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+# Porting Guide
+
+## Purpose
+
+Aid developers who wish to port existing datadog (dd-trace-rb) instrumentation adapters to opentelemetry.
+
+## Interface
+
+* There should be a subclass of `OpenTelemetry::Instrumentation::Adapter` that implements its DSL:
+  * Implement `install` block, where all of the integration work happens
+  * Implement `present` block
+  * Optionally, implement `compatible`
+  * See `OpenTelemetry::Instrumentation::Adapter` API documentation for more details
+
+## Basic structure
+
+* Add Gemfile, opentelemetry-adapters-#{name}.gemspec
+* Add runnable (docker) example (using its own Gemfile)
+```
+$ docker-compose run ex-adapter-myinstrumentation bundle install
+$ docker-compose run ex-adapter-myinstrumentation
+bash-5.0$ ruby trace_demonstration.rb
+```
+* Rakefile
+* `tests/test_helper.rb`
+* Integrate rubocop (see https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-ruby/pull/172#pullrequestreview-349183775)
+
+## Examples and template adapters
+
+* `adapters/faraday` and `adapters/sinatra` were the earliest, simplest implementations
+
+## Implementation
+
+* It's ok to use `require_relative` for files that are internal to the project
+* `Span#status` can be set via helper `OpenTelemetry::Trace::Status.http_to_status`
+* Don't load integration implementation (require file) until `install` ('patch')-time
+* Most times, only want to run installation (via `#install`) once, but need to
+  consider being able to `reset` somehow for, e.g., testing
+
+### otel: tracer
+
+* `Tracer` `:name` and `:version` should come from instrumentation/adapter, not from the instrumented library
+
+### otel: span
+
+* Wrap instrumented-library operations in `span` (via `tracer.in_span` (block), or `tracer.start_span` (returns `Span`))
+  * `Span.finish` should be called if using `tracer.start_span`
+* Span `:with_parent` defaults to `current_span`
+
+### otel: span.name (dd-trace-rb: 'resource')
+
+* Prefer "low-cardinality" names (see https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/pull/416)
+
+### otel: span.attributes (dd-trace-rb: 'tags')
+
+* `Span` attribute keys should be strings, *not* symbols
+* `Span` attribute values should be strings, *not* symbols
+* Prefer to populate span attributes via method arguments (e.g., `tracer.in_span(attributes: ...`) instead of `span.set_attribute`
+* Some `Span` attribute naming is based on [semantic conventions](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/blob/master/specification/data-semantic-conventions.md), for example [HTTP semantic conventions](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/blob/master/specification/data-http.md)
+  * When opening a PR, it would be useful to note which attributes come from which semantic conventions, and which ones could not be found
+* `Span` `:kind` defaults to `:internal` (other available options include `:client` or `:server`)
+
+### Runnable example
+
+* Gemfile should include "opentelemetry-adapters-#{adapter_name}"
+
+### Runtime performance considerations
+
+Watch for "low hanging fruit" performance improvements including:
+* reduce object allocations - move to a constant, or cache values that would be generated repeatedly 
+* look for "easy wins" vs. "complete redesigns"
+
+## Testing
+
+* Add tests via minitest (not rspec)
+* Test against multiple versions of instrumented library via `appraisal`
+  * GOTCHA: appraisal-2.2.0 + bundler-2.1.x (at least 2.1.4)
+* Configure `.circleci/config.yml`
+* Try to preserve all applicable tests from dd-trace-rb
+  * Skip tests datadog-specific configurations
+  * Skip tests for things that are not being ported
+
+## Context propagation
+
+* For client-only libraries, just `inject`
+* For server-side libraries, `extract` remote span context from request headers, then start a new span using parent context (e.g., `tracer.in_span(with_parent_context: ...`)
+* Use the plain `http_text_format` rather than `rack_http_text_format`
+
+## Dependencies
+
+* Allow adapter to function when underlying dependency (e.g., `faraday` gem) isn't present
+  * Don't create a hard-dependency on instrumented libraries
+* `opentelemetry-sdk` is only needed for tests
+
+## Translation hints
+
+* `span.set_tag` => `span.set_attribute`
+* `Datadog::Logger.log.debug` => `OpenTelemetry.logger.debug`
+* `span.resource` => ?? possibly `span.attributes[:url]`, etc., possibly ignored
+* `span.service` => `span.name`
+* `span.span_type` => `span.attributes[:component]`
+* `options[:tracer]` => `OpenTelemetry.tracer_factory.tracer` (then, e.g., `Adapter.tracer`)
+
+## Things to ignore (for now)
+
+* Pin ('patch info') -- probably deprecated in dd-trace-rb
+* Configuration option for `:distributed_tracing` (should always be enabled)
+* Deprecation paths
+* Passing spans/information around ENV
+* `Span#set_error`
+* `Contrib::Analytics`
+* Quantization
+
+## TBD (implementation differences)
+
+* set a tag (attribute) value only once (check if set already)?