Disable GoogleAnalytics from Android App when test

问题:

I'm using EasyTracker in my Android App and I need a way to disable Analytics tracking when the app is in "development" or "testing" mode (I have a flag in a constants file to discriminate).

What's the best way to do so?

Thanks!

回答1:

You can use a class with a static boolean value let's say DEBUG like this :

public final class BuildMode {
        public final static boolean DEBUG = true;
}

In code, just use :

if (BuildMode.DEBUG) ...

This is a solution working on all android SDK versions!

回答2:

I believe the correct way to do this with Version 4 of Analytics is with the Opt Out method

GoogleAnalytics.getInstance(this).setAppOptOut(true);

You could set that method to be set if you build in debug mode. ie.

GoogleAnalytics.getInstance(this).setAppOptOut(BuildConfig.DEBUG);

I am using something similiar to allow users to opt-out of analytics.

I found this information at he following link: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/android/v4/advanced

Edit: Just saw the date of the original question, but thought I would add this answer anyway as it was something I was looking for.

回答3:

UPDATE: With release of Google Analytics v3 for Android,

The SDK provides a dryRun flag that when set, prevents any data from being sent to Google Analytics. The dryRun flag should be set whenever you are testing or debugging an implementation and do not want test data to appear in your Google Analytics reports.

To set the dry run flag:

// When dry run is set, hits will not be dispatched, but will still be logged as though they were dispatched.

GoogeAnalytics.getInstance(this).setDryRun(true);

+++ My old answer +++

Just comment the following line in your analytics.xml file while you are in development mode.

<string name="ga_trackingId">UA-****</string>

Google Analytics wouldn't be able to find any tracking id, so EasyTracker won't be able to do its job. When you are building the app for release, uncomment the line and you're good to go.

回答4:

If you are building a standalone app(not a library), this will be the easiest way to do it, let the build system figure out if it is a debug build or not.

if(BuildConfig.DEBUG){
    GoogleAnalytics.getInstance(this).setDryRun(true);
}

I see on the web that this method does not work well for library projects as there is bug in the build tools which does not set the BuildConfig.DEBUG flag correctly for libraries. Not sure if this issue is fixed now.

回答5:

What I'm doing is disabling periodic dispatching, by setting a negative period, in analytics.xml:

<integer name="ga_dispatchPeriod">-60</integer>

or you can do it programmatically, using your flag:

if (testingMode) {
    GAServiceManager.getInstance().setDispatchPeriod(-1);
} else {
    GAServiceManager.getInstance().setDispatchPeriod(60);
}

That way hits are not sent unless you do it manually.

That should work if you are using only periodic dispatching (never calling .dispatch() manually). Hits not sent before 4 a.m. of the following day are somehow discarded, I guess, as they are not appearing in the reports anyway.

See in Google Analytics Developer Guide:

Note: Data must be dispatched and received by 4 a.m. of the following day, in the local timezone of each profile. Any data received later than that will not appear in reports.

More info: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/android/v2/dispatch

回答6:

My technique is to change the android:versionName in Android Manifest until release time.

For example, 1.0.0.ALPHA until time to build a release APK, at which point you could change to 1.0.0. This way you can still see all of your crash reports later, but they will grouped in analytics.

This SO ticket talks about using the BuildConfig.DEBUG flag to conditionally configure analytics and Atul Goyal's answer references the dryRun flag in v3. Those two things could be a nice setup if you don't care about seeing crash reports during debug in the future, and assuming that the BuildConfig.DEBUG flag works correctly.

回答7:

I have a different approach to this issue. Sometimes you still want to test that analytics is working correctly, but want to just filter test data out in production reports. My solution to that is to create a custom session-scoped dimension (i.e. AppBuild), in GA for the property which tracks if you are running a debug or production build of the app. In your code after you create the Tracker, put:

// replace 1 with the correct dimension number if you have other dimensions defined
tracker.set("&cd1", BuildConfig.DEBUG ? "debug" : "production");

Then create or modify your GA view to add a filter on AppBuild, excluding debug. This should filter out all debug data from your GA view. You can also add a new view to show debug data.