In-app features

Alongside its tracking capabilities, the SDK embeds some features aimed at Contentsquare users such as Snapshot Capture and SDK Logs.

In order to allow Contentsquare users to enable in-app features, you must perform 2 implementation tasks:

  1. Add the custom URL scheme in your app Info
  2. Call the SDK when the app is launched via a deeplink

1. Add the custom URL scheme in your app Info

Section titled 1. Add the custom URL scheme in your app Info

You have to allow your app to be opened via a custom URL scheme which can be done using one of the following methods:

  1. Open your project settings
  2. Select the app target
  3. Select the Info settings
  4. Scroll to URL Types
  5. Set the URL scheme to cs-$(PRODUCT_BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER)
  1. Open the Info.plist of your project

  2. Add the following snippet:

    Info.plist
    <key>CFBundleURLTypes</key>
    <array>
    <dict>
    <key>CFBundleURLSchemes</key>
    <array>
    <string>cs-$(PRODUCT_BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER)</string>
    </array>
    </dict>
    </array>
Section titled 2. Call the SDK when the app is launched via a deeplink

Depending of the project, there are multiple ways to handle the deeplink opening. Choose the method matching your project structure:

In your AppDelegate class, complete or implement the function application(app, open url:, options:) with: Contentsquare.handle(url: url)

Once the implementation is done, in-app features can be enabled in different ways:

If you have access to the Contentsquare platform, you can open the in-app features modal from the menu and scan the QR code displayed with your iPhone.

Section titled Use the custom link for simulator

If you have access to the Contentsquare platform, you can open the in-app features modal from the menu and select “Copy link” (to copy the deeplink) and paste it in Safari on your Simulator to trigger the in-app features.

In a Terminal console, open an URL in your current simulator with the following command (replacing “CUSTOM_LINK” with yours):

Terminal window
xcrun simctl openurl booted CUSTOM_LINK

Contentsquare provides Logging capabilities that allow you to see the raw event data logged by your app in the MacOS Console App, Xcode or in the Contentsquare platform. This is very useful for validation purposes during the instrumentation phase of development and can help you discover errors and mistakes in your analytics implementation and confirm that all events are being logged correctly.

Viewing Logs in Xcode or the MacOS Console app

Section titled Viewing Logs in Xcode or the MacOS Console app

By default, almost all logs are disabled. There is only one log that is always visible to notify that the SDK has started:

CSLIB ℹ️ Info: Contentsquare SDK v{{SDKversionNumber}} starting in app: {{bundleID}}

In order to enable all logs, you simply need to activate in-app features. Logging is directly linked to in-app features state: it starts when in-app features is enabled and stops when you disable in-app features.

To view logs:

  1. Make sure the device you are using is plugged to your Mac or is on the same Wi-Fi network (skip this step if you are using a simulator)
  2. Start the MacOS Console app (make sure that info messages are included: Choose Action > Include Info Messages) or Xcode.
  3. Filter logs on CSLIB

Viewing logs in the Contentsquare platform

Section titled Viewing logs in the Contentsquare platform

To view logs directly on the platform, you can use Log visualizer. Log visualizer is a helper tool to see SDK logs without logging tools. It requires having platform access for your project and enabling in-app features. See the SDK Log Visualizer Help Center Article for more information.

In order to unlock the full data-visualization capabilities of Contentsquare, the SDK provides a way to capture snapshots of your app screens. These snapshots can only be taken by Contentsquare’s users on their device. They are not captured from your end-users device. It means your Personal Data is safe, as long as you use a test user account.

Snapshots are used in the Zoning Analysis module to look at zone-level metrics (Tap rate, Swipe rate…):