This document describes how you can share with another person or group thedata you are viewing on theTrace Explorer page. For example,you might notice a data anomaly or a trend in your trace data and want anotherperson to examine that data in more detail. Or, there might be errors orunexpected latency values in an individual trace or span that youwant someone to investigate.

This feature is supported only for Google Cloud projects.ForApp Hubconfigurations, select the App Hub host project or management project.

Best practice

To facilitate troubleshooting, we recommend that all people, groups and domainsthat might need to view trace data in a project be granted theCloud Trace User role (roles/cloudtrace.user) on thatproject. This role gives principals the permissions they need to viewtrace data.

Before you begin

To get the permissions that you need to view trace data by using the Google Cloud console, ask your administrator to grant you theCloud Trace User (roles/cloudtrace.user) IAM role on the projects that store your trace data. For more information about granting roles, seeManage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

You might also be able to get the required permissions throughcustom roles or otherpredefined roles.

Share trace data

When you use theTrace Explorer page to explore your trace data,the selections that you make update the URL in your browser. For example, ifyou add filters or set the time range, then the URL to the page is modified.Similarly, if you select a span or a trace, the URL is updated to includethe span ID and trace ID.

Therefore, to share the data you are viewing with another person, copy thepage URL and share it. When the recipient pastes the URL intotheir browser, the settings contained in the URL override any default settingsfor theTrace Explorer page. The displayed data depends on therecipient's IAM roles on the projects referenced by the URL.

To share trace data, do the following:

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to theTrace explorer page:

   Go toTrace explorer

   You can also find this page by using the search bar.

2. In the toolbar of the Google Cloud console,select your Google Cloud project. ForApp Hubconfigurations, select the App Hub host project or management project.

3. Configure theTrace Explorer page to show the data that youwant to share.

   For example, you might want to add filters, update the time-range selector,or change theScope element, which controls which projects are searchedfor trace data.

   If the first menu of theScope element is set toProject or to_Default, thenyour project is searched for trace data. Otherwise, the projects listed inthe trace scope are searched. For more information, seeCreate and manage trace scopes.

   If you want to share the URL for a trace or span,then open theDetails flyout forthat trace or span by doing one of the following:

   • In the toolbar, clickpageviewSearch for traceand then enter the trace ID.

   • Find and select a span.

4. Copy the URL in your browser, and then share that URL.

Troubleshoot

For information about how to resolve problems like a trace missing spansor not seeing any data in theTrace Explorer page, seeTroubleshoot.

What's next

• Find and explore traces
• Create and manage trace scopes
• View traces across projects
• Troubleshoot