Will Firebase Analytics work from the simulator in Xcode?

Question

In an IOS app I have

and I ensured the plist "defeat" entry is not there, and then I have analytics events like

 Analytics.logEvent("touchedButton", parameters: nil)

In fact, if I run the app just in the Xcode simulator .. are these events reported to Firebase Analytics and show up?

Or perhaps if you build to an iPhone?

Or does it only work if it's an actual build which has gone through TestFlight?

Surprisingly I couldn't find this info anywhere.

Is it precisely here that such custom events will show:

Answer 1

Yes, both simulator or device will work.

If you haven't already read, read their getting started tutorials, it covers most of it https://firebase.google.com/docs/analytics/ios/start

A couple of points

1. Make sure when you configure your Firestore settings , you enable analytics

AnalyticsConfiguration.shared().setAnalyticsCollectionEnabled(true)

I do all of this initial settings in AppDelegate

something like

//init Firebase
        FirebaseConfiguration.shared.setLoggerLevel(.min)
        FirebaseApp.configure()
        Fabric.with([Crashlytics.self])
        let _ = FirebaseConfig.sharedInstance // This is a custom singelton class where I enable the analytics

2. In Scheme settings for your target you need to add -FIRAnalyticsDebugEnabled

As you can see I have also a disable option there, sometimes analytics goes crazy and spams the console , so I'd like to disable it with . -FIRDebugDisabled

3. Analytics clusters your events unless you specify it is a custom event.

For example I use following to tag the viewcontroller names

    func logEvent(eventTitle:String , eventContent:String)
{
    Analytics.logEvent(AnalyticsEventSelectContent, parameters: [
        AnalyticsParameterItemID: "AppName-\(eventTitle)" as NSObject,
        AnalyticsParameterItemName: eventTitle as NSObject,
        AnalyticsParameterContentType: eventContent as NSObject
        ])
}

But int the firestore these are clustered under select_content section because I used AnalyticsEventSelectContent key when creating the log.

Under main events screen , select_content my view controlers logged with above function

4.There is a specific DebugView in the FirestoreConsole that works with a device, it updates every 60 seconds as long as settings for -FIRAnalyticsDebugEnabled is true in the scheme.

5. There is a significant delay in the Event Section of Firestore console, I don't know why this happens, but sometimes there is a delay up to 15 - 30 mins. Havent researched that issue yet, it really doesnt bother me.

Answer 2

Just follow https://firebase.google.com/docs/analytics/ios/start

To enable Analytics Debug mode on your development device, specify the following command line argument in Xcode :

-FIRDebugEnabled

It works perfectly for Simulator and device.

Note: For react-native debugging, launch app from xcode with the selected scheme and not with 'yarn ios', then it works perfectly for Simulator also