# Making span names bold & linking transactions

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/making-span-names-bold-linking-transactions/373357>\
**Category:** APM\
**Tags:** java\
**Created:** [January 18, 2025, 4:01pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/making-span-names-bold-linking-transactions/373357 "2025-01-18T16:01:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ca-schue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a4c791/32.png) [@ca-schue](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ca-schue)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2025, 4:01pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/making-span-names-bold-linking-transactions/373357/1 "2025-01-18T16:01:05Z")

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Still exploring how capable elasic apm is of integrating manual instrumentation. Looking at some examples, I could see the name some spans written bold - mostly HTTP related spans, like shown here:

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/d/6/d6888cca940981257993f642adf6ded9fdd242db.png)

Is there any way of influencing this for a custom span created with the OpenTelemetry Java SDK?

I was hoping, this would be possible by "linking" transactions but could not find anything related...

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**Author:** ![Jonas\_Kunz](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jonas_kunz/32/110740_2.png) [@Jonas\_Kunz](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Jonas_Kunz)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 11:52am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/making-span-names-bold-linking-transactions/373357/2 "2025-01-21T11:52:43Z")

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The UI displays transactions (= the entry span into a service) in bold. There is no other way of influencing this rendering.

> I was hoping, this would be possible by "linking" transactions but could not find anything related...

I don't understand what you mean here, could you elaborate more? Is what you are trying somehow related to OpenTelemetry span-links?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ca-schue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a4c791/32.png) [@ca-schue](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ca-schue)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 12:16pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/making-span-names-bold-linking-transactions/373357/3 "2025-01-21T12:16:21Z")

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> [@Jonas\_Kunz](#):
>
> Is what you are trying somehow related to OpenTelemetry span-links?

Thanks, this might be it. What I was trying to refer to was how I could "link" a transaction A inside another transaction B. Meaning transaction B appears as a "bold span" inside trace A.

I guess this applies for the "GET/api", "APIRestController#topProducts", "DispatcherServlet#doGet" and "GET opbeans.views.stats" spans in the screenshot I provided above.