Getting Started with iOS Data Capture

 

Using native data capture on iOS requires adding the Fullstory capture framework to your app. You can add the Fullstory framework to your app in several ways. Choose the approach that best integrates with your existing app build and follow the setup instructions linked below.

As you're implementing the instructions below, you may find it useful to reference a sample app with Fullstory integrated. We have an example of the SDK being implemented into an iOS app here.

Setup

1. Adding the Fullstory framework

2. Add the Plugin Properties

To complete the Fullstory integration, you need to tell the framework which Fullstory organization to capture data to.

• Open your app's Info.plist
• From the menu, choose Editor > Add Item.  Set the key name to FullStory, and the type to "Dictionary".
• Right click on the FullStory row, and choose "Add Row".  Set the key name to OrgId, and the type to "String".  For the value, paste in your assigned organization ID.

When configured correctly, the Info.plist entry should look as follows:

Possible Info.plist configurations:

Property	Options	Description
OrgId	Required	Your Org ID
LogLevel (optional)	Default: debug Options: assert, error, warn, info, debug	Capture FS.log() messages at or above the specified level
RecordOnStart (optional)	Default: true Options: true, false	Prevent Fullstory from starting data capture on App Startup
IncludeAssets (optional)	Default: nil Options: varies	Specify webview file types to upload for playback. This is strongly recommended if you intend to capture WebViews
ServerUrl (optional)	Default: https://fullstory.com Options: varies	Specify the server url to route Fullstory traffic through
PreviewMode (optional)	Default: false Options: true, false	Capture sessions in preview mode

 

Setting Org ID

Add your Org ID, which can be obtained by logging into Fullstory. Navigate to Settings > Data Capture and Privacy > Fullstory Setup, where you should see a line that looks like the following:window['_fs_org'] = 'XXXXX';. This string is your Org ID. For additional help finding your Org ID, check out this article.

Additionally, when you login to your Fullstory account, your Org ID can be found in the URL of your browser.

https://app.fullstory.com/ui/<ORG_ID>/home

Capture FS.log() Messages

By default, Fullstory will capture any Log statements sent via FS.log() API above and at 'debug' level in your application. To change this behavior, update your logLevel flag.

logLevel 'error'

Any message sent below the specified level will not be sent to Fullstory. For example, if 'info' level is specified, 'debug' and 'log' messages will not be sent. Available options:

• assert
• error
• warning
• info
• debug

Prevent Fullstory from starting data capture on App Startup

By default, Fullstory will start data capture on app startup. If you want to only start data capture once certain conditions are met, you can set RecordOnStart flag to false, which will prevent data capture until FS.restart() API is explicitly invoked.

RecordOnStart false

Configuring a Relay Server

Requires version 1.37.0+

By default, Fullstory routes traffic through "https://fullstory.com." To instead route Fullstory traffic through a Relay server, you may add a ServerUrl key, of type String, with a value of your server's url.

 

Using Fullstory's Advanced Features

Identifying users and passing custom data to Fullstory

The FS.identify and FS.setUserVars enables you to enrich your Fullstory data with additional variables for use in searches, segments, and integrations. This functionality allows you to pass user information to Fullstory directly from your mobile app. The parameters are:

Objective-C

• [FS identify:userVars:] takes a NSString and an optional NSDictionary<NSString *, id>
• [FS setUserVars:] takes a NSDictionary<NSString *, id>

Swift

• FS.identify(_:userVars:) takes a String and an optional [String : Any]
• FS.setUserVars(_:) takes a [String : Any]

 

Fullstory Initialization Callback

You can implement FSDelegate to get notified of session data when Fullstory is fully initialized and ready to be used.

Objective-C

// File: Appdelegate.m
 
 // Set the FS delegate in `didFinishLaunchingWithOptions`
FS.delegate = self;
 
 // Implement the optional methods
- (void)fullstoryDidTerminateWithError:(NSError *)error {}
- (void)fullstoryDidStartSession:(NSString *)sessionUrl {}
- (void)fullstoryDidStopSession {}

 

Identify

Identify is used to associate your own application-specific id with the active user.

Objective-C

NSString *userId = @"13ff474bae77"; // replace with your user’s Id
NSDictionary *info = @{ 
@"email": @"user@example.com", 
@"displayName": @"Shopping User"
 };
 
 [FS identify:userId userVars:info];

Swift

In order for Fullstory to be imported and used in Swift you’ll need to make sure that you’ve configured an Objective-C bridging header and @import FullStory; in the bridging header. See Apple’s Importing Objective-C into Swift documentation for help with adding the header.

let userId = "13ff474bae77" // replace with your user’s Id
 let info = ["email": "user1@example.com", 
"displayName": "Shopping User"
]
 FS.identify(userId, userVars: info)

 

Fullstory for Mobile Apps Privacy rules

For more information about configuring privacy rules and masking, please consult our Fullstory for Mobile Apps Privacy Rules guide. 

