Instrument your application using Dynatrace OpenKit

Monitoring data sent via Dynatrace OpenKit is encapsulated into an entity that represents your application and is called custom application. Therefore, to monitor your application, you need to define and instrument the custom application following the instructions below.

Create and instrument an application

To create a custom application in Dynatrace and instrument it

In Dynatrace, go to Custom Applications.
Select Create custom application.
Enter a name for your custom application, and choose an icon to visually represent your application in the Dynatrace web UI.
Select Monitor custom application. Your custom application settings page opens.
From the application settings, select Instrumentation wizard and then select your technology to download the latest OpenKit library.
Use the downloaded library and the Beacon URL and Application ID provided in the instrumentation wizard to instrument your application.
optional In the instrumentation wizard, select View incoming beacons to show incoming beacons as they arrive, with only a couple of seconds delay. This view also provides information about potential issues.

Below is a basic example that shows how to use Dynatrace OpenKit to send monitoring data to Dynatrace. For more details, see Dynatrace OpenKit API methods.

// Obtain an OpenKit instance
String applicationID = "application-id";                // Your application's ID
long deviceID = 42;                                     // Replace with a unique value per device/installation
String endpointURL = "https://tenantid.beaconurl.com/mbeacon";  // Dynatrace endpoint URL

OpenKit openKit = new DynatraceOpenKitBuilder(endpointURL, applicationID, deviceID)
        .withApplicationVersion("1.0.0.0")
        .withOperatingSystem("Windows 10")
        .withManufacturer("MyCompany")
        .withModelID("MyModelID")
        .build();

// Wait up to 10 seconds for OpenKit to complete initialization
long timeoutInMilliseconds = 10 * 1000;
boolean success = openKit.waitForInitCompletion(timeoutInMilliseconds);

// Create session
String clientIP = "8.8.8.8";
Session session = openKit.createSession(clientIP);

// Identify user
session.identifyUser("jane.doe@example.com");

// Create root and child actions
String rootActionName = "rootActionName";
RootAction rootAction = session.enterAction(rootActionName);

String childActionName = "childAction";
Action childAction = rootAction.enterAction(childActionName);

// Leave action
childAction.leaveAction();
rootAction.leaveAction();

// Finish session
session.end();

// Terminate OpenKit instance
openKit.shutdown();

// Obtain an OpenKit instance
string applicationID = "application-id";                        // Your application's ID
long deviceID = 42L;                                            // Replace with a unique value per device/installation
string endpointURL = "https://tenantid.beaconurl.com/mbeacon";  // Dynatrace endpoint URL

IOpenKit openKit = new DynatraceOpenKitBuilder(endpointURL, applicationID, deviceID)
    .WithApplicationVersion("1.0.0.0")
    .WithOperatingSystem("Windows 10")
    .WithManufacturer("MyCompany")
    .WithModelID("MyModelID")
    .Build();

// Wait up to 10 seconds for OpenKit to complete initialization
int timeoutInMilliseconds = 10 * 1000;
bool success = openKit.WaitForInitCompletion(timeoutInMilliseconds);

// Create session
string clientIP = "8.8.8.8";
ISession session = openKit.CreateSession(clientIP);

// Identify user
session.IdentifyUser("jane.doe@example.com");

// Create root and child actions
string rootActionName = "rootActionName";
IRootAction rootAction = session.EnterAction(rootActionName);

string childActionName = "childAction";
IAction childAction = rootAction.EnterAction(childActionName);

// Leave action
childAction.LeaveAction();
rootAction.LeaveAction();

// Finish session
session.End();

// Terminate OpenKit instance
openKit.ShutDown();

// Obtain an OpenKit instance
const char* applicationID = "application-id";                        // Your application's ID
int64_t deviceID = 42;                                               // Replace with a unique value per device/installation
const char* endpointURL = "https://tenantid.beaconurl.com/mbeacon";  // Dynatrace endpoint URL

std::shared_pointer<openkit::IOpenKit> openKit =
    openkit::DynatraceOpenKitBuilder(endpointURL, applicationID, deviceID)
        .withApplicationVersion("1.0.0.0")
        .withOperatingSystem("Windows 10")
        .withManufacturer("MyCompany")
        .withModelID("MyModelID")
        .build();

