RUM Flutter Monitoring Setup

Overview

Datadog Real User Monitoring (RUM) enables you to visualize and analyze the real-time performance and user journeys of your application’s individual users.

Setup

Specify application details in the UI

  1. In Datadog, navigate to Digital Experience > Add an Application.

  2. Choose Flutter as the application type.

  3. Provide an application name to generate a unique Datadog application ID and client token.

  4. To disable automatic user data collection for either client IP or geolocation data, uncheck the boxes for those settings. For more information, see RUM Flutter Data Collected.

    Create a RUM application for Flutter in Datadog

To ensure the safety of your data, you must use a client token. For more information about setting up a client token, see the Client Token documentation.

Instrument your application

First, ensure that you have your environment set up properly for each platform.

Datadog supports Flutter Monitoring for iOS and Android for Flutter 3.0+.

Datadog does not officially support Flutter Web, but the current Flutter SDK for mobile apps allows you to achieve some out-of-the-box monitoring. Here are known limitations:

  • All Actions reported from Flutter are labeled with type custom.
  • Long running actions (startAction / stopAction) are not supported.
  • Manually reporting RUM resources (startResource / stopResource) is not supported.
  • Event mappers are not currently supported.
  • Tags on loggers are not currently supported.
  • addUserExtraInfo is not supported.
  • stopSession is not supported.

No Flutter Web support is planned, but Datadog’s priorities are often re-evaluated based on your feedback. If you have a Flutter Web app and would want to use Datadog RUM to monitor its performance, reach out to your customer support team and escalate this feature request.

iOS

Your iOS Podfile, located in ios/Podfile, must have use_frameworks! set to true (which is the default in Flutter) and must set its target iOS version >= 11.0.

This constraint is usually commented out on the top line of the Podfile, and should read:

platform :ios, '11.0'

You can replace 11.0 with any minimum version of iOS you want to support that is 11.0 or higher.

Android

For Android, your minSdkVersion version must be >= 21, and if you are using Kotlin, it should be a version >= 1.8.0. These constraints are usually held in your android/app/build.gradle file.

Web

For Web, add the following to your index.html under the head tag, for site:

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.datadoghq-browser-agent.com/us1/v5/datadog-logs.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.datadoghq-browser-agent.com/us1/v5/datadog-rum-slim.js"></script>


<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.datadoghq-browser-agent.com/ap1/v5/datadog-logs.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.datadoghq-browser-agent.com/ap1/v5/datadog-rum-slim.js"></script>


<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.datadoghq-browser-agent.com/eu1/v5/datadog-logs.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.datadoghq-browser-agent.com/eu1/v5/datadog-rum-slim.js"></script>


<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.datadoghq-browser-agent.com/us3/v5/datadog-logs.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.datadoghq-browser-agent.com/us3/v5/datadog-rum-slim.js"></script>


<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.datadoghq-browser-agent.com/us5/v5/datadog-logs.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.datadoghq-browser-agent.com/us5/v5/datadog-rum-slim.js"></script>


<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.datadoghq-browser-agent.com/datadog-logs-v5.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.datadoghq-browser-agent.com/datadog-rum-slim-v5.js"></script>

This loads the CDN-delivered Datadog Browser SDKs for Logs and RUM. The synchronous CDN-delivered version of the Browser SDK is the only version supported by the Datadog Flutter Plugin.

Add the plugin

  1. Add the following to your pubspec.yaml file:

    dependencies:
  datadog_flutter_plugin: ^2.0.0

  2. Create a configuration object for each Datadog feature (such as Logs or RUM) with the following snippet. If you do not pass a configuration for a given feature, that feature is disabled.

    // Determine the user's consent to be tracked
final trackingConsent = ...
final configuration = DatadogConfiguration(
  clientToken: '<CLIENT_TOKEN>',
  env: '<ENV_NAME>',
  site: DatadogSite.us1,
  nativeCrashReportEnabled: true,
  loggingConfiguration: DatadogLoggingConfiguration(),
  rumConfiguration: DatadogRumConfiguration(
    applicationId: '<RUM_APPLICATION_ID>',
  )
);

For more information on available configuration options, see the DatadogConfiguration object documentation.

