👩‍🚀 Tracetest Monthly Newsletter - February 2024

*[Join the Slack Community here](https://dub.sh/tracetest-community) to talk all things Tracetest, get instant support from our team, or simply say hi! If you like what we're doing, and haven't already, [leave us a ⭐ on GitHub](https://github.com/kubeshop/tracetest). Thank you for being part of the community. Your support and feedback are invaluable! ❤️*

Hey, Tracetest Community! How’s the beginning of 2024 treating you!?

I have a lot of cool updates to share with you today. Take a look at what's happened in the last month. 👇

## Hot tip of the day!

**Use the new “contains” operator!**

While filtering multiple span selectors at once can yield broader results, it can also become verbose quickly. Using the "contains" operator can help reduce this complexity.

[**👉 Check it out for yourself in the OpenTelemetry Demo environment!**](https://app.tracetest.io/organizations/ttorg_2179a9cd8ba8dfa5/invites/invite_7204842ee8f03fb8/accept)


## What’s New with Tracetest 🎉

[Tracetest Core v0.16.0](https://github.com/kubeshop/tracetest/releases/tag/v0.16.0) was released with new user experience and ease-of-use improvements!

**Handling >1000 spans.** The latest update adds major performance improvements in the UI. The trace viewer will now default to a timeline view when there are more than 200 spans.


**Use external integrations in the test creation flow.** Want to trigger a test with Cypress or Playwright? You can see how directly from the UI.


**Dashboard in Tracetest Agent CLI.** You get better developer experience by seeing which environment you’re connected to, what test is running, and which trace spans are ingested.


## Integrations 🤝

**Playwright Integration**. Test your critical flows with Playwright and leverage both OpenTelemetry and trace-based testing to verify your entire front end AND back end. True end-to-end testing in one Playwright test!

- [Check out the blog post](https://tracetest.io/blog/the-lord-of-playwright-the-two-traces)
- [Try the quick start](https://docs.tracetest.io/tools-and-integrations/playwright)

Check out the video quick start as well. 🔥

[Watch on YouTube.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv38LNleUpE)

And, if you missed the Playwright workshop last month, here’s the recording!

[Watch on YouTube.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmOAZxYdTYw)

**TypeScript Integration**. Programmatically run trace-based tests from JavaScript or TypeScript, allowing for automated setup and execution within code flows!

- [Read the announcement](https://tracetest.io/blog/automating-tracetest-tests-via-typescript-or-javascript)
- [Try the quick start](https://docs.tracetest.io/tools-and-integrations/typescript)

We also have a short video quick start as well.

[Watch on YouTube.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOMjkiwyRzc)

**Cloudflare Workers.** Simplify troubleshooting in your Cloudflare Workers with OpenTelemetry and Tracetest! Get end-to-end visibility in your Serverless architecture by using the power of distributed tracing!

- [Read the tutorial](https://tracetest.io/blog/crafting-observable-cloudflare-workers-with-opentelemetry)
- [Try the quick start](https://docs.tracetest.io/examples-tutorials/recipes/testing-cloudflare-workers-with-opentelemetry-tracetest)

**Creating an Observability Stack with Docker.** Want to validate your observability features locally? This tutorial guides you through setting up an observability stack with Docker. Learn how to send metrics and traces, visualize data, and more.

- [Read the tutorial](https://tracetest.io/blog/building-an-observability-stack-with-docker)

**Testing Services behind an API Gateway.** Testing Distributed Services behind API Gateways like Tyk can be tough due to visibility issues and test failure identification, increasing MTTR. Learn how to use OpenTelemetry to boost visibility, improve production visibility, and testing.

- [Try the quick start](https://docs.tracetest.io/examples-tutorials/recipes/testing-distributed-services-with-tyk-opentelemetry-tracetest)

## Community Highlights

**Upcoming Conferences.**

**KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2024:** Tracetest will be at KubeCon Europe in Paris throughout March 20-22, 2024. Come chat with us at our booth, try out Tracetest, and go back home with some swag. We will also be attending Observability Day on March 19th, the day before the conference, and would love to chat there.


**Past Conferences.**

**FOSDEM 2024**: I had a great time presenting a talk about API observability with my friend Sonja from Tyk! Check out the recording below.

[Watch on YouTube.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_OKmJ9e3xk)

LEAP 2024 — API Observability: Ken and Oscar killed it with their presentation about **“Breaking the chain of blame: True end-to-end testing with distributed tracing”**. [Fill out the form to access the recorded session on-demand!](https://pages.tyk.io/en/leap-observability-conference)

## Like what we do?

**Do you have a specific use case you would like us to cover?**

**Do you want to contribute to Tracetest?** We welcome all contributions!

Not sure where to start? You can:

- Visit our [Community Page](https://tracetest.io/community).
- Check out our contributing guidelines [here](https://github.com/kubeshop/tracetest/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md).
- [Book a meeting](https://calendly.com/ken-kubeshop/45min?month=2023-08) with us or chat with our team on [Slack](https://dub.sh/tracetest-community).

Thank you for being a part of the Tracetest community! We are dedicated to providing the essential tools, knowledge, and resources for success in the tracing and testing field. Let's keep in touch and continue our exploration. Look forward to more exciting updates!

See you next month!

‍