// Wait up to 10 seconds for OpenKit to complete initialization
int64_t timeoutInMilliseconds = 10 * 1000;
bool success = openKit->waitForInitCompletion(timeoutInMilliseconds);

// Create session
const char* clientIP = "8.8.8.8";
std::shared_ptr<openkit::ISession> session = openKit->createSession(clientIP);

// Identify user
session->identifyUser("jane.doe@example.com");

// Create root and child actions
const char* rootActionName = "rootActionName";
std::shared_ptr<IRootAction> rootAction = session->enterAction(rootActionName);

const char* childActionName = "childAction";
std::shared_ptr<IRootAction> childAction = rootAction->enterAction(childActionName);

// Leave action
childAction->leaveAction();
rootAction->leaveAction();

// Finish session
session->end();

// Terminate OpenKit instance
openKit->shutdown();

// Obtain an OpenKit instance
const char* applicationID = "application-id";                        // Your application's ID
int64_t deviceID = 42;                                               // Replace with a unique value per device/installation
const char* endpointURL = "https://tenantid.beaconurl.com/mbeacon";  // Dynatrace endpoint URL

struct OpenKitConfigurationHandle* configurationHandle = createOpenKitConfiguration(endpointURL, applicationID, deviceID);
useApplicationVersionForConfiguration(configurationHandle, "1.0.0.0");
useOperatingSystemForConfiguration(configurationHandle, "Windows 10");
useManufacturerForConfiguration(configurationHandle, "MyCompany");
useModelIDForConfiguration(configurationHandle, "MyModelID");

struct OpenKitHandle* openKit = createDynatraceOpenKit(configurationHandle);

// Wait up to 10 seconds for OpenKit to complete initialization
int64_t timeoutInMilliseconds = 10 * 1000;
bool success = waitForInitCompletionWithTimeout(openKit, timeoutInMilliseconds);

// Create session
const char* clientIP = "8.8.8.8";
struct SessionHandle* session = createSession(openKit, clientIP);

// Identify user
identifyUser(session, "jane.doe@example.com");

// Create root and child actions
const char* rootActionName = "rootActionName";
struct RootActionHandle* rootAction = enterRootAction(session, rootActionName);

const char* childActionName = "childAction";
struct ActionHandle* childAction = enterAction(rootAction, childActionName);

// Leave action
leaveAction(childAction);
leaveRootAction(rootAction);

// Finish session
endSession(session);

// Terminate OpenKit instance
shutdownOpenKit(openKit);

// Obtain an OpenKit instance
const endpointURL: string = 'https://tenantid.beaconurl.com/mbeacon'; // Dynatrace endpoint URL
const applicationID: string = 'application-id'; // Your application's ID
const deviceID: number = 42; // Replace with a unique value per device/installation

const openkit = new OpenKitBuilder(endpointURL, applicationID, deviceID)
    .withApplicationVersion('1.0.0.0')
    .withOperatingSystem("Windows 10")
    .withManufacturer("MyCompany")
    .withModelID("MyModelID")
    .build();

const timeoutInMilliseconds = 10 * 1000;

openKit.waitForInit((success) => {
    if (success) {
        // Create session
        const clientIP = '8.8.8.8';
        const session: Session = openkit.createSession(clientIP);

        // Identify user
        session.identifyUser('jane.doe@example.com');

        // Create root and child actions
        string rootActionName = 'rootActionName';
        const rootAction = session.enterAction(rootActionName);

        string childActionName = 'childAction';
        const childAction = rootAction.enterAction(childActionName);

        // Leave action
        childAction.leaveAction();
        rootAction.leaveAction();

        // Finish session
        session.end();

        // Terminate OpenKit instance
        openkit.shutdown();
    }
}, timeoutInMilliseconds);

You can find your application ID and the endpoint URL in the instrumentation wizard (from your application settings, select Instrumentation wizard).

For custom applications, user identification is achieved by passing deviceID, which should be unique for each user or device. Then deviceID is marked as the Internal user ID in the Dynatrace web UI.

Customize instrumentation

After creating a custom application in Dynatrace and instrumenting your actual application with OpenKit, check the pages below to customize and troubleshoot the instrumentation and configure your custom application.

Analyze and use RUM data

Once your custom application starts sending monitoring data to Dynatrace, you can analyze this data just like you do for any other application. See the pages below for more information.

The image below shows the overview page of our test custom application.

Custom application overview page