Analytics for Kotlin Implementation Guide

Once you’ve installed the mobile or server Analytics Kotlin library, you can start collecting data through Segment’s tracking methods:

• Identify
• Track
• Screen
• Group

Identify

The Identify method lets you tie a user to their actions and record traits about them. This includes a unique user ID and any optional traits you know about them like their email, name, or address. The traits option can include any information you want to tie to the user. When using any of the reserved traits, be sure the information reflects the name of the trait. For example, email should always be a string of the user’s email address.

fun identify(userId: String, traits: JsonObject = emptyJsonObject)

// If <T> is annotated with @Serializable you will not need to provide a serializationStrategy
fun <T> identify(userId: String, traits: T, serializationStrategy: KSerializer<T>)

analytics.identify("user-123", buildJsonObject {
    put("username", "MisterWhiskers")
    put("email", "hello@test.com")
    put("plan", "premium")
});

analytics.identify("user-123", Builders.buildJsonObject(o -> {
    o.put("username", "MisterWhiskers")
        .put("email", "hello@test.com")
        .put("plan", "premium");
}));

// or

analytics.identify("user-123", new YourJsonSerializable());

Track

The Track method lets you record the actions your users perform. Every action triggers an event, which also has associated properties that the track method records.

fun track(name: String, properties: JsonObject = emptyJsonObject)

// If <T> is annotated with @Serializable you will not need to provide a serializationStrategy
fun <T> track(name: String, properties: T, serializationStrategy: KSerializer<T>)

analytics.track("View Product", buildJsonObject {
    put("productId", 123)
    put("productName", "Striped trousers")
});

analytics.track("View Product", Builders.buildJsonObject(o -> {
   o.put("productId", 123)
    .put("productName", "Striped Trousers")
});

Screen

The Screen method lets you record whenever a user sees a screen in your mobile app, along with optional extra information about the page being viewed.

You’ll want to record a screen event whenever the user opens a screen in your app. This could be a view, fragment, dialog, or activity depending on your app.

Not all integrations support screen, so when it’s not supported explicitly, the screen method tracks as an event with the same parameters.

fun screen(screenTitle: String, properties: JsonObject = emptyJsonObject, category: String = "")

// If <T> is annotated with @Serializable you will not need to provide a serializationStrategy
fun <T> screen(screenTitle: String, properties: T, category: String = "", serializationStrategy: KSerializer<T>)

analytics.screen("ScreenName", buildJsonObject {
    put("productSlug", "example-product-123")
});

analytics.screen("ScreenName", Builders.buildJsonObject(o -> {
    o.put("productSlug", "example-product-123");
}));

// or

analytics.screen("ScreenName", new YourJsonSerializable());

Group

The Group method lets you associate an individual user with a group— whether it’s a company, organization, account, project, or team. This includes a unique group identifier and any additional group traits you may have, like company name, industry, number of employees. You can include any information you want to associate with the group in the traits option. When using any of the reserved group traits, be sure the information reflects the name of the trait. For example, email should always be a string of the user’s email address.

fun group(groupId: String, traits: JsonObject = emptyJsonObject)

// If <T> is annotated with @Serializable you will not need to provide a serializationStrategy
fun <T> group(groupId: String, traits: T, serializationStrategy: KSerializer<T>)

analytics.group("user-123", buildJsonObject {
    put("username", "MisterWhiskers")
    put("email", "hello@test.com")
    put("plan", "premium")
});

analytics.group("user-123", Builders.buildJsonObject(o -> {
    o.put("username", "MisterWhiskers")
        .put("email", "hello@test.com")
        .put("plan", "premium");
}));

// or

analytics.group("user-123", new YourJsonSerializable());

Utility methods

The Analytics Kotlin utility methods help you work with plugins from the analytics timeline. They include:

• Add
• Find
• Remove
• Reset

There’s also the Flush method to help you manage the current queue of events.

Add

The Add method lets you add a plugin to the analytics timeline.

fun add(plugin: Plugin): Analytics

val plugin = object: Plugin {
    override val type = Plugin.Type.Enrichment
    override val name = "SomePlugin"
    override var lateinit analytics: Analytics
}
analytics.add(plugin)

Find

The Find method lets you find a registered plugin from the analytics timeline.

fun find(pluginName: String): Plugin

val plugin = analytics.find(SomePlugin::class)

Remove

The Remove methods lets you remove a registered plugin from the analytics timeline.

fun remove(pluginName: String): Analytics

analytics.remove("SomePlugin")

Flush

The Flush method lets you force flush the current queue of events regardless of what the flushAt and flushInterval is set to.

public fun flush()

analytics.flush()

Reset

The reset method clears the SDK’s internal stores for the current user and group. This is useful for apps where users log in and out with different identities on the same device over time.

fun reset()

analytics.reset()

OpenURL

While Analytics Kotlin will automatically track deep links that open your app when the trackDeepLinks Configuration property is set to true. There are some situations when the app is already open that could cause a deep link open event to be missed.

The openUrl function allows you to manually track that a deep link has opened your app while your app was already open:

    override fun onNewIntent(intent: Intent?) {
        super.onNewIntent(intent)
    
        // Add a deep-link opened event manually.
        // This is necessary when your Activity has a android:launchMode of
        // 'singleInstance', 'singleInstancePerTask', 'singleTop', or any other mode
        // that will re-use an existing Activity instead of creating a new instance.
        // The Analytics SDK automatically identifies when you app is started from 
        // a deep link if the Activity is created, but not if it is re-used. Therefore 
        // we have to add this code to manually capture the Deep Link info.
        
        val referrer = "unknown" 
        analytics.trackDeepLinkOpen(referrer, intent)
    }

For a sample implementation see our Kotlin Sample App.

Changelog

View the Analytics Kotlin changelog on GitHub.