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Cordova Plugin for HockeyApp

This plugin provides client-side integration for the HockeyApp service, allowing you to easily add crash reporting, beta distribution and user metrics to your Cordova app(s).

Supported Cordova Platforms

Cordova 5.0.0+ is fully supported, along with the following associated platforms:

To check which versions of each Cordova platform you are currently using, you can run the following command and inspect the Installed platforms list:

cordova platform ls

If you're running an older Android and/or iOS platform than is mentioned above, and would be open to upgrading, you can easily do so by running the following commands (omitting a platform if it isn't neccessary):

cordova platform update android
cordova platform update ios

Getting Started

After you've created your HockeyApp account, and registered your app with the service, you can begin integrating the Cordova plugin into your app by running the following command:

cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-hockeyapp@latest

With the plugin installed, configure the HockeyApp plugin with the correct app ID by calling the following function within your deviceready handler (or an equivalent location):

hockeyapp.start(null, null, "APP_ID");

NOTE: The two null parameters represent the success and error callbacks. If you'd like to listen to these events, you can simply pass in function objects instead of null.

As a reminder, your app ID can be retrieved from the details page of the app within the HockeyApp portal (see the App ID field below).

If you would like to test out the crash reporting feature and don't already have a crash in your app (nice job!), you can add the following method call anywhere in your app:

hockeyapp.forceCrash();

And that's it! Your app will now send crash reports and user metrics (e.g. daily/monthly unique users, # of sessions per day) to the server without doing any additional work. Make sure to remove the call to forceCrash once you're satisfied that the plugin is configured corrctly, and you're ready to begin sending your app to testers and on into production.

If you would like to add additional capabilities to your app (e.g. detecting updates, capturing user feedback, adding custom instrumentation to view app-specific usage data), then check out the following sections, or view the API reference for more details.

User metrics

Collecting User Feedback

If you're using HockeyApp to distribute beta builds to your testers, then you'll likely also want to collect feedback from them in addition to viewing crash reports and usage metrics. To do this, simply call the following method in order to display a UI that allows your users to send app feedback directly to you:

hockeyapp.feedback();

You can call this method in response to a "Give Feedback" button, in a shake gesture handler, or wherever is appropriate for your app.

Composing User Feedback With Data

If you would like to include additional data to include with user feedback, you can call the following API and indicate whether to include a screen shot of the device and/or arbitrary data from your application at the time that the API is called:

hockeyapp.composeFeedback(null, null, true, appData);

Checking For Updates

If you would like your beta testers to be notified whenever a new version of your app is available (i.e. you uploaded a new build to HockeyApp), you can call the following method to check for an update and display a dialog if/when available:

hockeyapp.checkForUpdate();

You can call this method in your deviceready handler, in a "Check for update" button, or wherever is appropriate for your app.

NOTE: This should not be called in production/release builds intended for the Google Play Store.

Tracking Custom Events

By default, once you've called the hockeyapp.start() method, your app will begin automatically collecting basic metrics for daily and monthly users and sessions. However, it is very likely that you will want to track custom app events (e.g. "View_Cart", "Added_Item") in order to understand how your users are engaging with your app at a more granular/actionable level. In order to instrument your app to capture this data for both beta and production collection, simply call the following method where appropriate in your app:

hockeyapp.trackEvent(null, null, "EVENT_NAME");

Enhancing Crash Reports

By default, any time your app crashes, the report sent to HockeyApp will include the call stack, as well as various other pieces of information (e.g. OS, device manufacturer) to help narrow down and/or repro the cause of the issue. However, it can be very helpful to understand the context of the users app when inspecting a crash report, and therefore, if you need to "attach" additional metadata to a crash report, you can simply call the following method:

hockeyapp.addMetaData(null, null { someCustomProp: 23, anotherProp: "Value" });

The metadata property accepts an arbitrary JavaScript object, and therefore, can be used to log any strings, booleans, numbers, etc. Subsequent calls to the addMetaData method will "merge" the objects together such that any future crash reports will include a union of all object properties that were specified by any call to addMetaData since the last crash was reported.

When you view a crash report in the HockeyApp portal, you can see the metadata that you attached to it by selecting the Description button underneath the Data section within the Crash Logs tab of the respective crash report.

API Reference

The HockeyApp API is exposed to your app via the global hockeyapp object, which is available after the deviceready event has fired. This API exposes the following top-level methods:

  • addMetaData - Attaches arbitrary metadata to the next crash report in order to provide more context about the user's state.

  • feedback - Displays the feedback UI so that testers can send and receive feedback about the app.

  • composeFeedback - Displays the compose feedback UI and optionally attaches a screenshot and/or arbitrary data to the feedback report.

  • forceCrash - Immediately crashes the app. This is used strictly for testing the HockeyApp crash reporting capabilities.

  • start - Initializes the HockeyApp plugin, and configures it with the approrpiate app ID and user settings (e.g. should crash reports be automatically submitted).

