Distributed Tracing for Xamarin

Question

Distributed Tracing for Xamarin

Gnana jothi 5

Hi

I am having query

As we know we will be able to capture the trace from xamarin to app center and we can export all the log to Application Insights.

From the above approach we wont be able to trace issue, Where it is whether it is from Mobile side or API side?

Is there a way to trace an exception, log directly to Application insight in xamarin?

Are we able to capture trace from xamarin and send directly to Application Insights instead from App center using OpenTelemetry?

I see OpenTelemetry is not supporting for Mobile Application

Here the objective is

How we can trace the issue from xamarin mobile application insight to other application insight component?

Gnana jothi 5 Reputation points

2023-07-25T13:35:35.7333333+00:00

how to correlate Mobile(Xamarin.forms) App error telemetry with dependencies monitored in Application Insights

1 answer

Your answer

Gnana jothi 5 Reputation points

2023-07-25T13:35:35.7333333+00:00

how to correlate Mobile(Xamarin.forms) App error telemetry with dependencies monitored in Application Insights

Answer 1

Chathura Munasinghe 170

To correlate Mobile(Xamarin.forms) App error telemetry with dependencies monitored in Application Insights, you can use the following steps:

Enable distributed tracing in Application Insights.
Configure your Xamarin.Forms app to send traces to Application Insights.
Configure your dependencies to send traces to Application Insights.
Generate an error in your Xamarin.Forms app.

Here are the details of each step:

1. Enable distributed tracing in Application Insights

To enable distributed tracing in Application Insights, you need to set the EnableDistributedTracing property to true in the TelemetryConfiguration object.

2. Configure your Xamarin.Forms app to send traces to Application Insights

To configure your Xamarin.Forms app to send traces to Application Insights, you need to add the following code to your app:

using Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.Extensibility;

namespace MyApp
{
    public partial class MainPage : ContentPage
    {
        public MainPage()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            // Configure Application Insights to send traces to Application Insights.
            TelemetryConfiguration configuration = new TelemetryConfiguration();
            configuration.InstrumentationKey = "MyInstrumentationKey";
            configuration.ApplicationInsightsComponentId = "MyApplicationInsightsComponentId";

            // Enable distributed tracing in Application Insights.
            configuration.EnableDistributedTracing = true;

            // Create a TelemetryClient and start sending traces.
            TelemetryClient telemetryClient = new TelemetryClient(configuration);
            telemetryClient.Start();
        }
    }
}

3. Configure your dependencies to send traces to Application Insights

To configure your dependencies to send traces to Application Insights, you need to follow the instructions provided by the dependency's documentation.

4. Generate an error in your Xamarin.Forms app

Once you have configured your Xamarin.Forms app and your dependencies to send traces to Application Insights, you can generate an error in your app. When the error occurs, the trace will be sent to Application Insights.

You can then use the Application Insights portal to correlate the error telemetry with the dependencies that were involved in the error. This will help you to identify the source of the error and to troubleshoot the issue.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

Gnana jothi 5 Reputation points

2023-07-27T07:12:23.3333333+00:00

Hi @Chathura Munasinghe
I have implemented with your approach as above it shows error like this could you please help on this issue
I have installed Microsoft.ApplicationInsights nuget package in xamarin.forms projects

As I can see it was deprecated version. please suggest some working solution

Screenshot 2023-07-27 at 12.39.31 PM.png
Gnana jothi 5 Reputation points

2023-07-27T07:20:55.4033333+00:00

Please find attached Screenshots
Chathura Munasinghe 170 Reputation points

2023-07-27T16:11:21.4766667+00:00
HI, @Gnana jothi

You are correct, the code you have provided will not work. This is because the TelemetryConfiguration class is not supported in Xamarin.Forms.

To trace an exception in a Xamarin.Forms app, you can use the TrackException() method of the TelemetryClient class. This method takes an exception object as a parameter, sending the exception to Application Insights.

Here is an example of how to use the TrackException() method:

using Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.Extensibility; using Xamarin.Forms; namespace TestTelemetry { public partial class MainPage : ContentPage { public MainPage() { InitializeComponent(); // Create a TelemetryClient. TelemetryClient telemetryClient = new TelemetryClient(); // Try/catch block. try { // Do something that might throw an exception. } catch (Exception ex) { // Track the exception. telemetryClient.TrackException(ex); } } } }

This code will create an TelemetryClient object and then try to do something that might throw an exception. If an exception is thrown, the TrackException() method will be called to send the exception to Application Insights.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

Click "Accept Answer" and kindly give it an upvote if the answer is correct. If you have any more queries regarding the response,

Best regards,

Chathura Munasinghe.
Gnana jothi 5 Reputation points

2023-07-28T04:54:07.68+00:00

Hi @Chathura Munasinghe

The above code is fine. But how to configure Xamarin to Azure Application Insights. How to track trace correlation between Xamarin and other backend systems ?
Could you please provide the code for that?

