Analytics Swift Firebase Plugin

Firebase is Google’s platform for mobile apps. The Segment Firebase destination requires that you bundle the Firebase SDK with your project. The Segment-wrapped destination code then runs on the user’s device, and sends its tracking calls to the Firebase API endpoints, and a copy to Segment for archiving.

Firebase’s destination plugin code is open source and available on GitHub. You can view it here.

Adding the dependency

through Xcode

In the Xcode File menu, click Add Packages. You’ll see a dialog where you can search for Swift packages. In the search field, enter the URL to this repository:

https://github.com/segment-integrations/analytics-swift-firebase

You’ll then have the option to pin to a version, or specific branch, as well as which project in your workspace to add it to. Once you’ve made your selections, click the Add Package button.

through Package.swift

Open your Package.swift file and add the following do your the dependencies section:

.package(
            name: "Segment",
            url: "https://github.com/segment-integrations/analytics-swift-firebase.git",
            from: "1.1.3"
        ),

Using the Plugin in your App

Open the file where you setup and configure the Analytics-Swift library. Add this plugin to the list of imports.

import Segment
import SegmentFirebase // <-- Add this line

Just under your Analytics-Swift library setup, call analytics.add(plugin: ...) to add an instance of the plugin to the Analytics timeline.

let analytics = Analytics(configuration: Configuration(writeKey: "<YOUR WRITE KEY>")
                    .flushAt(3)
                    .trackApplicationLifecycleEvents(true))
analytics.add(plugin: FirebaseDestination())

Your events will now begin to flow to Firebase in device mode.

Identify

When you call identify Segment will map to the corresponding Firebase Analytics calls:

• If there is a userId on your identify call, Segment triggers setUserId using the Firebase SDK
• If there are traits included, Segment will set user properties for each trait you include on the identify call

You can use these traits to create audiences and views to analyze your users’ behavior.

Note: Google prohibits sending PII to Firebase unless “robust notice” is given to your app users. For iOS apps, some Analytics features, such as audiences and campaign attribution, and some user properties, such as Age and Interests, require the AdSupport framework to be enabled.

Learn more about Firebase’s reporting dashboard here.

Firebase has strict requirements for User Property names; they must:

• Begin with a letter (not a number or symbol, including an underscore)
• Contain only alphanumeric characters and underscores
• Be no longer than 40 characters

User Property values must be fewer than 100 characters.

You are limited to 25 unique user properties per Firebase Console.

Firebase automatically collects these user properties.

Track

When you call track Segment will log the event with Firebase. Firebase automatically tracks the events listed here and it will still do so when bundling with Segment.

Firebase has a limit of 500 distinctly named events so it pays off to be intentional in what you track.

When you call track, Segment maps from the Segment spec to those that match Firebase’s spec. For anything that does not match, Segment will pass the event to Firebase as a custom event. Custom parameters cannot be seen directly in the Firebase Analytics dashboard but they can be used as filters in Audiences.

Like with user properties, Segment will perform the following transformations on both your event names and event parameters. Unlike user properties, you do not need to pre-define event parameters in your Firebase dashboard.

• Trims leading and trailing whitespace from property names
• Replaces spaces with underscores
• Trims property names to 40 characters (Android only)

Event parameter values must be fewer than 100 characters.

Event Mappings

Segment adheres to Firebase’s semantic event specification and maps the following Segment spec-matching events (left) to the corresponding Firebase events (right):

Property Mappings

Segment maps the followed Segment spec-matching properties (left) to the corresponding Firebase event parameters (right):

Passing Revenue and Currency

Ecommerce events containing “revenue” or “total” must also include the appropriate ISO 4217 “currency” string for revenue data to populate to the Firebase dashboard. If a “currency” value is not included, Segment default to “USD”.

Properties properties = new Properties()
        .putValue("orderId", "p966540")
        .putValue("revenue", 25.00)
        .putCurrency("USD");


Analytics.with(this).track("Order Completed", properties);

struct TrackProperties: Codable {
        let orderId: String
        let revenue: Int
        let currency: String
}

analytics.track(name: "Order Completed", properties: TrackProperties(orderId: "order-123", revenue: 23.00, currency: "USD"))

Screen

Segment doesn’t map screen events to Firebase - that’s because Firebase’s SDK collects screen information out of the box for you.

For iOS, you can configure recordScreenViews which will automatically track screen views, or pass in a screen manually using a screen call. You should be able to disable the Automatic Screen reporting by adding the plist flag FirebaseScreenReportingEnabled to Info.plist and set its value to NO (Boolean).

Google Analytics for Firebase iOS does NOT support the case of manual-only screen reporting. Firebase only supports automatic + manual screen reporting or no screen reporting at all.

Firebase Dynamic Linking (iOS only)

Firebase Dynamic Links are smart URLs that can change behavior dynamically depending on the platform where the user clicks them. Use them in web, email, social media, referral and physical promotions to increase user acquisition, retention and lifetime value. Key features include ability to survive app installs, controlling user experience depending on what platform they access the link on and knowing which content and campaigns are working using tracking in the Firebase console. Check out Firebase’s Docs here.

To use Firebase Dynamic Links, search for the Firebase package in Swift Package Manager and add the Dynamic Links library:

https://github.com/firebase/firebase-ios-sdk

Then, enter the deep link URL scheme in your Segment Firebase destination settings. Here’s a sample app delegate that shows how to implement the Dynamic Linking Logic.

Conversion Tracking and Adwords Conversions

Firebase is Google’s recommended method for reporting conversions to Adwords. To use Firebase, track the conversion events as you normally would with Segment and Segment will send them through to Firebase.

Troubleshooting

Firebase has great logging. If you are having any issues, you can enable debug mode as outlined in Google’s Debug events docs.