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Active Support Instrumentation

Active Support is a part of core Rails that provides Ruby language extensions, utilities, and other things. One of the things it includes is an instrumentation API that can be used inside an application to measure certain actions that occur within Ruby code, such as that inside a Rails application or the framework itself. It is not limited to Rails, however. It can be used independently in other Ruby scripts if it is so desired.

In this guide, you will learn how to use the instrumentation API inside of Active Support to measure events inside of Rails and other Ruby code.

After reading this guide, you will know:

  • What instrumentation can provide.
  • How to add a subscriber to a hook.
  • The hooks inside the Rails framework for instrumentation.
  • How to build a custom instrumentation implementation.

Introduction to Instrumentation

The instrumentation API provided by Active Support allows developers to provide hooks which other developers may hook into. There are several of these within the Rails framework. With this API, developers can choose to be notified when certain events occur inside their application or another piece of Ruby code.

For example, there is a hook provided within Active Record that is called every time Active Record uses an SQL query on a database. This hook could be subscribed to, and used to track the number of queries during a certain action. There’s another hook around the processing of an action of a controller. This could be used, for instance, to track how long a specific action has taken.

You are even able to create your own events inside your application which you can later subscribe to.

Subscribing to an Event

Subscribing to an event is easy. Use ActiveSupport::Notifications.subscribe with a block to listen to any notification.

The block receives the following arguments:

  • The name of the event
  • Time when it started
  • Time when it finished
  • A unique ID for the instrumenter that fired the event
  • The payload (described in future sections)
ActiveSupport::Notifications.subscribe "process_action.action_controller" do |name, started, finished, unique_id, data|
  # your own custom stuff
  Rails.logger.info "#{name} Received! (started: #{started}, finished: #{finished})" # process_action.action_controller Received (started: 2019-05-05 13:43:57 -0800, finished: 2019-05-05 13:43:58 -0800)
end

If you are concerned about the accuracy of started and finished to compute a precise elapsed time then use ActiveSupport::Notifications.monotonic_subscribe. The given block would receive the same arguments as above but the started and finished will have values with an accurate monotonic time instead of wall-clock time.

ActiveSupport::Notifications.monotonic_subscribe "process_action.action_controller" do |name, started, finished, unique_id, data|
  # your own custom stuff
  Rails.logger.info "#{name} Received! (started: #{started}, finished: #{finished})" # process_action.action_controller Received (started: 1560978.425334, finished: 1560979.429234)
end

Defining all those block arguments each time can be tedious. You can easily create an ActiveSupport::Notifications::Event from block arguments like this:

ActiveSupport::Notifications.subscribe "process_action.action_controller" do |*args|
  event = ActiveSupport::Notifications::Event.new *args

  event.name      # => "process_action.action_controller"
  event.duration  # => 10 (in milliseconds)
  event.payload   # => {:extra=>information}

  Rails.logger.info "#{event} Received!"
end

You may also pass a block that accepts only one argument, and it will receive an event object:

ActiveSupport::Notifications.subscribe "process_action.action_controller" do |event|
  event.name      # => "process_action.action_controller"
  event.duration  # => 10 (in milliseconds)
  event.payload   # => {:extra=>information}

  Rails.logger.info "#{event} Received!"
end

Most times you only care about the data itself. Here is a shortcut to just get the data.

ActiveSupport::Notifications.subscribe "process_action.action_controller" do |*args|
  data = args.extract_options!
  data # { extra: :information }
end

You may also subscribe to events matching a regular expression. This enables you to subscribe to multiple events at once. Here’s how to subscribe to everything from ActionController.

ActiveSupport::Notifications.subscribe /action_controller/ do |*args|
  # inspect all ActionController events
end

Rails framework hooks

Within the Ruby on Rails framework, there are a number of hooks provided for common events. These are detailed below.

Action Controller

write_fragment.action_controller

Key Value
:key The complete key
{
  key: 'posts/1-dashboard-view'
}

read_fragment.action_controller

Key Value
:key The complete key
{
  key: 'posts/1-dashboard-view'
}

expire_fragment.action_controller

Key Value
:key The complete key
{
  key: 'posts/1-dashboard-view'
}

exist_fragment?.action_controller

Key Value
:key The complete key
{
  key: 'posts/1-dashboard-view'
}

start_processing.action_controller

Key Value
:controller The controller name
:action The action
:params Hash of request parameters without any filtered parameter
:headers Request headers
:format html/js/json/xml etc
:method HTTP request verb
:path Request path
{
  controller: "PostsController",
  action: "new",
  params: { "action" => "new", "controller" => "posts" },
  headers: #<ActionDispatch::Http::Headers:0x0055a67a519b88>,
  format: :html,
  method: "GET",
  path: "/posts/new"
}

process_action.action_controller

Key Value
:controller The controller name
:action The action
:params Hash of request parameters without any filtered parameter
:headers Request headers
:format html/js/json/xml etc
:method HTTP request verb
:path Request path
:request The ActionDispatch::Request
:response The ActionDispatch::Response
:status HTTP status code
:view_runtime Amount spent in view in ms
:db_runtime Amount spent executing database queries in ms
{
  controller: "PostsController",
  action: "index",
  params: {"action" => "index", "controller" => "posts"},
  headers: #<ActionDispatch::Http::Headers:0x0055a67a519b88>,
  format: :html,
  method: "GET",
  path: "/posts",
  request: #<ActionDispatch::Request:0x00007ff1cb9bd7b8>,
  response: #<ActionDispatch::Response:0x00007f8521841ec8>,
  status: 200,
  view_runtime: 46.848,
  db_runtime: 0.157
}

send_file.action_controller

Key Value
:path Complete path to the file

INFO. Additional keys may be added by the caller.

