseInterface as Response;
use Psr\Http\Message\ServerRequestInterface as Request;
use Slim\Factory\AppFactory;

require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

$app = AppFactory::create();

$app->get('/rolldice', function (Request $request, Response $response) {
 $result = random_int(1,6);
 $response->getBody()->write(strval($result));
 return $response;
});

$app->run();

After you write the application code, run the php -S localhost:8080 command to run the application. Visit http://localhost:8080/rolldice in a browser.

Build the OpenTelemetry PHP extension.
1. Download the tools that are required to build the OpenTelemetry PHP extension.
  - macOS
    brew install gcc make autoconf
  - Linux (apt command)
    sudo apt-get install gcc make autoconf
2. Use PECL to build the OpenTelemetry PHP extension.
```
pecl install opentelemetry
```
  The last few lines of a sample success response are similar to the following output:
```
Build process completed successfully
Installing '/opt/homebrew/Cellar/php/8.2.8/pecl/20220829/opentelemetry.so'
install ok: channel://pecl.php.net/opentelemetry-1.0.0beta6
Extension opentelemetry enabled in php.ini
```
3. Optional. Enable the OpenTelemetry PHP extension.
  If the Extension opentelemetry enabled in php.ini message is returned in the previous step, skip this step.
  Add the following code to the php.ini file:
```
[opentelemetry]
extension=opentelemetry.so
```
4. Verify whether the OpenTelemetry PHP extension is built and enabled.
  - Method 1:
    php -m | grep opentelemetry
    Expected output:
    opentelemetry
  - Method 2
    php --ri opentelemetry
    Expected output:
    opentelemetry opentelemetry support => enabled extension version => 1.0.0beta6
5. Add additional dependencies required for OpenTelemetry SDK for PHP to perform automatic instrumentation on the dice-rolling application.
```
# This operation takes an extended period of time. A large amount of information is displayed in the console.
pecl install grpc


composer config allow-plugins.php-http/discovery false
composer require \
  open-telemetry/sdk \
  open-telemetry/opentelemetry-auto-slim \
  open-telemetry/exporter-otlp \
  php-http/guzzle7-adapter \
  open-telemetry/transport-grpc
```
  - open-telemetry/sdk: the package of OpenTelemetry SDK for PHP.
  - open-telemetry/opentelemetry-auto-slim: the automatic instrumentation plug-in of OpenTelemetry SDK for PHP based on the Slim framework.
  - open-telemetry/exporter-otlp: the dependencies required for OpenTelemetry SDK for PHP to report data over OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP).
Run the application.
1. Run the following commands:
```
env OTEL_PHP_AUTOLOAD_ENABLED=true \
 OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=<your-service-name> \
 OTEL_TRACES_EXPORTER=otlp \
 OTEL_METRICS_EXPORTER=none \
 OTEL_LOGS_EXPORTER=none \
 OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL=grpc \
 OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=<endpoint> \
 OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS=Authentication=<token> \
 OTEL_PROPAGATORS=baggage,tracecontext \
 php -S localhost:8080
```
  - <your-service-name>: the name of your application. Example: php-demo.
  - <endpoint>: the gRPC endpoint that you have obtained in the Prerequisites section. Example: http://tracing-analysis-dc-hz.aliyuncs.com:8090.
  - <token>: the authentication token that you have obtained in the Prerequisites section.
2. Visit the following URL in a browser:
```
http://localhost:8080/rolldice
```
  Each time you access this page, OpenTelemetry automatically generates trace data and reports the trace data to Managed Service for OpenTelemetry.
3. View the trace data.
  Log on to the Managed Service for OpenTelemetry console. On the Applications page, find the application and click its name. On the application details page, view the trace data of the application.

Use OpenTelemery SDK for PHP to manually instrument an application and report trace data

This section describes how to create a PHP application that simulates dice rolling based on the Slim framework. This section also describes how to use OpenTelemetry SDK for PHP to manually instrument the application to report the trace data of the application based on custom settings. During this process, you can create a span in the code and configure the attributes, events, and status for the span.

If automatic instrumentation cannot meet your business requirements or you want to manually add instrumentation based on your business requirements, you can manually instrument an application to report data.

Prerequisites

PHP 7.4 or later, Composer, and PECL are installed.

Procedure

Create a dice-rolling application.

Initialize the application.

mkdir <project-name> && cd <project-name>


composer init \
 --no-interaction \
 --stability beta \
 --require slim/slim:"^4" \
 --require slim/psr7:"^1"
composer update

Write the application code.