Regards

Jothi S
Chathura Munasinghe 170 Reputation points

2023-07-28T05:24:54.4133333+00:00
Sure, here is the code for configuring Xamarin to Azure Application Insights and tracking trace correlation between Xamarin and other backend systems:

using Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.Extensibility; using Xamarin.Forms; namespace TestTelemetry { public partial class MainPage : ContentPage { public MainPage() { InitializeComponent(); // Create a TelemetryClient. TelemetryClient telemetryClient = new TelemetryClient(); // Configure Application Insights. telemetryClient.InstrumentationKey = "YourInstrumentationKey"; telemetryClient.ApplicationInsightsComponentId = "YourApplicationInsightsComponentId"; // Enable distributed tracing. telemetryClient.EnableDistributedTracing = true; // Track an exception. try { // Do something that might throw an exception. } catch (Exception ex) { // Track the exception. telemetryClient.TrackException(ex); } } } }

This code will configure the TelemetryClient object to use your Azure Application Insights instrumentation key and component ID. It will also enable distributed tracing, which will allow you to track the trace correlation between Xamarin and other backend systems.

To track the trace correlation between Xamarin and other backend systems, you need to configure the other backend systems to also send traces to Azure Application Insights. Once all of the systems are configured, you will be able to see the trace correlation in the Azure Application Insights portal.

Here are the steps on how to configure other backend systems to send traces to Azure Application Insights:

For each backend system, you need to obtain the instrumentation key and component ID for your Azure Application Insights instance.

You need to configure the backend system to send traces to Azure Application Insights using the instrumentation key and component ID.

The specific steps for configuring each backend system will vary depending on the system. For more information, you can refer to the documentation for the backend system.

Once you have configured all of the systems to send traces to Azure Application Insights, you will be able to see the trace correlation in the Azure Application Insights portal.

To view the trace correlation, go to the Azure Application Insights portal and select the Traces tab. You will see a list of all of the traces that have been sent to Azure Application Insights.

Hope this helps @Gnana jothi

Click "Accept Answer" and kindly give it an upvote if the answer is correct.

Best regards!
Chathura Munasinghe 170 Reputation points

2023-07-28T05:42:40.32+00:00
Sure, here is the code for configuring Xamarin to Azure Application Insights and tracking trace correlation between Xamarin and other backend systems:

using Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.Extensibility; using Xamarin.Forms; namespace TestTelemetry { public partial class MainPage : ContentPage { public MainPage() { InitializeComponent(); // Create a TelemetryClient. TelemetryClient telemetryClient = new TelemetryClient(); // Configure Application Insights. telemetryClient.InstrumentationKey = "YourInstrumentationKey"; telemetryClient.ApplicationInsightsComponentId = "YourApplicationInsightsComponentId"; // Enable distributed tracing. telemetryClient.EnableDistributedTracing = true; // Track an exception. try { // Do something that might throw an exception. } catch (Exception ex) { // Track the exception. telemetryClient.TrackException(ex); } } } }

This code will configure the TelemetryClient object to use your Azure Application Insights instrumentation key and component ID. It will also enable distributed tracing, which will allow you to track the trace correlation between Xamarin and other backend systems.

To track the trace correlation between Xamarin and other backend systems, you need to configure the other backend systems to also send traces to Azure Application Insights. Once all of the systems are configured, you will be able to see the trace correlation in the Azure Application Insights portal.

Here are the steps on how to configure other backend systems to send traces to Azure Application Insights:

For each backend system, you need to obtain the instrumentation key and component ID for your Azure Application Insights instance.

You need to configure the backend system to send traces to Azure Application Insights using the instrumentation key and component ID.

The specific steps for configuring each backend system will vary depending on the system. For more information, you can refer to the documentation for the backend system.

Once you have configured all of the systems to send traces to Azure Application Insights, you will be able to see the trace correlation in the Azure Application Insights portal.

To view the trace correlation, go to the Azure Application Insights portal and select the Traces tab. You will see a list of all of the traces that have been sent to Azure Application Insights.

Each trace will have a Trace ID. You can use the Trace ID to correlate the trace between Xamarin and other backend systems.

To correlate the trace, you need to find the trace in the trace list for each system. The trace will have the same Trace ID in each trace list.

Once you have found the trace in each trace list, you can see the steps that were taken in each system that led to the trace. This will help you to identify the source of the issue and to troubleshoot the issue.

Hope this helps @Gnana jothi

Click "Accept Answer" and kindly give it an upvote if the answer is correct.

Best regards,
Gnana jothi 5 Reputation points

2023-07-28T10:41:48.96+00:00

Hi @Chathura Munasinghe

No it wont works. Actually you were suggesting deprecated version. When i used this code in Xamarin on Visual Studio. It shows errors. Please find the attachment.
Please suggest the needful

Chathura Munasinghe 170

Maybe use the new version of the TelemetryClient class, you need to update your code as follows:

using Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.TelemetryClient;
using Xamarin.Forms;

namespace TestTelemetry
{
    public partial class MainPage : ContentPage
    {
        public MainPage()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            // Create a TelemetryClient.
            TelemetryClient telemetryClient = new TelemetryClient();

            // Configure Application Insights.
            telemetryClient.InstrumentationKey = "YourInstrumentationKey";
            telemetryClient.ApplicationInsightsComponentId = "YourApplicationInsightsComponentId";

            // Enable distributed tracing.
            telemetryClient.EnableDistributedTracing = true;

            // Track an exception.
            try
            {
                // Do something that might throw an exception.
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                // Track the exception.
                telemetryClient.TrackException(ex);
            }
        }
    }
}

This code will use the new version of the TelemetryClient class and will be able to send traces to Azure Application Insights.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

Share via

Distributed Tracing for Xamarin

1 answer

Your answer