Implementing Posthog Analytics in Flutter Tutorial
December 23, 2024

Implementing Posthog Analytics in Flutter Tutorial

Previous article: Part 2: Implementing Logger and Server Analysis

PostHog is a powerful open source analytics platform that provides comprehensive user behavior tracking. In this article, we will implement PostHog analysis in Flutter using our analysis architecture.


PostHog settings

You need to follow the following series of steps to prepare flutter for posthog.


1.PostHog account creation

access postg website And use email, google or github to register to create your account.


2. Project settings

When you open a new account, you’ll see the default items that are already turned on.

  • Click Drop-down arrow next to name > Click The gear icon opens settings.
  • Give your project a custom name.
  • Scroll down and copy API_KEY value
  • Also note that if the area is us or European Union


3. Flutter package setting + configuration

  1. add package posthog_flutter for you pubspec.yaml.
  2. Add the following lines to your AndroidManifest.xml in Label

....
     android:name="com.posthog.posthog.AUTO_INIT" android:value="false" />

Enter full screen mode

Exit full screen mode

The reason we disable AUTO_INIT is that we will provide configuration in the flutter code. This allows us to apply dynamic logic to flavors.

  1. Do the same thing in ios Info.plist document:
<dict>
    ....
    <key>com.posthog.posthog.AUTO_INIT</key>
    <false/>
</dict>
Enter full screen mode

Exit full screen mode

  1. exist main.dart Or whatever your entry file is, add the following code:
import 'package:posthog_flutter/posthog_flutter.dart';
....
Future<void> main() async {
  WidgetsBinding.ensureInitialized();
  final config = PostHogConfig(`<YOUR_API_KEY>`)
    ..debug = true
    ..captureApplicationLifecycleEvents = true // Allows tracking backgrounded, foregrounded etc. events
    ..host = 'https://us.i.posthog.com'; // or for EU Region 'https://eu.i.posthog.com'
  await Posthog().setup(config);

  runApp();
}
Enter full screen mode

Exit full screen mode


PostHog analytics implementation

our PosthogAnalyticsClient implement AnalyticsClientBase Signing a contract when using PostHog’s specific API:


Main features

  • user identification
  • event tracking
  • screen tracking
  • Custom properties
  • User properties
  • Session management


Attach users to analytics events

When you initially track events, they do so anonymously. Posthog provides ways to attach events to consumers and maintain a healthy session. To attach an event to the logged in user, you can use the identify() method:

await Posthog().identify(
   userId: userId,
   userProperties: { // optional
     'email': email,
     'role': role,
   },
)
Enter full screen mode

Exit full screen mode

Thereafter, all tracked events will be automatically attached to your logged in user based on their userId. If you wish to log out a user, be sure to call reset() This way you can identify the next user to log in.

await Posthog().reset();
Enter full screen mode

Exit full screen mode


Track screen view

If you want to track screen changes, use:

_posthog.screen(
  screenName: routeName,
  properties: {'action': action},
)
Enter full screen mode

Exit full screen mode


custom event

Or for custom events use:

_posthog.capture(
  eventName: 'button_pressed',
  properties: {
    'button_name': buttonName,
    ...?data,
  },
);
Enter full screen mode

Exit full screen mode


Implementation Notes

  • Using posthog in this way allows for maximum flexibility and provides a nice wrapper around the original approach.


Coming soon

exist Part 4: Establish a unified analytics service look and feelwe will bring everything together through facade services to seamlessly manage multiple analytics clients.

2024-12-23 09:52:32

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *