External Services shows up as "unknown" if no Request is provided.

[klauspost]

It seems like "External Services" does not use the URL provided if Request is not set:

Simplified usage:

func BenchExternal(ctx context.Context, host string, f func()) {
	tx := newRelicTx(ctx)
	defer newrelic.ExternalSegment{
		StartTime: newrelic.StartSegmentNow(tx),
		URL:       host,
	}.End()
	f()

I know this isn't the recommended way of doing external segments, but when using API packages that is commonly what we have available. The URL field states:

	// If you do not have access to the request, this URL field should be
	// used to indicate the endpoint.
	URL string

In New Relic these all show up as "External service: unknown" when using "abc.def.com" for instance. Are there special requirements we need to fulfill for this field to be transferred?

[willnewrelic]

Hi Klaus

If the URL field is populated, the host is parsed out using the standard library's url.Parse. This function requires the http:// protocol to be present. relevant code. Due to your example "abc.def.com" which does not have a protocol, I'm guessing this is the problem?

This requirement should be better documented. I will fix that for the next release.

[willnewrelic]

1.6.0 released with the following documentation added to ExternalSegment.URL:

"NOTE: If non-empty, this field is parsed using url.Parse and therefore it MUST include the protocol (eg. "http://")".

I hope this helps!