Create an index.php file in the <project-name> folder and add the following code.

The following sample code simulates a dice-rolling game that rolls a dice and returns a random number in the range of one to six:

<?php
use Psr\Http\Message\ResponseInterface as Response;
use Psr\Http\Message\ServerRequestInterface as Request;
use Slim\Factory\AppFactory;

require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

$app = AppFactory::create();

$app->get('/rolldice', function (Request $request, Response $response) {
 $result = random_int(1,6);
 $response->getBody()->write(strval($result));
 return $response;
});

$app->run();

After you write the application code, run the php -S localhost:8080 command to run the application. Visit http://localhost:8080/rolldice in a browser.

Add the dependencies of OpenTelemetry SDK for PHP and OpenTelemetry gRPC Explorer.
1. Download the PHP HTTP client library for reporting trace data.
```
composer require guzzlehttp/guzzle
```
2. Download the package of OpenTelemetry SDK for PHP.
```
composer require \
 open-telemetry/sdk \
 open-telemetry/exporter-otlp
```
3. Download the dependencies that are required to report data over gRPC.
```
pecl install grpc # If gRPC is already downloaded and installed, skip this step.
composer require open-telemetry/transport-grpc
```

Write the OpenTelemetry initialization code.

Create an opentelemetry_util.php file in the same directory as the index.php file.

Add the following code to the opentelemetry_util.php file:

<?php

use OpenTelemetry\API\Common\Instrumentation\Globals;
use OpenTelemetry\API\Trace\Propagation\TraceContextPropagator;
use OpenTelemetry\Contrib\Otlp\SpanExporter;
use OpenTelemetry\SDK\Common\Attribute\Attributes;
use OpenTelemetry\SDK\Common\Export\Stream\StreamTransportFactory;
use OpenTelemetry\SDK\Resource\ResourceInfo;
use OpenTelemetry\SDK\Resource\ResourceInfoFactory;
use OpenTelemetry\SDK\Sdk;
use OpenTelemetry\SDK\Trace\Sampler\AlwaysOnSampler;
use OpenTelemetry\SDK\Trace\Sampler\ParentBased;
use OpenTelemetry\SDK\Trace\SpanProcessor\SimpleSpanProcessor;
use OpenTelemetry\SDK\Trace\SpanProcessor\BatchSpanProcessorBuilder;
use OpenTelemetry\SDK\Trace\TracerProvider;
use OpenTelemetry\SemConv\ResourceAttributes;
use OpenTelemetry\Contrib\Grpc\GrpcTransportFactory;
use OpenTelemetry\Contrib\Otlp\OtlpUtil;
use OpenTelemetry\API\Common\Signal\Signals;

// Initialize OpenTelemetry. Specify the application name, export mode of trace data, and endpoint that is used to report trace data, and create a global TracerProvider. You must initialize OpenTelemetry during the initialization of the PHP application.
function initOpenTelemetry()
{ 
 // 1. Specify the information about OpenTelemetry resources.
 $resource = ResourceInfoFactory::emptyResource()->merge(ResourceInfo::create(Attributes::create([
 ResourceAttributes::SERVICE_NAME => '<your-service-name>', # Required. The name of your application. Example: php-manual-demo.
 ResourceAttributes::HOST_NAME => '<your-host-name>' # Optional. The hostname.
 ])));


 // 2. Create a SpanExplorer that is used to export span data to the console.
 // $spanExporter = new SpanExporter(
 // (new StreamTransportFactory())->create('php://stdout', 'application/json')
 // );

 // 2. Create a SpanExplorer that is used to report span data over gRPC.
 $headers = [
 'Authentication' => "<your-token>",
 ];
 $transport = (new GrpcTransportFactory())->create('<grpc-endpoint>' . OtlpUtil::method(Signals::TRACE), 'application/x-protobuf', $headers);
 $spanExporter = new SpanExporter($transport);


 // 3. Create a global TracerProvider that is used to create a tracer.
 $tracerProvider = TracerProvider::builder()
 ->addSpanProcessor(
 (new BatchSpanProcessorBuilder($spanExporter))->build()
 )
 ->setResource($resource)
 ->setSampler(new ParentBased(new AlwaysOnSampler()))
 ->build();

 Sdk::builder()
 ->setTracerProvider($tracerProvider)
 ->setPropagator(TraceContextPropagator::getInstance())
 ->setAutoShutdown(true) // Specifies whether to automatically shut down the TracerProvider when you exit the PHP application. This ensures that all trace data is reported.
 ->buildAndRegisterGlobal(); // Add the TracerProvider to the global configurations.

