startTransaction method no longer returning transaction

[crice88]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have checked for existing issues https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-javascript/issues
• I have reviewed the documentation https://docs.sentry.io/
• I am using the latest SDK release https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-javascript/releases

How do you use Sentry?

Saas (sentry.io)

Which package are you using?

@sentry/node

SDK Version

6.18.2

Framework Version

No response

Link to Sentry event

No response

Steps to Reproduce

We are using Nestjs and create spanned transactions for logging. Recently upgraded from 6.11.0 to 6.18.2 and began seeing the issue. Here's just a bit of sample usage:

const { method, headers, url } = this.request;
    const transaction = Sentry.startTransaction({
      name: `Route: ${method} ${url}`,
      op: 'transaction'
    });

    Sentry.getCurrentHub().configureScope((scope) => {
      scope.setSpan(transaction);
      scope.setContext('http', {
        method,
        url,
        headers
      });
    });

Transaction is undefined in this instance so a scope is never configured. I have tested the startTransaction method in two separate projects and both are experiencing the same issue. Downgrading library back to 6.11.0 fixes the issue.

Expected Result

startTransaction method should return an instance of transaction so it can be used for proper scoping.

Actual Result

When pulling the scoped span via Sentry.getCurrentHub().getScope()?.getSpan(); I am receiving undefined as the span was never created properly due to the transaction being undefined.

[lobsterkatie]

Hi, @crice88.

This is very odd. startTransaction, when set up correctly, should always return a transaction, so what this says to me is that the guys of the function aren't getting injected the way they should. Here is the code that does that, which runs when @sentry/tracing is imported.

I can't think right now of any change we've made at all recently which would affect that. Would you be able to provide a minimal repro for us to poke at?

[crice88]

This repo is not mine, but is affected with the same issue

If you were to update the sentry SDK to current in the project, you'll see the error being thrown.

[ericjeker]

Thanks @crice88, saw your message on StackOverflow. I am the owner of the Nest.js example. I can reproduce the bug on my side as well. I am not sure what's happening so far. It seems I have another error in my log:

Sentry Logger [Warn]: Extension method startTransaction couldn't be found, doing nothing.

As you said this started after upgrading from 6.11. My repo hasn't changed since Aug 18, 2021.

[geraldosalazar16]

I am also getting the undefined transaction issue for a Nest JS API. In my case it only happens on windows, I tested on a Macbook Air with an M1 chip and transactions where working properly but tested on two PCs (Windows 10 and 11) and I am not able to create transactions. I also got the idea of trying with version 6.11.0 of @sentry/node and transactions started working

[j-elmer123]

I have the same problem here when I tried to implement https://blog.sentry.io/2021/08/31/guest-post-performance-monitoring-in-graphql#solution it seems I have to use version 6.11.0 for @sentry/node @sentry/tracing and @sentry/types for now.

[sionzee]

Same problem, startTransaction returns undefined on the sentry object

[danizord]

Importing the @sentry/tracing package before calling Sentry.startTransaction() fixed the issue for me.

[onurtemizkan]

You can use:
import "@sentry/tracing"
when importing @sentry/node as a temporary workaround while we're working on this.

Name-space imports such as:
import * as Tracing from "@sentry/tracing"
currently don't inject relevant functionality unless you specifically use Tracing somewhere in your project.

[niieani]

Encountered the same problem. Confirming that import "@sentry/tracing" as a workaround fixes the issue.

[j-elmer123]

just a question for this, is this means that this issue is fixed by this? getsentry/sentry-docs#4876 and doesn't need to import @sentry/tracing anymore? @onurtemizkan

[crice88]

@j-elmer123 no, that's just documentation. When a fix has been merged, they'll close this issue.

[SimonSchick]

Encountering the same issue after updating to sentry sdk latest version 6.19.6, this unfortunately caused us some downtime, can you please alter the return type of startTransaction to include | undefined? This would be a temporary indicator so at least some or your users will not be affected.

Adding import '@sentry/tracing'; as an explicit import doesn't seem to affect this either, (we already import parts of it elsewhere in the code base).

[mcrawshaw]

@SimonSchick Sometimes your bundler might be a little too smart and will remove the import statement that has no use. Try import * as Tracing from "@sentry/tracing";, then use it somewhere below like Tracing && true;.

