log_to_metric: I can't set the timestamp

[DePinto]

log_to_metric keeps defaulting the output to the current time. I've tried formatting the input multiple ways:

Undesired Output

{"name":"foo","namespace":"bar","timestamp":"2024-08-02T20:11:42.262485106Z","kind":"absolute","gauge":{"value":4.299362}}

Attempt 1

{"file":"sourceFile.json","host":"machine","message":{"foo":4.299362},"source_type":"file","timestamp":"2024-07-02T20:10:31.316053532Z"}

from https://vector.dev/docs/about/under-the-hood/architecture/data-model/log/

Attempt 2

How I normally transform a json log events before sending to log_to_metric.

{"foo":4.299362,"timestamp":"2024-07-02T20:10:31.316053532Z"}

Attempt 3

Grasping at straws, I even tried embedding the timestamp in a tag and transforming after the conversion

  transform-correct-timestamp:
    type: remap
    inputs:
      - transform-log-to-metric-json
    source: |
      .name = .tags.correcttimestamp # Just to test if remap is doing anything
      .timestamp = .tags.correcttimestamp

{
  "name": "2024-07-02T20:10:31.316053532Z",
  "namespace": "bar",
  "tags": {
    "correcttimestamp": "2024-07-02T20:10:31.316053532Z"
  },
  "timestamp": "2024-08-02T20:45:17.633498712Z",
  "kind": "absolute",
  "gauge": {
    "value": 4.299362
  }
}

[jszwedko]

One guess is that the timestamp needs to be parsed using parse_timestamp in a remap transform into a field that is an actual "timestamp" and not a string representation of a timestamp.

[DePinto]

Yep that was it. While sink-console doesn't distinguish between the two, the transform sure does.

Thank you!
🙇