The OneAgent for iOS provides comprehensive web request monitoring capabilities:
URLSession.The OneAgent for iOS automatically instruments web requests made using Apple's URLSession API and stores them as events in Grail.
Each event consists of well-defined key-value fields as specified in the Semantic Dictionary for user events.
This data can be queried directly in Grail using DQL.
To track web requests, OneAgent adds the x-dynatrace HTTP header with a unique value to each request. This is required to correlate the server-side monitoring data to the corresponding mobile web request. Additionally, the timing values from the mobile side are measured.
For each web request, the SDK captures:
The data captured will be structured and reported according to the fields specified in request.*.
Automatic instrumentation works with:
URLSession.dataTask(with:completionHandler:)URLSession.downloadTask(with:completionHandler:)URLSession.uploadTask(with:from:completionHandler:)URLSession.data(from:), etc.)NSURLRequest, NSURLConnection, NSURLProtocolWKWebView requestsNSData convenience methodsAutomatic instrumentation has the following limitations:
We don't recommend using several monitoring tools simultaneously with crash reporting or web request instrumentation functionality enabled. This might cause compatibility issues, reporting of wrong or invalid information, and loss of monitoring and crash data. Nevertheless, if you decide to do so, verify via manual testing that these tools are compatible.
To use both Dynatrace and Firebase, do one of the following.
Follow only one of the approaches above; don't perform both actions.
To use both Dynatrace and mPaaS, do one of the following.
Follow only one of the approaches above; don't perform both actions.
To disable automatic web request instrumentation, set the DTXInstrumentWebRequestTiming configuration key to false in your app's Info.plist file:
<key>DTXInstrumentWebRequestTiming</key><false/>
You may want to disable automatic instrumentation when:
| Request type | Instrumentation type | DTXInstrumentWebRequestTiming |
|---|---|---|
| HTTP(S) | Option A: Auto | true |
| Option B: Manual | false |
You cannot combine automatic and manual instrumentation for the same HTTP(S) request.
The SDK supports W3C Trace Context for distributed tracing, allowing you to correlate mobile requests with backend services instrumented by Dynatrace.
When automatic instrumentation is enabled, the SDK automatically adds W3C trace context header to outgoing requests:
traceparent—Identifies the request as part of a distributed traceThis enables end-to-end visibility from the mobile app through your backend services.
For networking libraries not covered by automatic instrumentation, you can manually report web requests using DTXHttpRequestEventData.
import Dynatrace// Create the request data with the URL and HTTP methodlet requestData = DTXHttpRequestEventData(url: "https://api.example.com/data", method: "GET").withDuration(250) // Duration in milliseconds.withStatusCode(200) // HTTP status code.withBytesSent(128) // Bytes sent.withBytesReceived(4096) // Bytes received// Send the web request eventDynatrace.sendHttpRequestEvent(requestData)
When a request fails, include the error information:
let requestData = DTXHttpRequestEventData(url: "https://api.example.com/data", method: "POST").withDuration(1500).withError(error as NSError)Dynatrace.sendHttpRequestEvent(requestData)
To correlate manually reported requests with distributed traces, include the traceparent header:
// Report the event with the traceparentlet requestData = DTXHttpRequestEventData(url: url, method: "GET").withDuration(duration).withStatusCode(statusCode).withTraceparentHeader(traceparent)Dynatrace.sendHttpRequestEvent(requestData)
Add custom event properties to capture additional context:
let requestData = DTXHttpRequestEventData(url: url, method: "POST").withDuration(300).withStatusCode(201).addEventProperty("event_properties.api_version", value: "v2").addEventProperty("event_properties.endpoint", value: "users")Dynatrace.sendHttpRequestEvent(requestData)
Custom property keys must be prefixed with event_properties.—properties without this prefix will be dropped.
Event modifiers allow you to enrich web request events with additional data before they are sent. This is useful for adding context from the request/response that isn't captured automatically.
let subscriber = Dynatrace.addHttpEventModifier { event, context in// Access request details from the contextif let request = context?.request {// Add custom headers or request info as propertiesif let customHeader = request.value(forHTTPHeaderField: "X-Custom-Header") {event.fields["event_properties.custom_header"] = customHeader}}// Access response detailsif let httpResponse = context?.response as? HTTPURLResponse {if let serverTiming = httpResponse.value(forHTTPHeaderField: "Server-Timing") {event.fields["event_properties.server_timing"] = serverTiming}}// Return the modified event (or nil to drop it)return event}
The DTXHttpRequestEventContext provides access to:
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
request | URLRequest | The original request |
response | URLResponse? | The server response (if available) |
responseBody | Data? | The response body data (if captured) |
error | NSError? | The error (if the request failed) |
When you no longer need the modifier, remove it using the subscriber reference:
Dynatrace.removeEventModifier(subscriber)
Return nil from the modifier to prevent the event from being sent:
let subscriber = Dynatrace.addHttpEventModifier { event, context in// Don't report requests to analytics endpointsif let url = context?.request.url?.absoluteString,url.contains("analytics.example.com") {return nil}return event}