send_data.action_controller

ActionController does not add any specific information to the payload. All options are passed through to the payload.

redirect_to.action_controller

Key Value
:status HTTP response code
:location URL to redirect to
:request The ActionDispatch::Request
{
  status: 302,
  location: "http://localhost:3000/posts/new",
  request: #<ActionDispatch::Request:0x00007ff1cb9bd7b8>
}

halted_callback.action_controller

Key Value
:filter Filter that halted the action
{
  filter: ":halting_filter"
}

unpermitted_parameters.action_controller

Key Value
:keys The unpermitted keys
:context Hash with the following keys: :controller, :action, :params, :request

Action Dispatch

process_middleware.action_dispatch

Key Value
:middleware Name of the middleware

redirect.action_dispatch

Key Value
:status HTTP response code
:location URL to redirect to
:request The ActionDispatch::Request

Action View

render_template.action_view

Key Value
:identifier Full path to template
:layout Applicable layout
:locals Local variables passed to template
{
  identifier: "/Users/adam/projects/notifications/app/views/posts/index.html.erb",
  layout: "layouts/application",
  locals: {foo: "bar"}
}

render_partial.action_view

Key Value
:identifier Full path to template
:locals Local variables passed to template
{
  identifier: "/Users/adam/projects/notifications/app/views/posts/_form.html.erb",
  locals: {foo: "bar"}
}

render_collection.action_view

Key Value
:identifier Full path to template
:count Size of collection
:cache_hits Number of partials fetched from cache

:cache_hits is only included if the collection is rendered with cached: true.

{
  identifier: "/Users/adam/projects/notifications/app/views/posts/_post.html.erb",
  count: 3,
  cache_hits: 0
}

render_layout.action_view

Key Value
:identifier Full path to template
{
  identifier: "/Users/adam/projects/notifications/app/views/layouts/application.html.erb"
}

Active Record

sql.active_record

Key Value
:sql SQL statement
:name Name of the operation
:connection Connection object
:binds Bind parameters
:type_casted_binds Typecasted bind parameters
:statement_name SQL Statement name
:cached true is added when cached queries used

INFO. The adapters will add their own data as well.

{
  sql: "SELECT \"posts\".* FROM \"posts\" ",
  name: "Post Load",
  connection: #<ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::SQLite3Adapter:0x00007f9f7a838850>,
  binds: [#<ActiveModel::Attribute::WithCastValue:0x00007fe19d15dc00>],
  type_casted_binds: [11],
  statement_name: nil
}

instantiation.active_record

Key Value
:record_count Number of records that instantiated
:class_name Record’s class
{
  record_count: 1,
  class_name: "User"
}

Action Mailer

deliver.action_mailer

Key Value
:mailer Name of the mailer class
:message_id ID of the message, generated by the Mail gem
:subject Subject of the mail
:to To address(es) of the mail
:from From address of the mail
:bcc BCC addresses of the mail
:cc CC addresses of the mail
:date Date of the mail
:mail The encoded form of the mail
:perform_deliveries Whether delivery of this message is performed or not
{
  mailer: "Notification",
  message_id: "4f5b5491f1774_181b23fc3d4434d38138e5@mba.local.mail",
  subject: "Rails Guides",
  to: ["users@rails.com", "dhh@rails.com"],
  from: ["me@rails.com"],
  date: Sat, 10 Mar 2012 14:18:09 +0100,
  mail: "...", # omitted for brevity
  perform_deliveries: true
}

process.action_mailer

Key Value
:mailer Name of the mailer class
:action The action
:args The arguments
{
  mailer: "Notification",
  action: "welcome_email",
  args: []
}

Active Support

cache_read.active_support

Key Value
:key Key used in the store
:store Name of the store class
:hit If this read is a hit
:super_operation :fetch is added when a read is used with #fetch

cache_generate.active_support

This event is only used when #fetch is called with a block.

Key Value
:key Key used in the store
:store Name of the store class

INFO. Options passed to fetch will be merged with the payload when writing to the store

{
  key: "name-of-complicated-computation",
  store: "ActiveSupport::Cache::MemCacheStore"
}

cache_fetch_hit.active_support

This event is only used when #fetch is called with a block.

Key Value
:key Key used in the store
:store Name of the store class

INFO. Options passed to fetch will be merged with the payload.

