Migrate from the HockeySDK to App Center WPF/Winforms
Important
Visual Studio App Center is scheduled for retirement on March 31, 2025. While you can continue to use Visual Studio App Center until it is fully retired, there are several recommended alternatives that you may consider migrating to.
Follow this documentation if you're looking to update your application to use App Center SDK instead of HockeySDK.
1. Update the libraries
Replace HockeySDK.WPF NuGet package with the App Center ones in all projects in your solution.
Visual Studio for Windows
- Open Visual Studio for Windows.
- Click File > Open and choose your solution.
- In the solution navigator, right-click References and choose Manage NuGet Packages.
- Remove the HockeySDK.WPF package.
- Search for App Center, and install Microsoft.AppCenter.Analytics, and Microsoft.AppCenter.Crashes packages.
Package Manager Console
- Open the console in Visual Studio. To do this, choose Tools > NuGet Package Manager > Package Manager Console.
- If you're working in Visual Studio for Mac, make sure you have NuGet Package Management Extensions installed. For this, choose Visual Studio > Extensions, search for NuGet and install, if necessary.
- Type the following commands in the console:
Uninstall-Package HockeySDK.WPF
Install-Package Microsoft.AppCenter.Analytics
Install-Package Microsoft.AppCenter.Crashes
The App Center SDK uses a modular approach – you can choose which services you want to integrate. You must add each SDK module as a separate dependency in this section.
2. Update the SDK setup code
2.1 Convert the application identifier
The App Center SDK uses application identifiers in the globally unique identifier (GUID) format. Your HockeyApp App ID can be used by App Center but you need to convert it to a different format. To convert the identifier you must add four hyphens to get 8-4-4-4-12
representation.
Before (HockeyApp):
00112233445566778899aabbccddeeff
After (App Center):
00112233-4455-6677-8899-aabbccddeeff
2.2 Replace SDK initialization in the application code
Remove the old HockeyApp registration code. In the
using
statement declaration, remove the following line:using Microsoft.HockeyApp;
In the beginning of the App class constructor, remove the following line:
HockeyClient.Current.Configure("Your_App_ID");
Start the App Center SDK. Add the appropriate namespaces before you use our APIs.
using Microsoft.AppCenter; using Microsoft.AppCenter.Analytics; using Microsoft.AppCenter.Crashes;
Add the following call to your application's constructor:
AppCenter.Start("{Your App Secret}", typeof(Analytics), typeof(Crashes));
3. Services and feature comparison
Core
Feature | HockeyApp | App Center |
---|---|---|
Adjust the log level | Yes | AppCenter.LogLevel |
Analytics
Feature | HockeyApp | App Center |
---|---|---|
Automatically track sessions | Yes | Session and Device Information |
Custom events with properties | HockeyClient.TrackEvent |
Analytics.TrackEvent |
Crashes
Feature | HockeyApp | App Center |
---|---|---|
Automatically send crashes | Enabled by default | Crash Reporting |
Attach additional meta data | Yes | Adding Attachments |
Track handled exceptions | HockeyClient.Current.TrackException |
Handled Errors |
Distribution
App Center SDK doesn't support distribution for WPF/Winforms apps yet.
Feedback Service
The feedback service won't be supported in App Center. See HockeyApp feedback.