Android Instana Agent

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Requirements

• Android 4.1+ (API level 16+)
• Java 8+
• Gradle 7.3.3+
• AndroidX
• targetSdk 33+

Note: If you have to use Gradle version lower than 7.3.3 in your project, please use android-agent version lower than 6.0.0.

Getting started

Please head over to the official Instana Mobile App Monitoring documentation to get all the details about the usage of Instana Android Agent.

For a quick start with a minimum configuration, the following steps shall suffice:

Before beginning

Make sure that the Google and MavenCentral repositories are included in your project-level build.gradle file:

buildscript {
    repositories {
        google()
        mavenCentral()
    }
}
allprojects {
    repositories {
        google()
        mavenCentral()
    }
}

Step 1. Add Instana Agent SDK to your app

In your module (app-level) Gradle file (usually app/build.gradle):

dependencies {
    implementation 'com.instana:android-agent-runtime:6.0.17'
}

While using kotlin-scripts, In (app-level) Gradle file (usually app/build.gradle.kts):

dependencies {
  implementation("com.instana:android-agent-runtime:6.0.17")
}

Step 2. Add Instana Agent Plugin to your app

In your module (app-level) Gradle file (usually app/build.gradle), after applying the com.android.application plugin:

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'
apply plugin: 'com.instana.android-agent-plugin'

While using kotlin-scripts, In (app-level) Gradle file (usually app/build.gradle.kts):

plugins {
  id("com.android.application")
  id("com.instana.android-agent-plugin")
}

In your module (app-level) Gradle file (usually app/build.gradle):

buildscript {
    repositories {
        google()
        mavenCentral()
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath "com.instana:android-agent-plugin:6.0.17"
    }
}

While using kotlin-scripts, In (project-level) Gradle file (usually /build.gradle.kts):

buildscript {
  dependencies {
    classpath("com.instana:android-agent-plugin:6.0.17")
  }
}

Step 3. Initialize Instana Agent when your app starts

In your class extending Application, replace YOUR_REPORTING_URL and YOUR_APP_KEY with the configuration values you'll find in your Instana Dashboard:

class MyApplication : Application() {
    override fun onCreate() {
        super.onCreate()
        Instana.setup(
            this,
            InstanaConfig(
                reportingURL = "YOUR_REPORTING_URL",
                key = "YOUR_APP_KEY"
            )
        )
    }
}

Step 4. Add Java 1.8 compatibility

Note: this step is not required if your minSdkVersion is 24 or higher

In your module (app-level) Gradle file (usually app/build.gradle):

android {
    compileOptions {
        sourceCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
        targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
    }
}

Step 5 (optional). Request READ_PHONE_STATE permission

When a user accesses the Internet through a cellular network, Instana Agent has the ability to report the specific type of cellular network.

In order to enable the reporting of the cellular network type, your app needs to request the READ_PHONE_STATE permission. Please refer to the Request App Permissions section in the official Android documentation.

If your app doesn't request the permission or if the user declines it, Instana Agent will simply not report the cellular network type.

Supported network clients

Instana Android Agent is currently capable of automatically tracking events for the following network clients:

• OkHttp3
• HttpURLConnection
• Retrofit

You can use manual tracking to add support for any client yourself, or please consider contributing to the project.

Additional configuration settings

The configuration described in Step 3 is the minimum configuration you must provide to Instana Agent to function.

Please check for additional options in the Android API documentation.

Examples

Please head over to the android-agent-examples repository to find multiple usage examples of the Instana Android Agent.

You can also find an example in this repo's instana-example folder. Just please be aware that this is an example meant to be used during the development of the Android Agent, and therefore might contain usages of the Agent that are more complex that what you need for your situation.