{
  key: "name-of-complicated-computation",
  store: "ActiveSupport::Cache::MemCacheStore"
}

cache_write.active_support

Key Value
:key Key used in the store
:store Name of the store class

INFO. Cache stores may add their own keys

{
  key: "name-of-complicated-computation",
  store: "ActiveSupport::Cache::MemCacheStore"
}

cache_delete.active_support

Key Value
:key Key used in the store
:store Name of the store class
{
  key: "name-of-complicated-computation",
  store: "ActiveSupport::Cache::MemCacheStore"
}

cache_exist?.active_support

Key Value
:key Key used in the store
:store Name of the store class
{
  key: "name-of-complicated-computation",
  store: "ActiveSupport::Cache::MemCacheStore"
}

Active Job

enqueue_at.active_job

Key Value
:adapter QueueAdapter object processing the job
:job Job object

enqueue.active_job

Key Value
:adapter QueueAdapter object processing the job
:job Job object

enqueue_retry.active_job

Key Value
:job Job object
:adapter QueueAdapter object processing the job
:error The error that caused the retry
:wait The delay of the retry

perform_start.active_job

Key Value
:adapter QueueAdapter object processing the job
:job Job object

perform.active_job

Key Value
:adapter QueueAdapter object processing the job
:job Job object
:db_runtime Amount spent executing database queries in ms

retry_stopped.active_job

Key Value
:adapter QueueAdapter object processing the job
:job Job object
:error The error that caused the retry

discard.active_job

Key Value
:adapter QueueAdapter object processing the job
:job Job object
:error The error that caused the discard

Action Cable

perform_action.action_cable

Key Value
:channel_class Name of the channel class
:action The action
:data A hash of data

transmit.action_cable

Key Value
:channel_class Name of the channel class
:data A hash of data
:via Via

transmit_subscription_confirmation.action_cable

Key Value
:channel_class Name of the channel class

transmit_subscription_rejection.action_cable

Key Value
:channel_class Name of the channel class

broadcast.action_cable

Key Value
:broadcasting A named broadcasting
:message A hash of message
:coder The coder

Active Storage

service_upload.active_storage

Key Value
:key Secure token
:service Name of the service
:checksum Checksum to ensure integrity

service_streaming_download.active_storage

Key Value
:key Secure token
:service Name of the service

service_download_chunk.active_storage

Key Value
:key Secure token
:service Name of the service
:range Byte range attempted to be read

service_download.active_storage

Key Value
:key Secure token
:service Name of the service

service_delete.active_storage

Key Value
:key Secure token
:service Name of the service

service_delete_prefixed.active_storage

Key Value
:prefix Key prefix
:service Name of the service

service_exist.active_storage

Key Value
:key Secure token
:service Name of the service
:exist File or blob exists or not

service_url.active_storage

Key Value
:key Secure token
:service Name of the service
:url Generated URL

service_update_metadata.active_storage

Key Value
:key Secure token
:service Name of the service
:content_type HTTP Content-Type field
:disposition HTTP Content-Disposition field

INFO. The only ActiveStorage service that provides this hook so far is GCS.

preview.active_storage

Key Value
:key Secure token

transform.active_storage

analyze.active_storage

Key Value
:analyzer Name of analyzer e.g., ffprobe

Action Mailbox

process.action_mailbox

Key Value
:mailbox Instance of the Mailbox class inheriting from ActionMailbox::Base
:inbound_email Hash with data about the inbound email being processed
{
  mailbox: #<RepliesMailbox:0x00007f9f7a8388>,
  inbound_email: {
    id: 1,
    message_id: "0CB459E0-0336-41DA-BC88-E6E28C697DDB@37signals.com",
    status: "processing"
  }
}

Railties

load_config_initializer.railties

Key Value
:initializer Path to loaded initializer from config/initializers

Rails

deprecation.rails

Key Value
:message The deprecation warning
:callstack Where the deprecation came from

Exceptions

If an exception happens during any instrumentation the payload will include information about it.

Key Value
:exception An array of two elements. Exception class name and the message
:exception_object The exception object

Creating Custom Events

Adding your own events is easy as well. ActiveSupport::Notifications will take care of all the heavy lifting for you. Simply call instrument with a name, payload and a block. The notification will be sent after the block returns. ActiveSupport will generate the start and end times and add the instrumenter’s unique ID. All data passed into the instrument call will make it into the payload.

Here’s an example:

ActiveSupport::Notifications.instrument "my.custom.event", this: :data do
  # do your custom stuff here
end

Now you can listen to this event with:

ActiveSupport::Notifications.subscribe "my.custom.event" do |name, started, finished, unique_id, data|
  puts data.inspect # {:this=>:data}
end

You also have the option to call instrument without passing a block. This lets you leverage the instrumentation infrastructure for other messaging uses.

ActiveSupport::Notifications.instrument "my.custom.event", this: :data

ActiveSupport::Notifications.subscribe "my.custom.event" do |name, started, finished, unique_id, data|
  puts data.inspect # {:this=>:data}
end

You should follow Rails conventions when defining your own events. The format is: event.library. If your application is sending Tweets, you should create an event named tweet.twitter.