Question

I am trying to use this feature (Google Analytics) in my app and can’t figure out what is the best way to do it.

In first place I began to implement this in each Activity of the application.

public class MyActivity extends Activity {

    public static GoogleAnalyticsTracker tracker;   

    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        tracker = GoogleAnalyticsTracker.getInstance();
        tracker.start("UA-YOUR-ACCOUNT-HERE", this);

        tracker.trackPageView("/myActivityView");
    }

    @Override
    public void onDestroy() {
        // Stop the tracker when it is no longer needed.
        tracker.stop();
        super.onDestroy();
    }
}

But now I am thinking it would be better to create just one tracker at Application class and reference it from every Activity instead of repeat this code in each Activity I do create.

Can anyone explain which way is better and why?

Thanks.

Answer 1

This: Google Analytics in Android app – dealing with multiple activities

is a good read for coming up with a strategy for using Google Analytics in your Android apps.

In essence, you shouldn’t call start()/stop() per activity because start() causes a new visit to be logged which isn’t what most people intend or expect. However if this is the behavior you want, you are free to do it that way.

As Lukas said using a singleton or as you said using the Application context to call start()/stop() will get you more accurate tracking, but there are caveats when calling stop() that you need to be aware of. The link above goes into more detail.