Error and Crash Reporting in iOS App Extensions with Backtrace

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Posted May 25, 2023

Error and Crash Reporting in iOS App Extensions with Backtrace

In this article,we are going to guide a look at how Backtrace SDK can help to automatically detect and account handled and unhandled exception, errors, and crashes that happen in your apps.

We are living in a time where richer inter-app communication and taut integrating with the OS service is available in mobile, and iOS is no exception.iOS App extensionsenable you to run your range beyond the process of presenting the UI. You can fascinate screen, intercept network, or interact with an Apple Watch while other apps are scarper in the foreground.

These extensions run in their own, sandboxed operation, and take additional care to monitor them in product. In this post, we are going to take a look at how Backtrace SDK can facilitate us in our example Keyboard Extension.

You can find a pair of sample projects below if you prefer jumping right into it.

Requirements

You & # x27; ll need the latest Xcode and backtrace-cocoa SDK. CocoaPods CLI is not necessitate.

Steps

Download SDK

Download the latest archive from backtrace-cocoareleases. Make sure you pick bitcode=YES embedded=YES smell.

Launch your Xcode projection.

Copy these into your project root by drag and dropping them into Project Navigator.

Rome/Backtrace.framework
Rome/Backtrace_PLCrashReporter.framework
Rome/Cassette.framework

Select your app and all extensions in the prompted dialog.

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Configure Xcode Project

Navigate to each build mark & # x27; s General settings (i.e., your app and each extension).
Locate Framework, Libraries, and Embedded Content for apps and Frameworks and Libraries for extensions.
Add all the new frameworks to your targets if missing. Set plant settings as Embed without Signing.
Navigate to Build Phases & gt; Embed Frameworks and make sure all the frameworks are bring there (app and extension targets).
Navigate to Build Settings and change Debug Information Format to Dwarf with dSYM File (app and extension targets).

Add Sources

Create a new directory with Finder in your project and name it Backtrace.
Copy all & quot; .h & quot; files in Backtrace.framework/Headers and Backtrace_PLCrashReporter.framework/Headers into the newly make directory.
Go back to Xcode and add Backtrace by drag & amp; dropping it into Project Navigator. If you get prompted to add bridge header files, accept it.
Make certain file are added to all targets in the prompted dialog.

Create a new Obj-C class in your project (i.e., BacktraceWrapper.h and BacktraceWrapper.m). If asked, allow Xcode to create bridging lintel for the mark that utilize Swift.

BacktraceWrapper.h

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#import<Foundation/Foundation.h>
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NS_ASSUME_NONNULL_BEGIN
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@interfaceBacktraceWrapper:NSObject
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+(void)sendError:(NSError*)error attributes:(NSDictionary*)extra;
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@end
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NS_ASSUME_NONNULL_END

BacktraceWrapper.m

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#import& quot; BacktraceWrapper.h & quot;
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#ifdefined(__arm64__)& amp; & amp; __arm64__
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#import& quot; Backtrace-Swift.h & quot;
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#import& quot; Backtrace-PLCrashReporter-umbrella.h & quot;
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#endif
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@ executionBacktraceWrapper
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# pragma markGlobals
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#ifdefined(__arm64__)& amp; & amp; __arm64__
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staticBacktraceClient* client;
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#endif
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# pragma markPrivate
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+(void)initializeBacktrace{
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#ifdefined(__arm64__)& amp; & amp; __arm64__
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if(client != nil){
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return;
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}
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BacktraceCredentials*credentials=[[BacktraceCredentials alloc]initWithSubmissionUrl:[NSURLURLWithString: @& quot; https: //submit.backtrace.io/BACKTRACE_SUBDOMAIN/BACKTRACE_SUBMISSION_TOKEN/plcrash & quot;]];
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BacktraceDatabaseSettings*dbSettings=[[BacktraceDatabaseSettings alloc] init];
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dbSettings.maxRecordCount=10;
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BacktraceClientConfiguration*conformation=[[BacktraceClientConfiguration alloc]
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initWithCredentials:credentials
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dbSettings:dbSettings
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reportsPerMin:30// Default is 30
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allowsAttachingDebugger:FALSE// If mistaken, disables backtrace during development
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detectOOM:FALSE];
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BacktraceCrashReporter*crashReporter=[[BacktraceCrashReporter alloc]initWithConfig:PLCrashReporterConfig.defaultConfiguration];
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    client =[[BacktraceClient alloc]initWithConfiguration:configuration crashReporter:crashReporter error:nil];
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[client.metricsenableWithSettings:[[BacktraceMetricsSettings alloc] init]];
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#endif
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}
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# pragma markPublic
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+(void)sendError:(NSError*)error attributes:(NSDictionary*)extra {
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#ifdefined(__arm64__)& amp; & amp; __arm64__
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[self initializeBacktrace];
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[client sendWithError:fault attachmentPaths:@[]completion:^(BacktraceResult*_Nonnull result){
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NSLog(@& quot; Backtrace error sent: % @ & quot;,[error description]);
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}];
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#endif
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}
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@end

Fleet Support

If you want to unwrap BacktraceWrapper to your SWIFT files, add the following line to your bridging headers:

# import & quot; BacktraceWrapper.h & quot;

BacktraceWrapper.sendError (fault: Error) will turn available to your Swift code.

Upload Symbols with CI

Once you are ready to distribute your app, run the commands below in your CI to upload debug symbol to Backtrace.

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cd $DERIVED_DATA_PATH/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos/
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zip -r symbols.zip*.dSYM
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curl --fail-with-body --data-binary @ symbols.zip-XPOST-H& quot; Expect: gzip & quot;& quot; https: //submit.backtrace.io/ $ BACKTRACE_SUBDOMAIN/ $ BACKTRACE_SYMBOLS_ACCESS_TOKEN/symbols & quot;
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Terminal Words

From now on, your extensions will have the same error coverage capabilities that your app has. We cognize how painful it can become to debug custom keyboards or video calls in production particularly when they ram taciturnly with no utilitarian error substance. Those day are now in the yesteryear.

We ’ d love to hear your feedback! We have late added support for Swift Package Manager which will simplify working with App Extensions yet further.

This article was originally published in January 2023 and has been updated in May 2023.