Skip to main content

Crash Reporting

Embrace is so much more than just a crash reporting service. Still, knowing when and how your application crashed is important. Embrace can either use its own internal crash reporting logic or work alongside an existing solution like Crashlytics.

Setting up the Crash Reporter​

The first step in initializing crash reporting is configuring which mode you want Embrace to operate in. Embrace can be your primary crash reporter, or you can add Firebase Crashlytics as the crash reporter to send crashes to both Embrace and Firebase.

The crash reporter is added in the SDK configuration step. If you do not add another crash reporter, Embrace's will be used by default. Import the dependency with import EmbraceCrashlyticsSupport

If you choose to use Crashlytics, Embrace will mirror reports sent to Crashlytics so you will still have that data available in the Embrace Dashboard. First, add the module:

  • import EmbraceCrashlyticsSupport when using Swift Package Manager
  • pod EmbraceIO/EmbraceCrashlyticsSupport when using Cocoapods

Then, import the dependency when you initialize the SDK:

//import Embrace support module so that Embrace dashboard mirrors Crashlytics data
import EmbraceCrashlyticsSupport
import EmbraceIO

try Embrace.setup(
    options: Embrace.Options(
        appId: "Your App ID",
        ...
        crashReporter: CrashlyticsReporter(),
        ...
    )
)
Turning off crash reporting

The crashReporter argument is optional. If you wish not to use any crash reporting (including Embrace's crash reporting), you can set this value to nil

Triggering a Crash​

You can trigger a crash in your app organically, or Embrace provides a test crash function you can call from anywhere in your application.

Important

Obviously, this function will crash your app. Use it for testing purposes and be sure not to include it in production code.

Embrace.client?.crash()
Note on debugging

It is important when testing crashes to not be connected to any debugger. Xcode is itself a debugger, as it can attach itself to a program and stop/start/pause/modify that program. This includes stepping through and around exceptions and signals.

When trying to test crashes, this functionality is always in the way. If you can, test on a device that is no longer plugged into your Mac, and launch the app by tapping the icon directly. On the Simulator, run the app once with Xcode, press stop, then tap the app icon in the Simulator directly to launch it without Xcode.

Embrace sessions only upload on subsequent launches after crashes have occurred. This means that after seeing the application crash, you must now launch the application again for that crashed session to upload to the Embrace servers.

Once uploaded you should notice that your session is marked with the "crashed" icon. Additionally your crash is visible in the crashes section of the dashboard.