trace-generator is a development utility for testing and debugging OpenTelemetry-based applications. It was developed to be used with the ExplorViz software visualization tool.

The goal is to easily create telemetry data for applications of various sizes and shapes. This is achieved by first generating fake class-based application structures and then generating traces upon those structures in a randomized manner.

Clone this repository:

git clone [REPOSITORY_URL] 

Navigate into the repository folder:

cd trace-generator 

Install npm packages:

pnpm install 

Ports for the frontend and backend can be configured via environment variables in the .env file.

The .env file supports the following variables:

• BACKEND_PORT - Port for the backend server (default: 8079)
• VITE_FRONTEND_PORT - Port for the frontend development server (default: 3000)
• VITE_BACKEND_URL - Backend URL for the frontend proxy (default: http://localhost:8079)

Start both frontend and backend:

pnpm run dev 

Or start them separately:

# Backend only pnpm run dev:backend # Frontend only pnpm run dev:frontend

Open URL in browser. By default, the frontend runs on http://localhost:3000 and the backend on http://localhost:8079 (configurable via .env). Modify parameters as desired, then click Send Trace.

# Build image docker build -t trace-generator . # Run container docker run -p 8079:8079 trace-generator

The following environment variables can be configured when running the Docker container:

• BACKEND_PORT - Port for the backend server (default: 8079)
• OTEL_COLLECTOR_HOSTNAME - OpenTelemetry collector hostname (default: otel-collector)
• OTEL_COLLECTOR_PORT - OpenTelemetry collector port (default: 55678)

Example with custom configuration:

docker run -p 8079:8079 \ -e BACKEND_PORT=8079 \ -e OTEL_COLLECTOR_HOSTNAME=my-collector \ -e OTEL_COLLECTOR_PORT=4317 \ trace-generator

Note: The OpenTelemetry collector URL can also be configured per-request via the frontend form, which will override the default environment variable values for that specific trace generation request.

The backend includes unit tests using Vitest.

# Run all tests pnpm test # Run tests in watch mode pnpm test:watch # Run tests with UI pnpm test:ui # Run tests with coverage pnpm test:coverage