lightstep-tracer-android

The LightStep distributed tracing library for Android.

• Getting Started
  • Android
• API documentation
• Options

Getting started: Android

The Android library is hosted on Bintray, jcenter, and Maven Central. The Bintray lightstep-tracer-android project contains additional installation and setup information for using the library with various build systems such as Ivy and Maven.

Gradle

In most cases, modifying your build.gradle with the below is all that is required:

repositories {
    jcenter() // OR mavenCentral()
}
dependencies {
    compile 'com.lightstep.tracer:lightstep-tracer-android:VERSION'
}

• If using the grpc transport, use the 0.3x.x version family.
• If using the okhttp transport, use the 0.2x.x version family. This is the recommended deployment.

See more in the Maven section and Gradle sections.

Update your AndroidManifest.xml

Ensure the app's AndroidManifest.xml has the following (under the <manifest> tag):

<!-- Permissions required to make http calls -->
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />

Initializing the LightStep Tracer

// Import the OpenTracing interfaces
import io.opentracing.Span;
import io.opentracing.Tracer;

// ...

protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

    // Initialize LightStep tracer implementation in the main activity
    // (or anywhere with a valid android.content.Context).
    this.tracer = new com.lightstep.tracer.android.Tracer(
         this,
         new com.lightstep.tracer.shared.Options.OptionsBuilder()
            .withAccessToken("{your_access_token}")
            .build()
    );

    // Start and finish a Span
    Span span = this.tracer.buildSpan("my_span").start();
    this.doSomeWorkHere();
    span.finish();

API Documentation

Tracing instrumentation should use the OpenTracing APIs to stay portable and in sync with the standard:

• OpenTracing API (javadoc)

For reference, the generated LightStep documentation is also available:

• lightstep-tracer-android (javadoc)

Options

Setting a custom component name

To set the name used in the LightStep UI for this instance of the Tracer, call withComponentName() on the OptionsBuilder object:

options = new com.lightstep.tracer.shared.Options.OptionsBuilder()
                      .withAccessToken("{your_access_token}")
                      .withComponentName("your_custom_name")
                      .build();

Disabling the reporting loop

By default, the Java library does a report of any buffered data on a fairly regular interval. To disable this behavior and rely only on explicit calls to flush() to report data, initialize with:

options = new com.lightstep.tracer.shared.Options.OptionsBuilder()
                      .withAccessToken("{your_access_token}")
                      .withDisableReportingLoop(true)
                      .build();

To then manually flush by using the LightStep tracer object directly:

// Flush any buffered tracing data
((com.lightstep.tracer.android.Tracer)tracer).flush();

Flushing the report at exit

In order to send a final flush of the data prior to exit, clients should manually flush by using the LightStep tracer object as described above.

Disabling default clock correction

By default, the Java library performs clock correction based on timestamp information provided in the spans. To disable this behavior, initialize with:

options = new com.lightstep.tracer.shared.Options.OptionsBuilder()
                      .withAccessToken("{your_access_token}")
                      .withClockSkewCorrection(false)
                      .build();

Advanced Option: Transport and Serialization Protocols

By following the above configuration, the tracer will send information to LightStep using HTTP and Protocol Buffers which is the recommended configuration. If there are no specific transport protocol needs you have, there is no need to change this default.

There are two options for transport protocols:

• Protocol Buffers over HTTP using OkHttp 3 - The recommended and default solution. Supported in the 0.25.x version family, as OkHttp 3 runs under the supported Android versions.
• Protocol Buffers over GRPC - This is a more advanced solution that might be desirable if you already have gRPC networking configured. Use the 0.30.x version family.

You can configure the tracer to support gRPC by replacing com.lightstep.tracer:tracer-okhttp with com.lightstep.tracer:tracer-grpc when including the tracer dependency and including a grpc dependency. i.e.

Maven

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.lightstep.tracer</groupId>
  <artifactId>lightstep-tracer-android</artifactId>
  <version> VERSION </version>
</dependency>

<!-- Additional dependency if using the grpc/0.3x.x family -->
<dependency>
   <groupId>com.lightstep.tracer</groupId>
   <artifactId>tracer-grpc</artifactId>
   <version> VERSION </version>
</dependency>

Gradle

repositories {
    mavenCentral() // OR jcenter()
}
dependencies {
    compile 'com.lightstep.tracer:lightstep-tracer-android:VERSION'

    // Additional dependency if using the grpc/0.3x.x family
    compile 'com.lightstep.tracer:tracer-grpc:VERSION'
}

Development info

See DEV.md for information on contributing to this instrumentation library.