Install and initialize the native mobile trackers

iOS

The Snowplow iOS Tracker SDK supports iOS 11.0+, macOS 10.13+, tvOS 12.0+, watchOS 6.0+, and visionOS 1.0+. It can be used both in Swift as well as in Objective-C code.

Installing

The iOS Tracker SDK can be installed using various dependency managers.

Swift Package Manager (Recommended)

To install Snowplow Tracker with SPM:

1. In Xcode, select File > Swift Packages > Add Package Dependency.
2. Add the url where to download the library: https://github.com/snowplow/snowplow-ios-tracker

Cocoapods

To install Snowplow Tracker with Cocoapods:

1. Make sure that Cocoapods is installed on your system and correctly configured for your app.

2. Add the iOS Tracker SDK among the dependencies of your Podfile:

   ruby

   pod 'SnowplowTracker', '~> 6.0'

3. Run the command pod install to add the tracker to your app project.

note

Support for installing the tracker using Carthage was dropped in version 5 of the tracker.

Setting up

Once the tracker SDK is correctly set as a dependency in your app project you have to instrument the tracker:

1. In your application delegate AppDelegate.swift add import SnowplowTracker.

2. In the application(_:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:) method, set up the SDK as follows:

   swift

   let tracker = Snowplow.createTracker(namespace: "appTracker", endpoint: "https://snowplow-collector-url.com")

   The URL path for your collector endpoint should include the protocol, "http" or "https". If not included in the URL, "https" connection will be used by default.

3. It creates a tracker instance which can be used to track events like this:

   swift

   let event = ScreenView(name: "screen_name")
   tracker.track(event)

   If you prefer to access the tracker when the reference is not directly accessible, you can use the defaultTracker :

   swift

   Snowplow.defaultTracker()?.track(event)

You can override the default configuration with a fine grained configuration when you create the tracker. See the API docs for more details.

swift

Snowplow.createTracker(namespace: "appTracker", endpoint: "https://snowplow-collector-url.com") {
  TrackerConfiguration()
      .appId("appId")
      .devicePlatform(.mobile)
      .base64Encoding(true)
      .logLevel(.off)
      .loggerDelegate(nil)
      .applicationContext(true)
      .platformContext(true)
      .platformContextProperties(nil)
      .platformContextRetriever(nil)
      .geoLocationContext(false)
      .sessionContext(true)
      .deepLinkContext(true)
      .screenContext(true)
      .screenViewAutotracking(true)
      .screenEngagementAutotracking(true)
      .lifecycleAutotracking(true)
      .installAutotracking(true)
      .exceptionAutotracking(true)
      .diagnosticAutotracking(false)
      .userAnonymisation(false)
      .immersiveSpaceContext(true)
      .advertisingIdentifierRetriever(nil)
  SessionConfiguration(
      foregroundTimeout: Measurement(value: 30, unit: .minutes),
      backgroundTimeout: Measurement(value: 30, unit: .minutes)
  )
      .continueSessionOnRestart(false)
}

The createTracker method allows the creation of multiple trackers in the same app. The namespace field lets you distinguish events sent by a specific tracker instance. It is mandatory even when the app uses just a single tracker instance like in the example above.

note

The trackers created with the above method are configured "locally" only. To create a tracker where the configuration can be updated through downloaded files, read this page about remote configuration.

The Examples Github repository includes demo apps for Swift and Objective-C covering the most popular dependencies managers. They are provided as simple reference apps to help you set up the tracker.

Android (Kotlin)

The Android Tracker SDK supports Android 5 (API level 21+).

Installing

The Android Tracker SDK can be installed using Gradle.

Gradle

Add into your build.gradle file:

gradle

dependencies {
  ...
  implementation 'com.snowplowanalytics:snowplow-android-tracker:6.+'
  ...
}

No other dependencies are required to track events. However, some optional dependencies can be added:

• InstallReferrer to enable the referrer context entity of the ApplicationInstall event.
• Play Services dependencies for tracking the app set ID and AAID.

Setting up

Once the tracker SDK is correctly set as a dependency in your app project you have to instrument the tracker:

1. In your Application subclass, set up the SDK as follows:

   kotlin

   val tracker = Snowplow.createTracker(
       applicationContext, // Android context (LocalContext.current in Compose apps)
       "appTracker", // namespace
       "https://snowplow-collector-url.com" // Event collector URL
   )

   The URL path for your collector endpoint should include the protocol, "http" or "https". If not included in the URL, "https" connection will be used by default.

