Analytics for CSharp (C#)

With Analytics-CSharp, you can add Segment analytics to your C# based app which includes Unity, Xamarin, .NET. Analytics-CSharp helps you measure your users, product, and business. It unlocks insights into your app’s funnel, core business metrics, and whether you have product-market fit. The Analytics-CSharp library is open-source on GitHub.

Supported platforms

These platforms support Analytics-CSharp:

• .NET/.NET core/.NET framework
• Mono
• Universal Windows platform
• Xamarin
  • iOS
  • Mac
  • Android
• Unity
  • iOS
  • Android
  • PC, Mac, Linux

Getting started

To get started with the Analytics-CSharp library:

1. Create a Source in Segment.
   1. Go to Connections > Sources > Add Source.
   2. Search for Xamarin, Unity, or .NET (whichever source you want to use) and click Add Source. Note: There is no CSharp source. To use Analytics-CSharp, use either Xamarin, Unity, or .NET as your source.

2. Add the Analytics dependency to your project.

    dotnet add package Segment.Analytics.CSharp --version <LATEST_VERSION>
   

   
   Note: Analytics-CSharp is distributed through NuGet. Check out other installation options here. For Unity, Analytics-Chsharp is distributed through OpenUPM.

3. Initialize and configure the client.

    // NOTE: to make Analytics stateless/in-memory,
    // add `InMemoryStorageProvider` to the configuration
    var configuration = new Configuration("<YOUR WRITE KEY>",
        flushAt: 1,
        flushInterval: 10);
    var analytics = new Analytics(configuration);
   

   These are the options you can apply to configure the client:

   Option Name	Description
   writeKey required	This is your Segment write key.
   apiHost	The default is set to api.segment.io/v1. This sets a default API Host to which Segment sends events.
   autoAddSegmentDestination	The default is set to true. This automatically adds the Segment Destination plugin. You can set this to false if you want to manually add the Segment Destination plugin.
   defaultSettings	The default is set to {}. The settings object used as fallback in case of network failure.
   flushAt	The default is set to 20. The count of events at which Segment flushes events.
   flushInterval	The default is set to 30 seconds. The interval in seconds at which Segment flushes events.
   exceptionHandler	Use to set an exception handler to handle errors happened in async methods within the analytics scope.
   storageProvider	Use to set how you want your data to be stored. DefaultStorageProvider is used by default which stores data to local storage. InMemoryStorageProvider is also provided in the library. You can also write your own storage solution by implementing IStorageProvider and IStorage.

Tracking Methods

Once you’ve installed the Analytics-CSharp library, you can start collecting data through Segment’s tracking methods:

• Identify
• Track
• Screen
• Page
• Group

Identify

The Identify method lets you tie a user to their actions and record traits about them. This includes a unique user ID and any optional traits you know about them like their email, name, address. The traits option can include any information you want to tie to the user. When using any of the reserved traits, be sure the information reflects the name of the trait. For example, email should always be a string of the user’s email address.

analytics.Identify("user-123", new JsonObject {
    ["username"] = "MisterWhiskers",
    ["email"] = "hello@test.com",
    ["plan"] = "premium"
});

Track

The Track method lets you record the actions your users perform. Every action triggers an event, which also has associated properties that the track method records.

analytics.Track("View Product", new JsonObject {
    ["productId"] = 123,
    ["productName"] = "Striped trousers"
});

Screen

The Screen method lets you record whenever a user sees a screen in your mobile app, along with optional extra information about the page being viewed.

You’ll want to record a screen event whenever the user opens a screen in your app. This could be a view, fragment, dialog or activity depending on your app.

Not all integrations support screen. When it’s not supported explicitly, the screen method tracks as an event with the same parameters.

analytics.Screen("ScreenName", new JsonObject {
    ["productSlug"] = "example-product-123"
});

Page

The Page method lets you record whenever a user sees a page in your web app, along with optional extra information about the page.

You’ll want to record a page event whenever the user opens a page in your app. This could be a webpage, view, fragment, dialog or activity depending on your app.

Not all integrations support page. When it’s not supported explicitly, the page method tracks as an event with the same parameters.

analytics.Page("PageName", new JsonObject {
    ["productSlug"] = "example-product-123"
});

Group

The Group method lets you associate an individual user with a group — whether it’s a company, organization, account, project, or team. This includes a unique group identifier and any additional group traits you may have, like company name, industry, number of employees. You can include any information you want to associate with the group in the traits option. When using any of the reserved group traits, be sure the information reflects the name of the trait. For example, email should always be a string of the user’s email address.

analytics.Group("user-123", new JsonObject {
    ["username"] = "MisterWhiskers",
    ["email"] = "hello@test.com",
    ["plan"] = "premium"
});

Plugin Architecture

Segment’s plugin architecture enables you to modify and augment how the analytics client works. From modifying event payloads to changing analytics functionality, plugins help to speed up the process of getting things done.

Plugins are run through a timeline, which executes in order of insertion based on their entry types. Segment has these 5 entry types:

Fundamentals

There are 3 basic types of plugins that you can use as a foundation for modifying functionality. They are: Plugin, EventPlugin, and DestinationPlugin.