  • trackEvent - Logs an app-specific event for analytic purposes.

hockeyapp.addMetaData

hockeyapp.addMetaData(successCallback: function, errorCallback: function, metadata: Object): void

Attaches arbitrary metadata to the next crash report in order to provide more context about the user's state. Subsequent calls to this method will "merge" the metadata together into a single JavaScript object that will be sent along with the next crash report.

Parameters

  1. successCallback - Function that will be triggered when the metadata has been successfully added.

  2. errorCallback - Function that will be triggered when adding the metadata failed for some reason.

  3. metaData - A JavaScript object that describes the metadata (i.e. properties and values) that you wuold like to attach to the next crash report.

hockeyapp.feedback

hockeyapp.feedback(): void

Displays the feedback UI so that testers can send and receive feedback about the app.

hockeyapp.composeFeedback

hockeyapp.composeFeedback(sucessCallback:function, errorCallback:function, attachScreenshot:boolean, data:any): void

Displays the compose feedback UI and optionally attaches a screenshot and/or arbitrary data to the feedback report. If attachScreenshot is true, an image of the screen at the moment that composeFeedback is called and included as a JPEG attachment. The object in data, if present, will be serialized as text and included in a text attachment.

Parameters

  1. successCallback - Function that will be triggered when the feedback action completes successfully.

  2. errorCallback - Function that will be triggered when the feedback action fails.

  3. attachScreenshot - boolean indicating whether to capture the device screen at the time the function is called.

  4. data - any (optional) object that will be serialized to JSON and sent with the feedback report as data.

Using CrossWalk WebViews

When calling composeFeedback from an application that is hosted in a CrossWalk WebView, a blank screenshot will be attached to the report unless the following requirements are met:

  • The application references the cordova-plugin-crosswalk-engine plugin version 1.6.0 or above
  • The application links against the xwalk engine version 18 or above

hockeyapp.forceCrash

hockeyapp.forceCrash(): void

Immediately crashes the app. This is used strictly for testing the HockeyApp crash reporting capabilities.

hockeyapp.start

hockeyapp.start(successCallback: function, errorCallback: function, appId: string, autoSend?: boolean, ignoreDefaultHandler?: boolean, loginMode?: hockeyapp.loginMode, appSecret?: string): void

Initializes the HockeyApp plugin, and configures it with the appropriate app ID and user settings (e.g. should crash reports be automatically submitted).

Parameters

  1. successCallback - Function that will be triggered when the initialization is successful.

  2. errorCallback - Function that will be triggered when an error occurs trying to initialize the plugin.

  3. appID - The ID of the app as provided by the HockeyApp portal.

  4. autoSend - Specifies whether you would like crash reports to be automatically sent to the HockeyApp server when the end user restarts the app. Defaults to false.

  5. ignoreDefaultHandler - Specifies whether you would like to display the standard dialog when the app is about to crash. This parameter is only relevant on Android, and therefore, you can set it to anything on iOS. Defaults to false.

  6. loginMode - The mechanism to use in order to authenticate users. Defaults to hockeyapp.loginMode.ANONYMOUS. The hockeyapp.loginMode enum provides the following available options:

    • ANONYMOUS - The end user isn't authenticated at all.

    • EMAIL_ONLY - The end user will be prompted to specify a valid email address. If this mode is selected, the appSecret parameter must also be specified.

    • EMAIL_PASSWORD: The end user will be prompted for a valid email/password combination.

    • VALIDATE: The end user will not be prompted to authenticate, but the app will try to validate with the HockeyApp service.

    NOTE: Only the ANONYMOUS login mode is supported on iOS, and therefore, you can only use the other modes within Android apps.

  7. appSecret - The app secret as provided by the HockeyApp portal. This parameter only needs to be set if you're setting the loginMode parameter to EMAIL_ONLY.

hockeyapp.trackEvent

hockeyapp.trackEvent(successCallback: function, errorCallback: function, eventName: string): void

Logs an app-specific event for analytic purposes.

Parameters

  1. successCallback - Function that will be triggered when the event has been successfully tracked.

  2. errorCallback - Function that will be triggered when tracking the event failed for some reason.

  3. eventName - The name (e.g. "ITEM_ADDED") of the custom event that should be logged.

PhoneGap Build

This plugin is compatible with PhoneGap Build, and supports creating iOS builds out-of-the-box. However, in order to create Android builds, you need to add the following element to your app's config.xml file, as a child of the <platform name="android"> element:

<preference name="android-build-tool" value="gradle" />

Contributing

Code of Conduct

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact [email protected] with any additional questions or comments.

Contributor License

You must sign a Contributor License Agreement before submitting your pull request. To complete the Contributor License Agreement (CLA), you will need to submit a request via the form and then electronically sign the CLA when you receive the email containing the link to the document. You need to sign the CLA only once to cover submission to any Microsoft OSS project.