[kpdecker]

Manually reverting eb09c28 solved this for me. @onurtemizkan I can submit a PR to revert, but unsure of the consequences of that.

6.19.4 confirmed good

[simonwinter]

Concur with @kpdecker - 6.19.4 has the issue resolved.

[n1ru4l]

In 6.19.6 having a import "@sentry/tracing"; statement is still mandatory for a normal (unbundled) Node.js application. 😕

[JVMartin]

I'm on 6.19.7 and still have this issue, the result is undefined unless I import @sentry/tracing.

[lforst]

@JVMartin We thought we fixed this in #4955. Can you double check if you have version 6.19.7 in your node_modules (or simply post the output of npm ls @sentry/core)? If yes, we should investigate further.

[JVMartin]

@lforst Yes, 100% sure. Here's the breakdown of what happened...

We were working great in production, then we shipped this upgrade:

-        "@sentry/node": "^6.17.7",
-        "@sentry/tracing": "^6.17.7",
+        "@sentry/node": "^6.19.7",
+        "@sentry/tracing": "^6.19.7",

Production went down because startTransaction started to return undefined.

We updated the file that calls startTransaction with:

+// TODO: This is a workaround; see https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-javascript/issues/4731
+// Check for updates, maybe they have a fix
+import '@sentry/tracing';

And then production recovered.

Here is the full file with the patch included:

import * as Sentry from '@sentry/node';
import { Transaction } from '@sentry/types';
import { ApolloServerPlugin, GraphQLRequestListener } from 'apollo-server-plugin-base';

// TODO: This is a workaround; see https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-javascript/issues/4731
// Check for updates, maybe they have a fix
import '@sentry/tracing';

export interface Context {
  transaction: Transaction;
}

export function createContext(): Context {
  const transaction = Sentry.startTransaction({
    op: 'gql',
    name: 'GraphQLTransaction', // this will be the default name, unless the gql query has a name
  });
  return { transaction };
}

export const SentryPlugin: ApolloServerPlugin<Context> = {
  async requestDidStart(requestContext): Promise<GraphQLRequestListener<Context>> {
    const context = requestContext.context;
    const request = requestContext.request;

    if (request.operationName) {
      // set the transaction Name if we have named queries
      context.transaction.setName(request.operationName);
    }
    return {
      willSendResponse(): any {
        context.transaction.finish();
      },
      executionDidStart(): any {
        return {
          willResolveField({ info }): any {
            // hook for each new resolver
            const span = context.transaction.startChild({
              op: 'resolver',
              description: `${info.parentType.name}.${info.fieldName}`,
            });
            return () => {
              // this will execute once the resolver is finished
              span.finish();
            };
          },
        };
      },
    };
  },
};

^ this file was working fine on 6.17.7 without the import '@sentry/tracing';, but it only works on 6.19.7 with the import added.

> npm ls @sentry/core
[email protected] /home/user/code/api
└─┬ @sentry/[email protected]
  └── @sentry/[email protected]

[lforst]

@JVMartin just checked back with the rest of the team. In short: The way you've set up things right now is the intended and correct way. We have updated the docs to list import '@sentry/tracing'; as a required import statement.

For anyone stumbling onto this issue, please import as follows for tracing to work:

import * as Sentry from "@sentry/node";
import "@sentry/tracing";

[shankie-aa]

FWIW, none of these solutions above helped me until I upgraded all my Sentry packages to 7.1.1

[raoulus]

Still facing this issue with version "@sentry/node": "7.14.2",. Any update on this?

[MichaelSp]

@lforst Even tho it's documented like that, given all the comments and confusion in this ticket, it's rather unexpected.

How about something like this:

import { NodeTracing } "@sentry/tracing";

Sentry.init({
    // ...
    integrations: [new NodeTracing()],
});

Even if its useless and does nothing, but it adds the syntactic sugar to avoid confusion.

[lforst]

@MichaelSp Good idea. Our long-term plan for this is probably to merge the tracing packages into the respective packages and to export some kind of tracing integration as you mentioned. It would be pretty easy to do that for @sentry/node but in @sentry/browser we need to keep CDN bundles and tree-shakability in mind.