To ensure the safety of your data, you must use a client token. You cannot use Datadog API keys to configure the Datadog Flutter Plugin.

  • If you are using RUM, set up a Client Token and Application ID.
  • If you are only using Logs, initialize the library with a client token.

Instrument your Application

Initialize the library

You can initialize RUM using one of two methods in your main.dart file.

  1. Use DatadogSdk.runApp which automatically sets up Error Tracking.

    await DatadogSdk.runApp(configuration, TrackingConsent.granted, () async {
  runApp(const MyApp());
})

  2. Alternatively, manually set up Error Tracking and resource tracking. DatadogSdk.runApp calls WidgetsFlutterBinding.ensureInitialized, so if you are not using DatadogSdk.runApp, you need to call this method prior to calling DatadogSdk.instance.initialize.

    WidgetsFlutterBinding.ensureInitialized();
final originalOnError = FlutterError.onError;
FlutterError.onError = (details) {
  DatadogSdk.instance.rum?.handleFlutterError(details);
  originalOnError?.call(details);
};
final platformOriginalOnError = PlatformDispatcher.instance.onError;
PlatformDispatcher.instance.onError = (e, st) {
  DatadogSdk.instance.rum?.addErrorInfo(
    e.toString(),
    RumErrorSource.source,
    stackTrace: st,
  );
  return platformOriginalOnError?.call(e, st) ?? false;
};
await DatadogSdk.instance.initialize(configuration, TrackingConsent.granted);
runApp(const MyApp());

Sample RUM sessions

To control the data your application sends to Datadog RUM, you can specify a sampling rate for RUM sessions while initializing the Flutter RUM SDK as a percentage between 0 and 100. By default, sessionSamplingRate is set to 100 (keep all sessions).

For example, to keep only 50% of sessions, use:

final config = DatadogConfiguration(
    // other configuration...
    rumConfiguration: DatadogRumConfiguration(
        applicationId: '<YOUR_APPLICATION_ID>',
        sessionSamplingRate: 50.0,
    ),
);

To be compliant with the GDPR regulation, the Datadog Flutter SDK requires the trackingConsent value at initialization.

Set trackingConsent to one of the following values:

  • TrackingConsent.pending: The Datadog Flutter SDK starts collecting and batching the data but does not send it to Datadog. It waits for the new tracking consent value to decide what to do with the batched data.
  • TrackingConsent.granted: The Datadog Flutter SDK starts collecting the data and sends it to Datadog.
  • TrackingConsent.notGranted: The Datadog Flutter SDK does not collect any data, which means no logs, traces, or RUM events are sent to Datadog.

To change the tracking consent value after the SDK is initialized, use the DatadogSdk.setTrackingConsent API call.

The SDK changes its behavior according to the new value. For example, if the current tracking consent is TrackingConsent.pending:

  • You change it to TrackingConsent.granted, the SDK sends all current and future data to Datadog;
  • You change it to TrackingConsent.notGranted, the SDK wipes all current data and does not collect any future data.

Automatically track views

Flutter Navigator v1

The Datadog Flutter Plugin can automatically track named routes using the DatadogNavigationObserver on your MaterialApp:

MaterialApp(
  home: HomeScreen(),
  navigatorObservers: [
    DatadogNavigationObserver(DatadogSdk.instance),
  ],
);

This works if you are using named routes or if you have supplied a name to the settings parameter of your PageRoute.

If you are not using named routes, you can use DatadogRouteAwareMixin in conjunction with the DatadogNavigationObserverProvider widget to start and stop your RUM views automatically. With DatadogRouteAwareMixin, move any logic from initState to didPush.

Flutter Navigator v2

If you are using Flutter Navigator v2.0, which uses the MaterialApp.router named constructor, the setup varies based on the routing middleware you are using, if any. Since go_router uses the same observer interface as Flutter Navigator v1, DatadogNavigationObserver can be added to other observers as a parameter to GoRouter.

final _router = GoRouter(
  routes: [
    // Your route information here
  ],
  observers: [
    DatadogNavigationObserver(datadogSdk: DatadogSdk.instance),
  ],
);
MaterialApp.router(
  routerConfig: _router,
  // Your remaining setup
)

For examples that use routers other than go_router, see Advanced Configuration - Automatic View Tracking.

