You can tag an event to monitor custom activities in your mobile app by inserting a call to the tagging API. A custom activity for mobile apps starts and ends when the app reports specific events which match the events of an activity's signature file. If Aternity already reports these events by default, you do not need to add manual API calls. However, for some custom activities, you must manually tag and report those events using API calls.

After tagging an event, you can optionally add contextual data if needed, then use reportTag to send the event to the server.

For example, to measure the response time between the start of a sign in and its response, if those events are not automatically reported, insert an API to tag the sign in action, and add another API call to tag its response. When you report each tag to Aternity, it matches them to the custom activity already in place, and then reports the response time in the dashboards. To create your own custom activities, contact Customer Services.

The tag APIs return a newly created AternityContext object, which you then send to the server using reportTag.

Tag an event in your app using one of the following tagging APIs:

• tagApplication tags an event which occurred in your app, like the start of a sign in. You specify the start of the event with Aternity.Phase.Start, and the end with Aternity.Phase.End.

• tagCancelled tags a user interruption during the activity, like tapping Cancel on the screen. This is a different type of Aternity.Phase.End, where the end is the interruption by the user. Depending on the activity definition, this could result in an incomplete activity.

• tagError reports an error during the activity. This is a different type of Aternity.Phase.End, where the end is the occurrence of an error. You can add contextual details, like an error message or code, which can be picked up by the signature as part of its logic.

If the app reports a start event but does not report an end event, the activity ends with a timeout.

Before You Begin

Before you begin, ensure you have already done the following:

• The system requirements must conform to those of the Aternity Android Mobile SDK.

• Integrate and initialize the Aternity Android SDK into your app development environment. For details, see Integrate and Initialize the Aternity Android SDK into your App

• Whenever a class uses the Aternity Android SDK API methods, you must add the statement:

  import com.aternity.sdk.Aternity;

Method Definition

The tag APIs return a newly created AternityContext object, which you then send to the server using reportTag. These methods are defined as part of the Aternity class.

public AternityContext tagApplication(java.lang.String tagName,
                                      Aternity.Phase phase)
public AternityContext tagCancelled(java.lang.String tagName)
public AternityContext tagError(java.lang.String tagName)

reportTag is a method belonging to the AternityContext object:

public void reportTag()

Example

//Create an AternityContext object called "download_start" which tags the start of "Download" activity
AternityContext download_start = 
        Aternity.getInstance().tagApplication("Download", Aternity.Phase.Start);

//Report the start of the activity using reportTag, referring to the AternityContext
download_start.reportTag();

//Report the end of the activity using tagApplication and reportTag
AternityContext download_end = 
        Aternity.getInstance().tagApplication("Download", Aternity.Phase.End);
download_end.reportTag();

//When user taps Cancel, tell the server that the activity is canceled. 
//Optionally add contextuals here too.
AternityContext download_cancel = Aternity.getInstance().tagCancelled("Download");
download_cancel.reportTag();

//Tag and report an error to the server.
//Optionally add contextuals here too.
AternityContext download_error = Aternity.getInstance().tagError("Download");
download_error.setContextValue ("reason", "Server unavailable"));
download_error.reportTag();