Plugin

Plugin acts on any event payload going through the timeline.

For example, if you want to add something to the context object of any event payload as an enrichment:

class SomePlugin : Plugin
{
    public override PluginType Type => PluginType.Enrichment;
    public override RawEvent Execute(RawEvent incomingEvent)
    {
        incomingEvent.Context["foo"] = "bar";
        return incomingEvent;
    }
}

EventPlugin

EventPlugin is a plugin interface that acts on specific event types. You can choose the event types by only overriding the event functions you want.

For example, if you only want to act on track & identify events:

class SomePlugin : EventPlugin
{
    public override PluginType Type => PluginType.Enrichment;
    public override IdentifyEvent Identify(IdentifyEvent identifyEvent)
    {
        // code to modify identify event
        return identifyEvent;
    }
    public override TrackEvent Track(TrackEvent trackEvent)
    {
        // code to modify track event
        return trackEvent;
    }
}

DestinationPlugin

The DestinationPlugin interface is commonly used for device-mode destinations. This plugin contains an internal timeline that follows the same process as the analytics timeline, enabling you to modify and augment how events reach a particular destination.

For example, if you want to implement a device-mode destination plugin for Amplitude, you can use this:

class AmplitudePlugin : DestinationPlugin
{
    public override string Key =>
        "Amplitude"; // This is the name of the destination plugin, it is used to retrieve settings internally
    private Amplitude amplitudeSDK: // This is an instance of the partner SDK
    public AmplitudePlugin()
    {
        amplitudeSDK = Amplitude.instance;
        amplitudeSDK.initialize(applicationContext, "API_KEY");
    }
    /*
    * Implementing this function allows this plugin to hook into any track events
    * coming into the analytics timeline
    */
    public override TrackEvent Track(TrackEvent trackEvent)
    {
        amplitudeSDK.logEvent(trackEvent.Event);
        return trackEvent;
    }
}

Advanced concepts

• configure(Analytics): Use this function to set up your plugin. This implicitly calls once the plugin registers.
• update(Settings): Use this function to react to any settings updates. This implicitly calls when settings update. You can force a settings update by calling analytics.checkSettings().
• DestinationPlugin timeline: The destination plugin contains an internal timeline that follows the same process as the analytics timeline, enabling you to modify/augment how events reach the particular destination. For example, if you only wanted to add a context key when sending an event to Amplitude:

class AmplitudeEnrichment : Plugin
{
    public override PluginType Type => PluginType.Enrichment;
    public override RawEvent Execute(RawEvent incomingEvent)
    {
        incomingEvent.Context["foo"] = "bar";
        return incomingEvent;
    }
}
var amplitudePlugin = new AmplitudePlugin(); // add amplitudePlugin to the analytics client
analytics.Add(amplitudePlugin);
amplitudePlugin.Add(new AmplitudeEnrichment()); // add enrichment plugin to amplitude timeline

Adding a plugin

Adding plugins enable you to modify your analytics implementation to best fit your needs. You can add a plugin using this:

var yourPlugin = new SomePlugin()
analytics.Add(yourPlugin)

Though you can add plugins anywhere in your code, it’s best to implement your plugin when you configure the client.

Here’s an example of adding a plugin to the context object of any event payload as an enrichment:

class SomePlugin : Plugin
{
    public override PluginType Type => PluginType.Enrichment;
    public override RawEvent Execute(RawEvent incomingEvent)
    {
        incomingEvent.Context["foo"] = "bar";
        return incomingEvent;
    }
}
var yourPlugin = new SomePlugin()
analytics.Add(yourPlugin)

Example projects using Analytics-CSharp

See how other platforms and languages use Analytics-CSharp in different example projects.

Utility Methods

The Analytics-CSharp utility methods help you work with plugins from the analytics timeline. They include:

• Add
• Find
• Remove
• Reset

There’s also the Flush method to help you manage the current queue of events.

Add

The Add method lets you add a plugin to the analytics timeline.

class SomePlugin : Plugin
{
    public override PluginType Type => PluginType.Enrichment;
    public override RawEvent Execute(RawEvent incomingEvent)
    {
        incomingEvent.Context["foo"] = "bar";
        return incomingEvent;
    }
}
var somePlugin = new SomePlugin();
analytics.Add(somePlugin);

Find

The Find method lets you find a registered plugin from the analytics timeline.

var plugin = analytics.Find<SomePlugin>();

Remove

The Remove methods lets you remove a registered plugin from the analytics timeline.

analytics.remove(somePlugin);

Flush

The Flush method lets you force flush the current queue of events regardless of what the flushAt and flushInterval is set to.

analytics.Flush();

Reset

The reset method clears the SDK’s internal stores for the current user and group. This is useful for apps where users log in and out with different identities on the same device over time.

analytics.Reset()

Compatibility

This library targets .NET Standard 2.0. See the list of compatible platforms.

Changelog

View the Analytics-CSharp changelog on GitHub.