It uses an internal queue to make calls fast and non-blocking. It also batches requests and flushes asynchronously, making it perfect to use in any part of your mobile app.
Installation
The best way to install the PostHog Android library is with a build system like Gradle. This ensures you can easily upgrade to the latest versions.
All you need to do is add the posthog
module to your build.gradle
:
dependencies {implementation 'com.posthog.android:posthog:1.+'}
Configuration
The best place to initialize the client is in your Application
subclass.
public class SampleApp extends Application {private static final String POSTHOG_API_KEY = "<ph_project_api_key>";private static final String POSTHOG_HOST = "<ph_instance_address>";@Overridepublic void onCreate() {// Create a PostHog client with the given context, API key and host.PostHog posthog = new PostHog.Builder(this, POSTHOG_API_KEY, POSTHOG_HOST).captureApplicationLifecycleEvents() // Record certain application events automatically!.recordScreenViews() // Record screen views automatically!.build();// Set the initialized instance as a globally accessible instance.PostHog.setSingletonInstance(posthog);// Now anytime you call PostHog.with, the custom instance will be returned.PostHog posthog = PostHog.with(this);}}
Making calls
Identify
We highly recommend reading our section on Identifying users to better understand how to correctly use this method.
When you start tracking events with PostHog, each user gets an anonymous ID that is used to identify them in the system.
In order to link this anonymous user with someone from your database, use the identify
call.
Identify lets you add metadata to your users so you can easily identify who they are in PostHog, as well as do things like segment users by these properties.
An identify call requires:
distinctId
which uniquely identifies your user in your databaseuserProperties
with a dictionary of key:value pairs
PostHog.with(this).identify(distinctID, new Properties().putValue("name", "My Name").putValue("email", "user@posthog.com"));
The most obvious place to make this call is whenever a user signs up, or when they update their information.
When you call identify
, all previously tracked anonymous events will be linked to the user.
Capture
Capture allows you to capture anything a user does within your system, which you can later use in PostHog to find patterns in usage, work out which features to improve, or find out where people are giving up.
A capture
call requires:
event
to specify the event name- We recommend naming events with "[noun][verb]", such as
movie played
ormovie updated
, in order to easily identify what your events mean later on (we know this from experience).
- We recommend naming events with "[noun][verb]", such as
Optionally you can submit:
properties
, which can be an array with any information you'd like to add
For example:
PostHog.with(this).capture("Button B Clicked", new Properties().putValue("color", "blue").putValue("icon", "new2-final"));
Setting user properties via an event
To set properties on your users via an event, you can leverage the event properties $set
and $set_once
.
$set
Example
// import java.util.HashMap;HashMap<String, Object> userProps = new HashMap<String, Object>();userProps.put("string", "value1");userProps.put("integer", 2);PostHog.with(this).capture("Button B Clicked", new Properties().putValue("color", "blue").putValue("$set", userProps));
Usage
When capturing an event, you can pass a property called $set
as an event property, and specify its value to be an object with properties to be set on the user that will be associated with the user who triggered the event.
$set_once
Example
// import java.util.HashMap;HashMap<String, Object> userProps = new HashMap<String, Object>();userProps.put("string", "value1");userProps.put("integer", 2);PostHog.with(this).capture("Button B Clicked", new Properties().putValue("color", "blue").putValue("$set_once", userProps));
Usage
$set_once
works just like $set
, except that it will only set the property if the user doesn't already have that property set.
Flush
You can set the number of events in the configuration that should queue before flushing.
Setting this to 1
will send events immediately and will use more battery. The default value for this is 20
.
You can also configure the flush interval. By default we flush all events after 30
seconds,
no matter how many events have been gathered.
PostHog posthog = new PostHog.Builder(this, POSTHOG_API_KEY, POSTHOG_HOST).flushQueueSize(20).flushInterval(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS).build();
You can also manually flush the queue:
PostHog.with(this).flush();
Reset
To reset the user's ID and anonymous ID, call reset
. Usually you would do this right after the user logs out.
PostHog.with(this).reset();
Sending screen views
With recordScreenViews()
, PostHog will try to record all screen changes automatically.
If you want to manually send a new screen capture event, use the screen
function.
This function requires a name
. You may also pass in an optional properties
object.
PostHog.with(this).screen("Dashboard", new Properties().putValue("background", "blue").putValue("hero", "superhog"));
Feature Flags
PostHog v1.10.0 introduced Feature Flags, which allow you to safely deploy and roll back new features. This feature requires posthog-android version of 2.0.0
or above.
Here's how you can use them:
- Check if a feature is enabled:
PostHog.with(this).isFeatureEnabled("enabled-flag")
- Trigger a reload of the feature flags:
PostHog.with(this).reloadFeatureFlags()
Get a flag value
If you're using multivariate feature flags, you can also get the value of the flag, as well as whether or not it is enabled.
PostHog.with(this).getFeatureFlag("enabled-flag")
- By default, this function will send a
$feature_flag_called
event to your instance every time it's called so you're able to do analytics.
Groups
Group analytics allows you to associate the events for that person's session with a group (e.g. teams, organizations, etc.). Read the Group Analytics guide for more information.
Note: This is a paid feature and is not available on the open-source or free cloud plan. Learn more here.
- Associate the events for this session with a group
PostHog.with(this).group("organization", "42dlsfj23f") // organization is the group type, 42dlsfj23f is the group ID
- Associate the events for this session with a group AND update the properties of that group
PostHog.with(this).group("organization", "42dlsfj23f", new Properties().putValue("name", "Awesome Inc."));
The name
is a special property which is used in the PostHog UI for the name of the Group. If you don't specify a name
property, the group ID will be used instead.
All configuration options
When creating the PostHog client, there are many options you can set:
PostHog posthog = new PostHog.Builder(this, POSTHOG_API_KEY, POSTHOG_HOST)// Record certain application events automatically! (off/false by default).captureApplicationLifecycleEvents()// Record screen views automatically! (off/false by default).recordScreenViews()// Capture deep links as part of the screen call. (off by default).captureDeepLinks()// Maximum number of events to keep in queue before flushing (20).flushQueueSize(int flushQueueSize)// Max delay before flushing the queue (30 seconds).flushInterval(long flushInterval, TimeUnit timeUnit)// Enable or disable collection of ANDROID_ID (true).collectDeviceId(boolean collect).build();
Thank you
This library is largely based on the analytics-android
package.