Android tracker

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:

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:

   Android (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.

   Android (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:

   Android (Kotlin)

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

   Android (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 :

Android (Kotlin)

Snowplow.defaultTracker?.track(event)

Android (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.

Android (Kotlin)

val networkConfig = NetworkConfiguration(
    "https://snowplow-collector-url.com",
    HttpMethod.POST
)
val trackerConfig = 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)
val sessionConfig = SessionConfiguration(
    TimeMeasure(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS),
    TimeMeasure(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
)
    .continueSessionOnRestart(false)
createTracker(
    applicationContext,
    "appTracker",
    networkConfig,
    trackerConfig,
    sessionConfig
)

Android (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.** { *; }