}
?>

<your-service-name>: the name of your application.
<your-host-name>: the hostname.
<your-token>: the authentication token that is used to report data over gRPC.
<grpc-endpoint>: the endpoint that is used to report data over gRPC.

Modify the application code and use the OpenTelemetry API to create a span.
Import the required packages in the index.php file.

<?php

use OpenTelemetry\API\Common\Instrumentation\Globals;
use OpenTelemetry\SDK\Common\Attribute\Attributes;
use OpenTelemetry\SDK\Trace\TracerProvider;

require __DIR__ . '/opentelemetry_util.php';

Call the initOpenTelemetry method to initialize OpenTelemetry. You must perform this operation during the initialization of the PHP application.

// Initialize OpenTelemetry. Specify the application name, export mode of trace data, and endpoint that is used to report trace data, and create a global TracerProvider.
initOpenTelemetry();

Create a span when you call the rolldice operation.

/**
 * 1. Operation description: simulates a dice-rolling game that rolls a dice and returns a random number in the range of one to six.
 * Create a span, and configure attributes, events, and events with attributes for the span.
 */
$app->get('/rolldice', function (Request $request, Response $response) {
 // Obtain the tracer.
 $tracer = \OpenTelemetry\API\Globals::tracerProvider()->getTracer('my-tracer');
 // Create a span.
 $span = $tracer->spanBuilder("/rolldice")->startSpan();
 // Configure attributes for the span.
 $span->setAttribute("http.method", "GET");
 // Configure events for the span.
 $span->addEvent("Init");
 // Configure events with attributes.
 $eventAttributes = Attributes::create([
 "key1" => "value",
 "key2" => 3.14159,
 ]);

 // The business code.
 $result = random_int(1,6);
 $response->getBody()->write(strval($result));

 $span->addEvent("End");
 // Destroy the span.
 $span->end();

 return $response;
});

Create a nested span.

Create a rolltwodices operation to simulate a dice-rolling game that rolls two dice and returns a random number in the range of one to six.

The following sample code provides an example on how to create a nested span:

$app->get('/rolltwodices', function (Request $request, Response $response) {
 // Obtain the tracer.
 $tracer = \OpenTelemetry\API\Globals::tracerProvider()->getTracer('my-tracer');
 // Create a span.
 $parentSpan = $tracer->spanBuilder("/rolltwodices/parent")->startSpan();
 $scope = $parentSpan->activate();

 $value1 = random_int(1,6);

 $childSpan = $tracer->spanBuilder("/rolltwodices/parent/child")->startSpan();
 
 // The business code.
 $value2 = random_int(1,6);
 $result = "dice1: " . $value1 . ", dice2: " . $value2; 

 // Destroy the span.
 $childSpan->end();
 $parentSpan->end();
 $scope->detach();

 $response->getBody()->write(strval($result));
 return $response;
});

Use a span to record the exceptions that occur in the code.

Create an error operation to simulate a case in which an exception occurs in the operation.

The following sample code provides an example on how to use a span to record the exceptions that occur in the code:

$app->get('/error', function (Request $request, Response $response) {
 // Obtain the tracer.
 $tracer = \OpenTelemetry\API\Globals::tracerProvider()->getTracer('my-tracer');
 // Create a span.
 $span3 = $tracer->spanBuilder("/error")->startSpan();
 try {
 // Simulate a case in which an exception occurs in the code.
 throw new \Exception('exception!');
 } catch (\Throwable $t) {
 // Set the state of the span to error.
 $span3->setStatus(\OpenTelemetry\API\Trace\StatusCode::STATUS_ERROR, "exception in span3!");
 // Record the trace of the stack exception.
 $span3->recordException($t, ['exception.escaped' => true]);
 } finally {
 $span3->end();
 $response->getBody()->write("error");
 return $response;
 }
});

Run the application.
1. Run the following command:
```
php -S localhost:8080
```
2. Visit the following URLs in a browser:
```
http://localhost:8080/rolldice
http://localhost:8080/rolltwodices
http://localhost:8080/error
```
  Each time you access the page, OpenTelemetry generates trace data and reports the trace data to Managed Service for OpenTelemetry.
3. View the trace data.
  Log on to the Managed Service for OpenTelemetry console. On the Applications page, find the application and click its name. On the application details page, view the trace data of the application.