Analytics Kotlin Firebase Plugin
Firebase is Google’s platform for mobile apps. The Segment Firebase destination requires that you bundle the Firebase SDK with your project. The Segment-wrapped destination code then runs on the user’s device, and sends its tracking calls to the Firebase API endpoints, and a copy to Segment for archiving.
Firebase’s destination plugin code is open source and available on GitHub.
Adding the dependency
To install the Segment-Firebase integration, simply add this line to your gradle file:
implementation 'com.segment.analytics.kotlin.destinations:firebase:<latest_version>'
Or the following for Kotlin DSL
implementation('com.segment.analytics.kotlin.destinations:firebase:<latest_version>')
Using the Plugin in your App
Open the file where you setup and configure the Analytics-Kotlin library. Add this plugin to the list of imports.
import com.segment.analytics.kotlin.destinations.firebase.FirebaseDestination
Just under your Analytics-Kotlin library setup, call analytics.add(plugin = ...)
to add an instance of the plugin to the Analytics timeline.
analytics = Analytics("<YOUR WRITE KEY>", applicationContext) {
this.flushAt = 3
this.trackApplicationLifecycleEvents = true
}
analytics.add(plugin = FirebaseDestination(applicationContext))
Your events will now begin to flow to Firebase in device mode.
Identify
When you call identify
Segment will map to the corresponding Firebase Analytics calls:
- If there is a
userId
on youridentify
call, Segment triggerssetUserId
using the Firebase SDK - If there are traits included, Segment will set user properties for each trait you include on the
identify
call
You can use these traits to create audiences and views to analyze your users’ behavior.
Note: Google prohibits sending PII to Firebase unless “robust notice” is given to your app users. For iOS apps, some Analytics features, such as audiences and campaign attribution, and some user properties, such as Age and Interests, require the AdSupport framework to be enabled.
Learn more about Firebase’s reporting dashboard here.
Firebase has strict requirements for User Property names; they must:
- Begin with a letter (not a number or symbol, including an underscore)
- Contain only alphanumeric characters and underscores
- Be no longer than 40 characters
User Property values must be fewer than 100 characters.
You are limited to 25 unique user properties per Firebase Console.
Firebase automatically collects these user properties.
Track
When you call track
Segment will log the event with Firebase. Firebase automatically tracks the events listed here and it will still do so when bundling with Segment.
Firebase has a limit of 500 distinctly named events so it pays off to be intentional in what you track.
When you call track
, Segment maps from the Segment spec to those that match Firebase’s spec. For anything that does not match, Segment will pass the event to Firebase as a custom event. Custom parameters cannot be seen directly in the Firebase Analytics dashboard but they can be used as filters in Audiences.
Like with user properties, Segment will perform the following transformations on both your event names and event parameters. Unlike user properties, you do not need to pre-define event parameters in your Firebase dashboard.
- Trims leading and trailing whitespace from property names
- Replaces spaces with underscores
- Trims property names to 40 characters (Android only)
Event parameter values must be fewer than 100 characters.
Event Mappings
Segment adheres to Firebase’s semantic event specification and maps the following Segment spec-matching events (left) to the corresponding Firebase events (right):
Segment Event | Firebase Event |
---|---|
Products Searched | search |
Product List Viewed | view_item_list |
Product Viewed | view_item |
Product Clicked | select_content |
Product Shared | share |
Product Added | add_to_cart |
Product Added To Wishlist | add_to_wishlist |
Checkout Started | begin_checkout |
Promotion Viewed | present_offer |
Payment Info Entered | add_payment_info |
Order Completed | purchase |
Order Refunded | purchase_refund |
Property Mappings
Segment maps the followed Segment spec-matching properties (left) to the corresponding Firebase event parameters (right):
Segment Property | Firebase Property | Accepted Value(s) |
---|---|---|
category |
item_category |
(String) “kitchen supplies” |
product_id |
item_id |
(String) “p1234” |
name |
item_name |
(String) “Le Creuset pot” |
price |
price |
(double) 1.0 |
quantity |
quantity |
(long) 1 |
query |
search_term |
(String) “Le Creuset” |
shipping |
shipping |
(double) 2.0 |
tax |
tax |
(double) 0.5 |
total |
value |
(double) 3.99 or (long) 3.99 |
revenue |
value |
(double) 3.99 or (long) 3.99 |
order_id |
transaction_id |
(String) “o555636” |
currency |
currency |
(String) “USD” |
Passing Revenue and Currency
Ecommerce events containing “revenue” or “total” must also include the appropriate ISO 4217 “currency” string for revenue data to populate to the Firebase dashboard. If a “currency” value is not included, Segment default to “USD”.
analytics.track("Order Completed", buildJsonObject {
put("orderId", "order-123")
put("revenue", 23.00)
put("currency", "USD")
});
Screen
Segment doesn’t map screen events to Firebase - that’s because Firebase’s SDK collects screen information out of the box for you.
For iOS, you can configure recordScreenViews
which will automatically track screen views, or pass in a screen manually using a screen call. You should be able to disable the Automatic Screen reporting by adding the plist flag FirebaseScreenReportingEnabled
to Info.plist
and set its value to NO
(Boolean).
Google Analytics for Firebase iOS does NOT support the case of manual-only screen reporting. Firebase only supports automatic + manual screen reporting or no screen reporting at all.
Conversion Tracking and Adwords Conversions
Firebase is Google’s recommended method for reporting conversions to Adwords. To use Firebase, track the conversion events as you normally would with Segment and Segment will send them through to Firebase.
Troubleshooting
Firebase has great logging. If you are having any issues, you can enable debug mode as outlined here.
This page was last modified: 29 May 2024
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