2. It creates a tracker instance which can be used to track events like this:

   kotlin

   val event = ScreenView("screen_name")
   tracker.track(event)

If you prefer to access the tracker when the reference is not directly accessible, you can use the defaultTracker :

kotlin

Snowplow.defaultTracker?.track(event)

You can override the default configuration with a fine grained configuration when you create the tracker. See the Android API docs for more details.

kotlin

val networkConfig = NetworkConfiguration(
    "https://snowplow-collector-url.com",
    HttpMethod.POST
)
val trackerConfig = TrackerConfiguration("appId")
    .devicePlatform(DevicePlatform.Mobile)
    .base64encoding(true)
    .logLevel(LogLevel.OFF)
    .loggerDelegate(null)
    .applicationContext(true)
    .platformContext(true)
    .geoLocationContext(false)
    .sessionContext(true)
    .deepLinkContext(true)
    .screenContext(true)
    .screenViewAutotracking(true)
    .screenEngagementAutotracking(true)
    .lifecycleAutotracking(true)
    .installAutotracking(true)
    .exceptionAutotracking(true)
    .diagnosticAutotracking(false)
    .userAnonymisation(false)
    .platformContextProperties(null)
    .platformContextRetriever(null)
val sessionConfig = SessionConfiguration(
    TimeMeasure(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS),
    TimeMeasure(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
)
    .continueSessionOnRestart(false)
createTracker(
    applicationContext,
    "appTracker",
    networkConfig,
    trackerConfig,
    sessionConfig
)

note

The trackers created with the above method are configured "locally" only. To create a tracker where the configuration can be updated through downloaded files, read this page about remote configuration.

The Android tracker Github repository includes demo apps in Java, Kotlin, and Kotlin with Jetpack Compose. They are provided as simple reference apps to help you set up the tracker.

Using the tracker with R8 optimization

Depending on your app configuration, you may need to add ProGuard rules to prevent the R8 compiler removing code needed for tracker function. Fetching certain platform context properties - AAID and app set ID - uses reflection. To include the necessary classes, add the following rules to the app's proguard-rules.pro file.

# Reflection for the appSetId
-keep class com.google.android.gms.appset.AppSet { *; }
-keep class com.google.android.gms.appset.AppSetIdInfo { *; }
-keep class com.google.android.gms.internal.appset.zzr { *; }
-keep class com.google.android.gms.tasks.Tasks { *; }

# Reflection for the AAID (AndroidIdfa)
-keep class com.google.android.gms.ads.identifier.** { *; }

Android (Java)

The Android Tracker SDK supports Android 5 (API level 21+).

Installing

The Android Tracker SDK can be installed using Gradle.

Gradle

Add into your build.gradle file:

gradle

dependencies {
  ...
  implementation 'com.snowplowanalytics:snowplow-android-tracker:6.+'
  ...
}

No other dependencies are required to track events. However, some optional dependencies can be added:

• InstallReferrer to enable the referrer context entity of the ApplicationInstall event.
• Play Services dependencies for tracking the app set ID and AAID.

Setting up

Once the tracker SDK is correctly set as a dependency in your app project you have to instrument the tracker:

1. In your Application subclass, set up the SDK as follows:

   java

   TrackerController tracker = Snowplow.createTracker(
         getApplicationContext(), // Android context
         "appTracker", // namespace
         "https://snowplow-collector-url.com" // Event collector URL
   );

   The URL path for your collector endpoint should include the protocol, "http" or "https". If not included in the URL, "https" connection will be used by default.

2. It creates a tracker instance which can be used to track events like this:

   java

   Event event = new ScreenView("screen_name");
   tracker.track(event);

If you prefer to access the tracker when the reference is not directly accessible, you can use the defaultTracker :

java

Snowplow.getDefaultTracker().track(event);

You can override the default configuration with a fine grained configuration when you create the tracker. See the Android API docs for the Configuration classes to see all the options and defaults.

java

NetworkConfiguration networkConfig = new NetworkConfiguration(
    "https://snowplow-collector-url.com",
    HttpMethod.POST
);
TrackerConfiguration trackerConfig = new TrackerConfiguration("appId")
    .base64encoding(false)
    .sessionContext(true)
    .platformContext(true)
    .lifecycleAutotracking(true)
    .screenViewAutotracking(true)
    .screenContext(true)
    .applicationContext(true)
    .exceptionAutotracking(true)
    .installAutotracking(true)
    .userAnonymisation(false)
    .logLevel(LogLevel.OFF);
SessionConfiguration sessionConfig = new SessionConfiguration(
    new TimeMeasure(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS),
    new TimeMeasure(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
)
    .continueSessionOnRestart(false);
Snowplow.createTracker(
    getApplicationContext(),
    "appTracker",
    networkConfig,
    trackerConfig,
    sessionConfig
);

note

The trackers created with the above method are configured "locally" only. To create a tracker where the configuration can be updated through downloaded files, read this page about remote configuration.

The Android tracker Github repository includes demo apps in Java, Kotlin, and Kotlin with Jetpack Compose. They are provided as simple reference apps to help you set up the tracker.

Using the tracker with R8 optimization

Depending on your app configuration, you may need to add ProGuard rules to prevent the R8 compiler removing code needed for tracker function. Fetching certain platform context properties - AAID and app set ID - uses reflection. To include the necessary classes, add the following rules to the app's proguard-rules.pro file.

# Reflection for the appSetId
-keep class com.google.android.gms.appset.AppSet { *; }
-keep class com.google.android.gms.appset.AppSetIdInfo { *; }
-keep class com.google.android.gms.internal.appset.zzr { *; }
-keep class com.google.android.gms.tasks.Tasks { *; }

# Reflection for the AAID (AndroidIdfa)
-keep class com.google.android.gms.ads.identifier.** { *; }