Firebase Crashlytics - A Google Crash and Usage Data Reporting Service

Firebase Crashlytics is a crash and usage data reporting service provided by Google. It allows a Digitise Apps Standalone App or pre-configured Digitise Apps Client to send diagnostic data to the service in the event that it crashes during use and, during normal use, your Digitise apps or Clients can send usage data to the service giving you usage statistics including such things as the number of users using an app, which versions of an app are being used and the amount of time users spend using an app. In the event of a system crash, the diagnostic data sent includes such things as a stack trace, type and model of the device, operating system version, free memory and disk space. This feature is available for Android and iOS pre-configured Digitise Apps Clients and Standalone Apps.

Use of the Crashlytics service is optional and can be enabled or disabled within a Standalone App or pre-configured Client from the Build Request dialog within App Studio.

Before you can do this, however, you need to register the Digitise app or Digitise Apps Client on the Firebase web site. Each registration produces a Google services file which you download from the web site and import into the build request for the Standalone App or pre-configured Client in App Studio. To sign up to the Firebase service, you need a gmail account. If you don't already have one, you can create one when you register your first app or Client on the Google Firebase web site.

If you are creating a Standalone App or Digitise Apps Client for Android devices and you have already obtained a google-service.json file to enable push notifications within the app or Client, you use the same file with Crashlytics, you don't need to get another one. If you are building an app or Client for use on Apple devices or you don't already have a google-services.json file for an Android app or Client, you will need to obtain the file before you can complete the build request within App Studio.

 

For information about obtaining a Google services file for Android devices, see: Add Google Firebase to an Android Digitise app.

For information about obtaining a Google services file for Apple devices, see: Add Google Firebase to an iOS Digitise app.

 

Once you have obtained the Google services file, you can build your Standalone App or Digitise Apps Client with Crashlytics enabled:

Load your Digitise app in App Studio or if you are building a pre-configured Digitise Apps Client, you don't need to load an app.

From the Ribbon's Publish tab, click on Request Build → Standalone App or Request Build → Pre-configured Client, as appropriate, and then choose Android or Apple.

Under the Build request dialog's General tab, select Enable Firebase. Click OK to dismiss the message informing you that you need to supply a Google services file, if it appears.

For the Android Platform, click on the google-services.json button to the right of the Enable Firebase option.

For the Apple Platform, click on the GoogleService-Info.plist button to the right of the Enable Firebase option.

In either case, click Browse File... to locate and select the relevant Google services file for this app or Digitise Apps Client. Double-click on the file or select it and click Open.The contents of the file will be displayed. Click OK to return to the Build request dialog.

You can now configure the rest of the Build request options as required for your app or Client and build your app or Client.

Once built and deployed to users, your app or Client will automatically send diagnostic data to the Firebase service when used, providing it has a network connection available. Note that the Client or app will also send usage data to the Firebase service, if you enabled Google Analytics when creating the Google services file.

You can then access the Crashlytics data sent from your devices from the Firebase web site - see Add Google Firebase to an Android Digitise app or Add Google Firebase to an iOS Digitise app for details of how to do this.

 

If you were to experience problems with Digitise Apps crashing on a device and we thought it might be useful to see any Crashlytic data sent from the device, if you consent to do so, you could forward that to us at our request.

 

You can check whether Firebase Crashlytics has been enabled within a Standalone App or pre-configured Client which has been installed to a device. From the app's Home page, on Android devices, check the Settings → About → Enable Firebase option and on Apple devices check the Settings → Device → Enable Firebase option. In either case, if this option displays Yes, Firebase support was enabled when the app was built, if No, it is disabled.