Renaming Views

For all setups, you can rename views or supply custom paths by providing a viewInfoExtractor callback. This function can fall back to the default behavior of the observer by calling defaultViewInfoExtractor. For example:

RumViewInfo? infoExtractor(Route<dynamic> route) {
  var name = route.settings.name;
  if (name == 'my_named_route') {
    return RumViewInfo(
      name: 'MyDifferentName',
      attributes: {'extra_attribute': 'attribute_value'},
    );
  }

  return defaultViewInfoExtractor(route);
}

var observer = DatadogNavigationObserver(
  datadogSdk: DatadogSdk.instance,
  viewInfoExtractor: infoExtractor,
);

Automatically track resources

Use the Datadog Tracking HTTP Client package to enable automatic tracking of resources and HTTP calls from your RUM views.

Add the package to your pubspec.yaml and add the following to your initialization file:

final configuration = DatadogConfiguration(
  // configuration
  firstPartyHosts: ['example.com'],
)..enableHttpTracking()

Note: The Datadog Tracking HTTP Client modifies HttpOverrides.global. If you are using your own custom HttpOverrides, you may need to inherit from DatadogHttpOverrides. In this case, you do not need to call enableHttpTracking. Versions of datadog_tracking_http_client >= 1.3 check the value of HttpOverrides.current and use this for client creation, so you only need to make sure to initialize HttpOverrides.global prior to initializing Datadog.

In order to enable Datadog Distributed Tracing, you must set the DatadogConfiguration.firstPartyHosts property in your configuration object to a domain that supports distributed tracing. You can also modify the sampling rate for distributed tracing by setting the tracingSamplingRate on your DatadogRumConfiguration.

  • firstPartyHosts does not allow wildcards, but matches any subdomains for a given domain. For example, api.example.com matches staging.api.example.com and prod.api.example.com, not news.example.com.

  • DatadogRumConfiguration.traceSampleRate sets a default sampling rate of 20%. If you want all resources requests to generate a full distributed trace, set this value to 100.0.

Automatically track actions

Use RumUserActionDetector to track user taps that happen in a given Widget tree:

RumUserActionDetector(
  rum: DatadogSdk.instance.rum,
  child: Scaffold(
    appBar: AppBar(
      title: const Text('RUM'),
    ),
    body: // Rest of your application
  ),
);

RumUserActionDetector automatically detects tap user actions that occur in its tree and sends them to RUM. It detects interactions with several common Flutter widgets.

For most Button types, the detector looks for a Text widget child, which it uses for the description of the action. In other cases it looks for a Semantics object child, or an Icon with its Icon.semanticsLabel property set.

Alternatively, you can enclose any Widget tree with a RumUserActionAnnotation, which uses the provided description when reporting user actions detected in the child tree, without changing the Semantics of the tree.

Container(
  margin: const EdgeInsets.all(8),
  child: RumUserActionAnnotation(
    description: 'My Image Button',
    child: InkWell(
      onTap: onTap,
      child: Column(
        children: [
          FadeInImage.memoryNetwork(
            placeholder: kTransparentImage,
            image: image,
          ),
          Center(
            child: Text(
              text,
              style: theme.textTheme.headlineSmall,
            ),
          )
        ],
      ),
    ),
  ),
);

Sending data when device is offline

RUM ensures availability of data when your user device is offline. In cases of low-network areas, or when the device battery is too low, all RUM events are first stored on the local device in batches. They are sent as soon as the network is available, and the battery is high enough to ensure the Flutter RUM SDK does not impact the end user’s experience. If the network is not available with your application running in the foreground, or if an upload of data fails, the batch is kept until it can be sent successfully.

This means that even if users open your application while offline, no data is lost.

Note: The data on the disk is automatically deleted if it gets too old to ensure the Flutter RUM SDK does not use too much disk space.

Further reading

Additional helpful documentation, links, and articles:

RUM Flutter Advanced ConfigurationDOCUMENTATION more more Source code for dd-sdk-flutterSOURCE CODE more more Learn how to explore your RUM dataDOCUMENTATION more more Monitor Flutter application performance with Datadog Mobile RUMBLOG more more