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Xamarin

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Xamarin has been deprecated by Microsoft since 2021, and it will discontinue support from May 1st, 2024. We won't provide any further updates or support for this Xamarin SDK

Xamarin

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A Sample Xamarin app using Bugfender is available at Github Bugfender Xamarin

Bugfender is a game-changing platform that logs every detail your users experience and feeds the data directly to an easy-to-use web console. Bugfender SDK is multi-platform and available for mobile and web apps, so you can use the same tool for all your apps.

Specifically for Xamarin developers, Bugfender offers powerful capabilities to remotely monitor and debug any log or error. You can easily reproduce and fix issues using our detailed log viewer and the stack trace of exceptions.

If you don't have a Bugfender account yet, go to Bugfender Signup and come back here.

Usage​

Add the NuGet to your project​

  • Download the SDK folder from here: Bugfender SDK for Xamarin.
  • Add the NuGet Bugfender.Sdk to both your iOS and Android projects.

Adding Bugfender to your iOS project​

Edit AppDelegate.cs and initialize Bugfender in the FinishedLaunching method, like this:

using Bugfender.Sdk;

// ...

public override bool FinishedLaunching(UIApplication application, NSDictionary launchOptions)
{
    BugfenderBinding bugfender = BugfenderBinding.Instance;
    bugfender.ActivateLogger("YOUR APP KEY", true); // true == enable logging to console
    bugfender.EnableUIEventLogging();
    bugfender.EnableXamarinCrashReporting();
    bugfender.WriteLine("Logs for this device are here: {0}", bugfender.DeviceUri.ToString());
    bugfender.Warning("TAG", "This is a warning");
    bugfender.Error("TAG", "This is an error!");
    return true;
}
note
  • Remember to change YOUR_APP_KEY_HERE with the app key of your app. You can get an app key by signing up to Bugfender. For all the available options see our reference.
  • Edit your project > Options > iOS Bundle Signing > Custom Entitlements and ensure it is set to Entitlements.plist for all configurations and platforms.

Adding Bugfender to your Android project​

If you don't have one, create a new application class by right-clicking on Your Project > New File... > General > Empty Class. Then add the following code (in this example the class is called SampleApplication, you can name it whatever you want):

using System;
using Android.App;
using Android.Runtime;

using Com.Bugfender.Sdk;

[Application]
public class SampleApplication : Application
{
    public SampleApplication(IntPtr handle, JniHandleOwnership ownerShip) : base(handle, ownerShip)
    {
    }

    public override void OnCreate()
    {
        base.OnCreate();
        BugfenderBinding bugfender = BugfenderBinding.Instance;
        bugfender.ActivateLogger("YOUR APP KEY", true); // true == enable logging to console
        bugfender.EnableUIEventLogging(this);
        bugfender.EnableXamarinCrashReporting();
        bugfender.WriteLine("Logs for this device are here: {0}", bugfender.DeviceUri.ToString());
        bugfender.Warning("TAG", "This is a warning");
        bugfender.Error("TAG", "This is an error!");
    }
}
note

Remember to change YOUR_APP_KEY_HERE with the app key of your app. You can get an app key by signing up to Bugfender. For all the available options see our reference.

Quick reference​

Setup​

  • void ActivateLogger(string appToken, bool printToConsole): enables Bugfender. Call this as soon as the application is launched.
  • void EnableXamarinCrashReporting(): enables crash reports.
  • UInt32 MaximumLocalStorageSize { set; }: change the amount of storage the log cache can take on disk. The size is in bytes and can be up to 50 megabytes.
  • Uri DeviceUri { get; }: the device URI can be used to see the logs of this device in the Bugfender Dashboard. Useful if you want to integrate Bugfender deeper in your workflow, such as showing the Bugfender URL of a device in your help desk software.
  • Uri SessionUri { get; }: similar to DeviceUri, points to the logs of the current execution of hte app.
  • void ForceSendOnce(): forces the SDK to send logs for the current session. Can be useful if you want to inspect the logs only for some sessions. Take a look at SendIssue().
  • bool ForceEnabled { set; }: forces the SDK to send logs, even if the device is disabled from the dashboard. Use with caution because there is no way to disable logging from the dashboard if you change your mind, prefer to enable devices from the dashboard instead.

Sending logs​

  • Use WriteLine("hello world") as you would use the system-provided Console, Trace or Debug objects.
  • Use Fatal()/Error()/Warning()/Info()/Debug()/Trace() to log events with a certain level. For example Error("this shouldn't happen")
  • You can also specify a tag to easily group logs that belong to the same category, for example Error("Networking", "Server responded with status 500").
  • Use void Log(int lineNumber, String method, String file, LogLevel logLevel, String tag, String message) if you wan to provide all details for each log.

Tip: If your project is currently Console/Trace/Debug to write logs, you can search & replace them to Bugfender to get started quickly.

Custom device associated data​

  • void SetDeviceString(string key, string value): associates data to this device so you can search for this device. You can set details like the user ID, so later on you can find the device corresponding to a user easily.
  • void SetDeviceInteger(string key, int value): same for integers.
  • void SetDeviceFloat(string key, float value): same for floats.
  • void RemoveDeviceKey(string key): removes data associated from a device.

Send rich data​

  • Uri SendIssue(string title, string markdown): send information about an exceptional situation you need to look into. This will force all logs in the current session to be sent, even if log sending is disabled.
  • Uri SendUserFeedback(string subject, string message): send user feedback that will appear in the dashboard. This will force all logs in the current session to be sent, even if log sending is disabled.
  • Uri SendCrash(string title, string text): manually send crash information. Usually you do not want to use this,enable automated crash reporting instead. This will force all logs in the current session to be sent, even if log sending is disabled.

Full reference​

This project is wrapping the native iOS and Android SDKs. You have the full reference here:

Note on Xamarin.Forms​

The Bugfender Xamarin SDK can not be imported directly in .NET projects, because it's a wrapper of the iOS and Android native SDKs. Therefore, you can use the SDK in an Android application, iOS application or a "Shared" project that Xamarin creates for your convenience.

Xamarin applications should have an iOS and Android project that extends from your Forms application and they should be initialized with the code above.