Android: Google Analytics availability in Google Play Services?

Question

Google Analytics has been announced to become part of the rolling out Google Play Services 4.3, however it is not yet included in the Google Play Services packages list:

http://developer.android.com/reference/gms-packages.html

Any idea when it will become available, and will it be safe to be used straight away, or will it be better to wait for some time to make sure every user has Google Play Services 4.3 already installed?

Answer 1

I've noticed some other differences.

Tracker

To get a new Tracker , use the newTracker() method (accepts both a String value and an int value [for XML configuration]):

googleTracker = gaInstance.getTracker(GA_KEY); // OLD
googleTracker = gaInstance.newTracker(GA_KEY); // NEW

EasyTracker

EasyTracker has now disappeared, so we will have to use GoogleAnalytics.getInstance(this).reportActivityStart(this) as reported by Paito .

Setters

The googleTracker.set() method is no longer available. It has been replaced with more specialised methods, for example:

googleTracker.set(Fields.SCREEN_NAME, null); // OLD
googleTracker.setScreenName(null);           // NEW

Event creation

The googleTracker.send() method has also seen some changes.

googleTracker.send(MapBuilder
                .createEvent(category, action, label, value)
                .build()); // OLD
googleTracker.send(new HitBuilders.EventBuilder()
                .setCategory(category)
                .setAction(action)
                .setLabel(label)
                .setValue(value)
                .build()); // NEW

AppView

It now becomes

googleTracker.send(MapBuilder.createAppView().build());       // OLD
googleTracker.send(new HitBuilders.AppViewBuilder().build()); // NEW

AppViewBuilder

AppViewBuilder has now been deprecated, replaced by the new ScreenViewBuilder class. ( thanks Hai Phong for the tip! )

---

For those who are running into (or have already dealt with) the Dalvik's 64K methods limit , there are now 3K methods that you will be able to get rid of in your application, thanks to this integration.

Answer 2

It's part of the package list now.

I think the basic functionality works something like this...

import com.google.android.gms.analytics.GoogleAnalytics;

@Override
protected void onStart() {
    super.onStart();
    GoogleAnalytics.getInstance(this).reportActivityStart(this);
}

@Override
protected void onStop() {
    super.onStop();
    GoogleAnalytics.getInstance(this).reportActivityStop(this);
}

Answer 3

As per conversation in order to use Easytracker replacement with

GoogleAnalytics.getInstance(this).reportActivityStart(this);
GoogleAnalytics.getInstance(this).reportActivityStop(this);

You need to add your config to AndroidManifest like

<meta-data android:name="com.google.android.gms.analytics.globalConfigResource" android:resource="@xml/analytics_global_config" />

I'm still having to get instance of Tracker to send Events, may be somebody else would have better luck at replacing

 EasyTracker.getInstance(mContext).send(MapBuilder....)

Answer 4

The documentation for Google Analytics SDK v4 (now part of Google Play Services) has just been published!

https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/android/v4/