Android Question The best reporting method?

[Jerryk]

I have an application in the Internal testing phase. I know I should use Crashlytics to report errors. But what about reporting some actions performed by the user? This is about using the function of the application, the idea is that when the application is launched, I will send a summary of the last run. For the purposes of improving the application.

 

[Jerryk]

Application dont have server side database.

 

[JohnC]

ChatGPT says...

Crashlytics is primarily designed for capturing, reporting, and analyzing crash data in applications, helping developers identify and fix stability issues more efficiently. However, it does also offer features to log custom events or non-crash errors, which can be useful for understanding issues that don't necessarily lead to crashes but may still affect the user experience. This capability can be used to log exceptions or errors manually. However, for tracking user actions or events in a more analytics-focused manner, Crashlytics is not the ideal tool.

For your purpose, which is to track user actions and send summaries of the last run to improve the application, you should consider integrating a dedicated analytics tool alongside Crashlytics. Google Analytics for Firebase is a popular choice that works well with Crashlytics, as both are part of the Firebase platform. Google Analytics for Firebase provides rich, event-based analytics that can help you understand how users interact with your app.

Here's how you could approach this:

1. Use Crashlytics for Error Reporting: Continue using Crashlytics to capture and analyze crash data. You can manually log non-crash errors using the custom log features if needed, for instance, to log caught exceptions that you want to track without terminating the application.
2. Integrate Google Analytics for Firebase for User Actions: Implement Google Analytics for Firebase in your app to track user actions, events, and other non-crash data. Firebase Analytics allows you to log custom events, which could include summaries of app usage, features accessed during the last run, performance metrics, or any other actions your users perform.
3. Log Custom Events: With Firebase Analytics, you can define and log custom events that match the specific actions or metrics you're interested in. This could be anything from "app_started" to more complex user interactions within your application.
4. Analyze and Improve: Use the insights gathered from both Crashlytics and Firebase Analytics to identify areas for improvement, fix stability issues, and enhance user experience based on how users are actually using your app.

To implement Firebase Analytics in your B4A app, you'll need to:

• Add the Firebase library to your project.
• Initialize Firebase Analytics in your app.
• Use the LogEvent method to log custom events.

This approach gives you a comprehensive overview of both the technical performance of your app (via Crashlytics) and how users are engaging with it (via Firebase Analytics), enabling you to make informed decisions to enhance your app based on actual usage data.

 

[Jerryk]

Thank you. I thought Crashlytics was only for bugs. I'm going to study it.