 

Turning mobile data capture on or off

Mobile data capture can be toggled on or off from Settings > Data Capture and Privacy > Mobile Data Capture. This applies across your entire Fullstory account.

 

Configuring domain allowlisting for WebViews

If your application makes use of WebViews, you must explicitly allowlist any domain you wish to capture within a WebView. For security and privacy reasons, you should only allowlist domains which are under your control. Wildcards and subdomains are supported using the same scheme as Web domain settings. If your application doesn’t use WebViews or you don’t care to capture within WebViews, you can safely ignore this section.

These settings can be configured from Settings > Data Capture and Privacy > Mobile Data Capture.

Note:  Fullstory SDK can capture contents of WKWebView (iOS) /WebView (Android) but not SFSafariViewController (iOS) /Chrome Custom Tabs (Android). Fullstory for Web may be used to capture contents of SFSafariViewController/Chrome Custom Tabs, but they will be displayed as separate sessions

 

Asset Uploading for WebViews

By default, the Fullstory build-time tool for iOS (FullStoryCommandLine) uploads image assets that are part of the Assets.car files. Additionally, it searches inside the .app bundle for image assets of file types .jpg, .jpeg and .png within the /assets directory, and also resources of file type .css within the /www directory. For a refresher on the standard iOS app bundle directory hierarchy, consult Apple’s documentation.

Applications that use web technologies heavily (or that include image files outside of an Assets.car) may need to upload other assets in order for playback to work correctly. To configure the tool to look for additional file types and/or in different directories, you will add an entry in the FullStory dictionary of your Info.plist named IncludeAssets.

• Right click on the FullStory row within Info.plist, and choose "Add Row". Set the key name to IncludeAssets, and the type to "Dictionary".
• Right click on the IncludeAssets row, and choose "Add Row".  Set the key name to the directory name, and the type to "Array". You only need to add a root directory, as the Fullstory build-time tool will recursively search any child directories.
• Right click on the directory row and choose "Add Row".  Set the value to the extension of the file type you want to include. You may add multiple file types. Repeat this process for each additional directory.

Below is an example that includes css files in any directories under <bundleroot>/my_directory, and any css, ttf, and jpeg files under <bundleroot>/my_other_directory:

 

Additional topics

Fullstory for SwiftUI Apps

For customers who are already familiar with using Fullstory on iOS with UIKit or React Native apps, Fullstory’s SwiftUI support is a bit different. To learn more, read our article What's Different in Fullstory for SwiftUI? Or the how-to companion article, Integrating Fullstory into a SwiftUI App.

 

Integrate Fullstory Logs with your App Logging Framework

Data Capture Logs can help you troubleshoot app issues, as well as uncover unintended behavior. In this guide, we're going to review a few popular logging frameworks and how you can integrate them with Fullstory.

 

Impact on App Size

For apps downloaded from the App Store, after app thinning Fullstory's framework will add ~2MB to your app size.

For apps downloaded from the App Store prior to Apple using app thinning by default (pre-iOS 11), Fullstory’s framework adds ~9MB to your uncompressed app size on device but only ~2.8MB to your compressed download size. (Note that compression rates can vary by app.)

To learn more about how app thinning impacts app size, please refer to Apple documentation here: Reducing your app’s size.

Note that FullStory.framework will occupy more space in developer builds. We ship a universal framework that includes a variant for each architecture we support. Currently, that’s arm64, armv7, and x86_64. The full universal framework adds ~9MB uncompressed to your app, but that’s because app thinning / slicing doesn’t happen for developer builds.

 

Troubleshooting Missing Assets

Requires version 1.47.0+

If an app was built without running FullStoryCommandLine, sessions will be missing some Assets (Images, Stylesheets, etc.) during playback. To remedy this, use the included FullStoryCommandLine to backfill the missing Assets as below:

1. Unzip/Extract your YourApp.app file from the YourApp.ipa archive
2. Navigate to the directory where you have the FullStoryCommandLine and make sure that FullStoryCommandLine.simulator also exists
3. Run ./FullStoryCommandLine YourApp.app --backfill
4. Verify that playback now includes the previously missing Assets. Also confirm that calls to map.json are no longer resulting in 403 on your Browser Network Inspector

 

Fullstory API

For information on usage, visit our developer docs.