Add the SDK to your app

The Chartbeat Android SDK is a Java library providing Chartbeat tracking functionality to native Android apps. Like any other framework added to your project, the Chartbeat SDK provides a programming interface usable from your app code.

To get started with integrating the SDK, download the latest version directly from the Chartbeat Android SDK package page on Bintray and copy it into your project.

Add Chartbeat to the dependencies section in app/build.gradle, replacing the version number with the latest version listed here.

implementation "com.chartbeat:sdk:1.5.1"

Add the following permissions in app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml:

<!-- This permission is required to allow the application to send tracking information to Chartbeat -->
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />

Using the SDK

Chartbeat tracks each app visit by calling corresponding functions as the user interacts with your app. Implement the following steps for integrating the Chartbeat Mobile SDK for iOS or Android.

Initialize the tracker

First, import the SDK wherever you’re using the tracker. All of the methods you need to access are public and static.

import com.chartbeat.androidsdk.Tracker;

Start by initializing the tracker with the setupTracker function in your main activity, only when the app is in the foreground:app/src/main/java/com/example/app/MainActivity.java. Usually, this should be done in onCreate. If you have multiple entry points into your app, you may call this from any of them, but only the first call will be acknowledged.

Java:

@Override
public void onCreate() {
  String chartbeatAccountId = "12345";
  String chartbeatSiteId = "mysite.com";
    
  super.onCreate();
  Tracker.setupTracker(chartbeatAccountId, chartbeatSiteId, this);
}

For example, this is the application-level Context.

Kotlin:

override fun onCreate() {
  super.onCreate();
    
  val chartbeatAccountId = "12345";
  val chartbeatSiteId = "mysite.com";    
  Tracker.setupTracker(chartbeatAccountId, chartbeatSiteId, applicationContext);
}

Track user subscriber status

Beginning with Android SDK version 1.5.0, the Chartbeat Mobile SDK supports tracking subscriber data similar to our JavaScript subscriber engagement integration for standard websites. These functions are optional and can be skipped if your corresponding website does not utilize our JavaScript subscriber status integration linked above.

For proper tracking, it is important to call these functions before the first call to trackView():

Call setUserPaid() to specify a user as a paid subscriber.

Call setUserLoggedIn() to specify a user as a registered user.

Call setUserAnonymous() to specify a user as an unregistered guest user.

No additional information needs to be passed to these methods or functions. If at any time a user’s subscription status changes during their session, simply call one of the above functions to ensure proper tracking.

Track screen views

Add the trackView code (below) to any view you want Chartbeat to track.

If you have views in your app that do not correspond to a page on your website, you can track user interactions on that screen by setting a viewId that does not conflict with other page paths from your site. Traffic for this view will then be tracked a separate page in your dashboard. For example, you can track users in your app’s table of contents by setting the viewId to something like /nativeapp/main-toc.

Pass section and author data for every view you track to ensure consistency between different views. Call setSections and setAuthors with an array of strings for each after calling trackView. Any sections and authors you set will stay set until you set a different set of values. If the user is navigating from a view with sections or authors to another view with no applicable sections or authors, you should set the sections or authors to an empty array.

Java:

import com.chartbeat.androidsdk.Tracker;
​
class SomeActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
​
  @Override
  public void onCreate() {
  
    Tracker.trackView(
      getBaseContext(), // Context for the current view
      "https://mysite.com/article/12345.html", // View ID
      "My Page Title", // View Title
    );
  }
  
}

Kotlin:

import com.chartbeat.androidsdk.Tracker;
​
class SomeActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
​
  @Override
  public void onCreate() {
  
    Tracker.trackView(
      baseContext, // Context for the current view
      "https://mysite.com/article/12345.html", // View ID
      "My Page Title", // View Title
    );
  }
  
}

Track user interactions

Call the userInteracted function whenever the user interacts with your view to accurately measure user engagement with your content. Our Recommendation is to call this from within the onUserInteraction function of your activity. Register writing engagement by calling the userTyped function whenever the user starts typing something.

  @Override
  public void onUserInteraction() {
      super.onUserInteraction();
      Tracker.userInteracted();
  }

Stop the tracker

Call the userLeftView function (e.g. from your activities’ onPause functions) whenever the app leaves the foreground to stop the tracking for the current session.

Call the pauseTracker function when the user navigates to a view you don’t want to track.

Call trackView again when the app returns to the foreground.

Next steps

Next up is our iOS SDK implementation steps, or skip to the integration QA article if your team will not implement tracking for an iOS app.