Google Analytics in Android app - dealing with multiple activities

Question

I was pretty excited to see how easy it is to set up Google Analytics with my app, but the lack of documentation has me sitting with a few questions. The only information that I can find is right from the documentation here, which only looks at reporting PageViews and Events from one Activity. I want to report PageViews and Events across multiple Activities in my app.

Right now in the onCreate() of all of my activities, I am calling:

    tracker = GoogleAnalyticsTracker.getInstance();
    tracker.start("UA-xxxxxxxxx", this);

And in the onDestroy() of all of my activities:

    tracker.stop();

I then track PageViews and Events as needed, and Dispatch them along with another HTTP request I am performing. But I'm not so sure this is the best way. Should I be calling start() and stop() in each activity, or should I only call start() and stop() in my main launcher activity?

Answer 1

The tracker will only track the activity where it's executed. So, why don't you subclass an Activity which start it every time on onCreate:

public class GAnalyticsActivity extends Activity{

    public void onCreate(Bundle icicle){
        super.onCreate(icile);
        tracker = GoogleAnalyticsTracker.getInstance();
        tracker.start("UA-xxxxxxxxx", this);
    }

    // same for on destroy
}

Then, you extends that class for every activity you use:

public class YourActivity extends GAnalyticsActivity{
    public void onCreate(Bundle icicle){
        super.onCreate(icile);
        // whatever you do here you can be sure 
        // that the tracker has already been started
    }
}

Answer 2

Hi!

This is not an answer, but I seem to be unable to comment at the moment. I started out as Aurora, with start/stop in each activity in my application.

However, both the API and the Visitor number gave me a smell, which is why I searched to find answers. The start()/stop() in application entry activity initially seems as a good idea, but what would one do when one has an application with several entry points? I mean, my application can be closed, but woken up by an alarm which leads the user directly to a specific resource, NOT via the normal entry point of the application - this, of course, I want to track as well, but what's the strategy for this? As I see it, I have to hack my way around this - either by examining if the specific activity is part of a larger task (wherein the main entry point activity will hold the responsibility for calling stop()), or, if a new task, will call stop() itself... but... errr... how?? ;)