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Application Analytics

When you are creating an application for a broad audience, integrating some kind of analytics framework is crucial, because you will need to analyze the usage data of the application and its features and most probably you will need to know about any application crashes or other errors occurred during the execution. Using Analytics you will be able to trace certain features of the controls and get statistics about their usage.

This article will discuss the following topics:

With the discontinuation of the Telerik Platform as of R2 2018 SP1 (version 2018.2.621) we've also removed the two dependent assemblies from our suite - EQATEC.Analytics.Monitor.dll and Telerik.WinControls.Analytics.dll. The respective NuGet packages have been removed as well. Instead, the ITraceMonitor interface should be used as explained below.

ITraceMonitor Interface

With the R1 2014 release UI for WinForms exposes the ITraceMonitor interface which represents a monitor receiving trace events from the UI for WinForms controls.

You need to implement the following methods in order to receive trace events from the controls used in your application:

  • TrackAtomicFeature: This method is called when an atomic feature is executed.
  • TrackFeatureStart: This method is called when a feature is initiated.
  • TrackFeatureEnd: This method is called when a feature finishes execution.
  • TrackFeatureCancel: This method is called when a feature is canceled.
  • TrackError: Traces an error in a specified feature.
  • TrackValue: This method is called when a value connected with a specific feature is tracked.

Once you've created your implementation of the interface in accordance to your provider of choice you need to set the static TraceMonitor.AnalyticsMonitor property as per the example below.

ITraceMonitor Instance

ControlTraceMonitor.AnalyticsMonitor = new CustomAnalitycsMonitor();

ControlTraceMonitor.AnalyticsMonitor = New CustomAnalitycsMonitor()

How Analytics Works

Each control has analytics enabled by default, on control basis analytics can be disabled by setting the control`s EnableAnalytics property to false. Having analytics enabled, all one needs to do to start tracing the application usage is to set the AnalyticsName property for each control. Note that the value which is set will be used in the dashboard.

Set AnalyticsName

this.radButton1.EnableAnalytics = true; // default value
this.radButton1.AnalyticsName = "Save Button";

Me.RadButton1.EnableAnalytics = True
' default value
Me.RadButton1.AnalyticsName = "Save Button"

You can then go to the dashboard of your analytics provider, where you will find information and statistics for the registered features for different periods of time.

Disable Analytics

this.radButton1.EnableAnalytics = false;

Me.RadButton1.EnableAnalytics = False

Traceable Features

Currently only few controls support analytics out of the box. Note that only user interactions will be tracked - initial values and values from Bindings are not supported. You can find below a list of the controls and their features that support tracing:

Control Traceable events and methods
ColorPicker SelectionChanged
RadAutocompleteBox InsertText
RadBindingNavigator MoveToFirst, MoveToPrevious, MoveToNext, MoveToLast
RadButton Click
RadBulletGraph ValueChanged
RadCalendar SelectionChaned, Navigation, ViewChanged
RadCarousel Selection
RadChartView Zoom, Pan, SelectionChanged
RadCheckedDropDownList Checked, Popup open close
RadCollapsiblePanel Expand, Collapse
RadColorBox SelectionChanged
RadContextMenu Open, Close, Click (RadContextMenu.DropDown)
RadDataEntry Editing, Insert/Delete, MoveToFirst, MoveToPrevious, MoveToNext, MoveToLast
RadDataLayout Customize open, Item rearrange (via drag and drop, resize or context menu)
RadDateTimePicker ValueChanged
RadDiagram Move, Resize, Add, Delete
RadDock Save layout, Load layout, Float a pane, Dock a pane, Add window, Remove window
RadDropDownButton DropDownOpened, DropDownClosed
RadDropdownList SelectionChanged, DropDownOpened, DropDownClosed
RadForm SelectionChanged, DropDownOpened, DropDownClosed
RadGanttView Collapse task, Expand task, Edit task, Selected task
RadGridView MoveToFirst, MoveToPrevious, MoveToNext, MoveToLast,
RadGridView - Paging MoveToFirst, MoveToPrevious, MoveToNext, MoveToLast
RadLayoutControl Customize open, Item rearrange (via drag and drop, resize or context menu)
RadLinearGauge ValueChanged
RadListControl SelectionChanged
RadMasketEditBox SelectionChanged
RadMenu Click
RadPageView - ExplorerBar Expand, Collapse, SelectionChanged
RadPageView - Strip SelectionChanged
RadPanorama Reordering, Scrolling
RadPdfViewer Load Document, Print, Print Preview
RadPivotGrid Begin refresh, Complete refresh, Expand group header, Collapse group header, DragDrop field, Export
RadPopupEditor Popup open close
RadPropertyGrid Sorting, Grouping, Editing, Searching, Expanding Groups, Expanding nested definition
RadRadialGauge ValueChanged
RadRadioButton Checked, Unchecked
RadRibbonBar SelectionChanged
RadRichTextBox Open Document, Save Document
RadRichTextEditor New, Open, Save, Print, PrintPreview
RadScheduler ViewChanged, Import, Export, Editing, Creating, DragAndDrop, Resize, ShowDialog
RadSpinEditor SelectionChanged
RadSpreadSheet Open Document, Save Document, Hyperlink Click
RadTimePicker ValueChanged
RadToggleButton Checked, Unchecked
RadToggleSwitch Checked, Unchecked
RadTrackBar SelectionChanged
RadTreeView Select, Expand/Collapse, SelectionChanged, Edit, NodeRemoved
RadWaitingBar StartWaiting, EndWaiting
Exporting features in controls All export providers(including async exports) - when export operation is completed
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