feat: Support clicks and custom event tracing by SpennyNDaJets · Pull Request #432 · launchdarkly/observability-sdk

SpennyNDaJets · 2026-03-25T18:22:22Z

Summary

Support tracing for the following product analytics events

Clicks
PageViews
LD.track

Make sure to add the LD context to each of these traces

Note:

Removes support for otel eventNames
Passes in full url for clicks to better support search

How did you test this change?

Run the react router e2e app
Make sure the client is running

Clicks are recorded with correct info
PageViews are recorded with correct info
Custom events are recorded with correct info

https://www.loom.com/share/e112659086f94a228279a97cc2b690b7

Are there any deployment considerations?

Breaking change: removal of event_names

Note

Medium Risk
Introduces new tracing behavior (click/page-view/track spans) and removes the otel.eventNames configuration, which is a breaking API change and could affect downstream instrumentation expectations.

Overview
Adds product analytics tracing across the observability SDK: click interactions, SPA page views, and LD.track now emit dedicated spans and include the active LaunchDarkly context keys as span attributes.

Replaces the old otel.eventNames knob with a new productAnalytics option (boolean or per-event toggles) and wires this through ObserveSDK/Highlight OTEL setup; LD.track additionally starts a launchdarkly.track span when enabled.

Updates the e2e React Router app with new LDClient demo routes (auto-start + manual-start) and points plugin backends/OTLP endpoints to staging to exercise the new spans.

^{Written by Cursor Bugbot for commit 3a31d36. This will update automatically on new commits. Configure here.}

SpennyNDaJets · 2026-03-25T18:24:43Z

sdk/highlight-run/src/integrations/launchdarkly/index.ts

 export const LD_INITIALIZE_EVENT = '$ld:telemetry:session:init'
 export const LD_TRACK_EVENT = '$ld:telemetry:track'
+export const LD_TRACK_SPAN_NAME = 'launchdarkly.track'


How the name will be displayed in traces

SpennyNDaJets · 2026-03-25T18:25:09Z

sdk/highlight-run/src/plugins/observe.ts

+						})
+					}
+
+					this.observe?.recordLog('LD.track', 'info', trackAttrs)


Do we still want a log?

cursor · 2026-03-26T15:05:57Z

sdk/highlight-run/src/sdk/observe.ts

+	private _productAnalyticsEvents(): ProductAnalyticsEvents {
+		const pa = this._options?.productAnalytics
+		if (pa === false) {
+			return {}


Disabling product analytics still tracks clicks and page views

Medium Severity

When productAnalytics is false, _productAnalyticsEvents() returns {} (empty object). Downstream consumers check config.productAnalyticsEvents?.clicks !== false and config.productAnalyticsEvents?.pageViews !== false, which both evaluate to undefined !== false → true. This means click tracking and page view tracking remain enabled even when the user explicitly opts out by setting productAnalytics: false. The empty object needs to explicitly set clicks: false, pageViews: false, and trackEvents: false for the opt-out to propagate correctly.

Additional Locations (1)

sdk/highlight-run/src/client/index.tsx#L941-L943

This is correct - they are on by default

cursor · 2026-03-26T15:05:57Z

sdk/highlight-run/src/sdk/observe.ts

+			}
+		}
+		return paEvents
+	}


Duplicated _productAnalyticsEvents method across two files

Low Severity

_productAnalyticsEvents() is implemented identically in both ObserveSDK and the Highlight client class. This duplication means any bug fix (such as the productAnalytics: false issue) needs to be applied in two places, increasing the risk of divergent behavior over time. Extracting this into a shared utility function would reduce maintenance burden.

Additional Locations (1)

sdk/highlight-run/src/client/index.tsx#L939-L961

Confused if it needs to be implemented in the highlight class but put it there to be safe

ntiner1 · 2026-03-26T15:24:47Z

sdk/highlight-run/src/integrations/launchdarkly/index.ts

@@ -45,8 +45,13 @@ export const FEATURE_FLAG_VARIATION_INDEX_ATTR = `${FEATURE_FLAG_SCOPE}.result.v
 export const FEATURE_FLAG_APP_ID_ATTR = `${LD_SCOPE}.application.id`
 export const FEATURE_FLAG_APP_VERSION_ATTR = `${LD_SCOPE}.application.version`

+export const PRODUCT_ANALYTICS_SCOPE = 'product_analytics'
+export const PRODUCT_ANALYTICS_CONTEXT_ATTR = `${PRODUCT_ANALYTICS_SCOPE}.context_keys`


question: Do we want the context information under the product_analytics scope? At least in a spans attributes.

I imagine the context being a more generic attribute which we can add to spans across various use cases, so I prefer not locking it into PA even though it fits for this instance.

Maybe context.context_keys.<key>?

Yeah, open to changing this. I wasn't sure how important this was to be unique for processing the traces into the "fact tables", or how overloaded context may be (doesn't look like we are using it currently). May see if @mayberryzane has a preference?

agree that context probably makes more sense than product_analytics since it's not PA specific

ntiner1 · 2026-03-26T15:26:40Z

sdk/highlight-run/src/client/types/observe.ts

-		 * User interaction instrumentation event names to record.
-		 * Defaults to 'click', 'input', 'submit' window events.
-		 */
-		eventNames?: EventName[]


Double checking, this is ok to remove?

Synced with @ccschmitz-launchdarkly and decided that we should remove support for this

SpennyNDaJets · 2026-03-26T17:35:29Z

sdk/highlight-run/src/client/otel/location-change.ts

+			const span = this.tracer.startSpan(LD_PAGE_VIEW_SPAN_NAME, {
+				attributes: {
+					[SemanticAttributes.ATTR_URL_FULL]: currentUrl,
+					'page_view.previous_url': previousUrl,


Is this useful?

mayberryzane · 2026-03-26T17:54:30Z

sdk/highlight-run/src/api/observe.ts

@@ -168,4 +168,6 @@ export interface Observe {
 		environmentMetadata: LDPluginEnvironmentMetadata,
 	): void
 	getHooks?(metadata: LDPluginEnvironmentMetadata): Hook[]
+	setLDContextKeys(contextKeys: Attributes): void
+	getLDContextKeyAttributes(): Attributes | undefined


nit (naming): why is it getLDContextKeyAttributes instead of getLDContextKeys? Or should we call the other one setLDContextKeyAttributes?

I can look into changing this - annoyingly we have to map through the entries to prefix with PRODUCT_ANALYTICS_CONTEXT_ATTR which this function does, so the data in != data out, but maybe not the best place to do so

SpennyNDaJets · 2026-03-26T18:13:20Z

sdk/highlight-run/src/client/types/observe.ts

+	 * Specifies whether to record product analytics events.
+	 * @default true
+	 */
+	productAnalytics?: boolean | ProductAnalyticsEvents


@dyozie-ld for any feedback on api

sdk/highlight-run/src/client/otel/location-change.ts

mayberryzane · 2026-03-26T19:24:39Z

sdk/highlight-run/src/client/otel/location-change.ts

+		this._popstateHandler = () => plugin._checkLocation()
+		window.addEventListener('popstate', this._popstateHandler)
+
+		this._pollInterval = setInterval(() => plugin._checkLocation(), 300)


why is polling necessary in addition to patching the history methods?

I updated to sync with the session replay logic but think the js-core logic had some holes in the patching

/** The location is watched via polling and popstate events because it is possible to miss * navigation at certain points with just popstate. It is also to miss events with polling * because they can happen within the polling interval. * Details on when popstate is called: * https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window/popstate_event#when_popstate_is_sent */

https://github.com/launchdarkly/js-core/blob/main/packages/sdk/browser/src/goals/LocationWatcher.ts#L38-L43

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Cursor Bugbot has reviewed your changes and found 2 potential issues.

There are 4 total unresolved issues (including 2 from previous reviews).

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cursor · 2026-03-27T16:08:04Z

sdk/highlight-run/src/client/index.tsx

+			}
+		}
+		return paEvents
+	}


Duplicated _productAnalyticsEvents method across two files

Medium Severity

The _productAnalyticsEvents() method is identically duplicated in both client/index.tsx and sdk/observe.ts. This duplication increases the risk that a bug fix (like the productAnalytics: false issue) gets applied in one location but missed in the other. Extracting this into a shared utility would avoid that.

Additional Locations (1)

sdk/highlight-run/src/sdk/observe.ts#L119-L141

cursor · 2026-03-27T16:08:04Z

sdk/highlight-run/src/client/index.tsx

 					instrumentations: this.options?.otel?.instrumentations,
-					eventNames: this.options?.otel?.eventNames,
 					getIntegrations: () => [...this._integrations],
+					productAnalyticsEvents: this._productAnalyticsEvents(),


Double PathListener causes duplicate Navigate custom events

Medium Severity

In client/index.tsx, setupBrowserTracing now receives productAnalyticsEvents (defaulting to all enabled), which causes a new LocationChangeInstrumentation to be registered. This instrumentation uses PathListener, which patches history.pushState/replaceState and dispatches locationchange events. But client/index.tsx already registers its own PathListener at line 1072. Two PathListener instances each wrap history methods, so every navigation dispatches locationchange twice. The LocationChangeInstrumentation deduplicates via _lastUrl, but the existing navigate callback has no dedup, producing duplicate "Navigate" custom events.

Additional Locations (1)

sdk/highlight-run/src/client/otel/index.ts#L215-L222

Support clicks and custom event tracing

d27cb40

SpennyNDaJets commented Mar 25, 2026

View reviewed changes

SpennyNDaJets changed the title ~~Feat: Support clicks and custom event tracing~~ feat: Support clicks and custom event tracing Mar 25, 2026

SpennyNDaJets added 3 commits March 26, 2026 10:28

Support page view spans

b2474cf

Update react router e2e project

76ac334

Centralize constants

1a76688

SpennyNDaJets marked this pull request as ready for review March 26, 2026 15:00

SpennyNDaJets requested a review from a team as a code owner March 26, 2026 15:00

cursor bot reviewed Mar 26, 2026

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ntiner1 reviewed Mar 26, 2026

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SpennyNDaJets requested review from Vadman97 and mayberryzane March 26, 2026 17:22

SpennyNDaJets commented Mar 26, 2026

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mayberryzane reviewed Mar 26, 2026

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SpennyNDaJets commented Mar 26, 2026

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Vadman97 requested changes Mar 26, 2026

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sdk/highlight-run/src/client/otel/location-change.ts Show resolved Hide resolved

Use current logic

357e4d7

mayberryzane reviewed Mar 26, 2026

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Lint

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cursor bot reviewed Mar 27, 2026

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SpennyNDaJets commented Mar 25, 2026 • edited by cursor bot Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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Disabling product analytics still tracks clicks and page views

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Duplicated _productAnalyticsEvents method across two files

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Duplicated _productAnalyticsEvents method across two files

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Double PathListener causes duplicate Navigate custom events

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SpennyNDaJets commented Mar 25, 2026 •

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Duplicated `_productAnalyticsEvents` method across two files

Duplicated `_productAnalyticsEvents` method across two files