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ex_insights

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Elixir client library to log telemetry data on Azure Application Insights

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# ExInsights

[![Hex.pm](https://img.shields.io/hexpm/v/ex_insights.svg?style=flat-square&colorB=6e347e)](https://hex.pm/packages/ex_insights)

Elixir client library to log telemetry data on Azure Application Insights.

## Installation

Install from hex by adding `ex_insights` to your list of dependencies in `mix.exs`:

```elixir
def deps do
  [
    {:ex_insights, "~> 0.8"}
  ]
end
```

You then need to start the `ExInsights.Supervisor` in your supervision tree. Example:

```elixir
# inside the init/1 callback of a supervisor in your supervision tree (or start/2 of application.ex)

children = [
  # ...
  {ExInsights.Supervisor, instrumentation_key: "0000-1111-2222-3333"}
]

Supervisor.init(children, strategy: :one_for_one)
```
### Note
For migrating to 0.8.x and later versions read the migration instructions below

## Configuration
ExInsights supports the following configuration options you can set when starting the `ExInsights.Supervisor`

* `:instrumentation_key`: You can set the instrumentation key (Azure App Insights secret key) to use for sending data to Azure. It can be overriden on each `ExInsights.track_xxx` request. Needs to be present either by setting it here or on every request, otherwise the code will raise with an error (string)
* `:flush_inteval_secs`: the number of seconds every which the client will send the telemetry data to Azure. Default is every 30 seconds since the last flushing (non-negative integer)
* `:client_module`: the module to use for actually sending the requests. Mostly useful in tests (atom)

Example:

```elixir
options = [
  instrumentation_key: "0000-1111-2222-3333",
  flush_interval_secs: 30
]

children = [
  # ...
  {ExInsights.Supervisor, options}
]

Supervisor.init(children, strategy: :one_for_one)
```

## Usage

### Basic Usage

All public tracking methods are under the `ExInsights` module. Examples:

```elixir
# will post a click custom_event to azure
ExInsights.track_event("click")

# with custom defined property "type" and measurement "count"
ExInsights.track_event("click", %{type: "button"}, %{count: 2})

# send custom metric data. Does not support aggregated data (count/stdDev, min, max)
ExInsights.track_metric("bananas", 10)

# log arbitrary data
ExInsights.track_trace("1-2-3 boom", :warning)

# log time taken for requests to external resources, eg. database or http service calls
ExInsights.track_dependency("get_user_balance", "http://my.api/get_balance/aviator1", 1500, true, "user", "my.api")

# log telemetry data about the incoming request processed by the application
ExInsights.track_request("homepage", "http://my.site.com/", "HomePageComponent", 85, 200, true)
```

For more details and optional arguments look at the [`ExInsights`](https://hexdocs.pm/ex_insights/ExInsights.html) module documentation.

### Alternative usage

You can also decorate methods you need to track using [decorators](https://github.com/arjan/decorator).

```elixir
# Make sure to add the following line before using any decorators
use ExInsights.Decoration.Attributes

# add the @decorate track_xxx() attribute right above each function you need to track

@decorate track_event() # will log the "update_user_email" event in AppInsights on function entry
def update_user_email(email, user) do
  # ...
end

@decorate track_dependency("user-actions") # put under dependency type:user-actions in AppInsights UI
def login_user(user) do
  # ... maybe call external api here
end

@decorate track_exception() # will track errors and exits
def dangerous_stuff do
  # ... do work that may fail
end
```

## Migrating from 0.7.x to 0.8.x
In order to make the library configuration more flexible and in accordance to [library development guidelines for configuration](https://hexdocs.pm/elixir/master/library-guidelines.html#avoid-application-configuration), support for configuring the client by setting options directly inside config.exs files was dropped and configuration now needs to happen on supervisor startup.

For example instead of globally configuring ex_insights inside config.exs,
```elixir
# No longer supported
config :ex_insights,
  instrumentation_key: "0000-1111-2222-3333"
```

you now need to pass this option to the `ExInsights.Supervisor` directly instead
```elixir
children = [
  ...
  {ExInsights.Supervisor, instrumentation_key: "0000-1111-2222-3333"}
]
```

If you need to keep reading this value from your config files you can still do something like this
```elixir
# in config.exs
config :my_app, ex_insights_instrumentation_key: "0000-1111-2222-3333"

# in you supervisor.ex file
def read_instrumentation_key_from_config do
  Application.get_env(:my_app, :ex_insights_instrumentation_key)
end

def init(_) do
  ...
  children = [
    # ...
    {ExInsights.Supervisor, instrumentation_key: read_instrumentation_key_from_config()}
  ]
end
```

## Inner workings
* Calling any tracking function `ExInsights.track_xxx` from your code will not immediately send the data to Azure. It will instead be aggregated in memory until the `flush_timer` is triggered (every 30 secs, configurable) and the data will be batch sent.
* When the application shuts down it will attempt to flush any remaining data.
* If you are behind a firewall (usually happens in production deployments) make sure your network rules **allow HTTP POSTs to https://dc.services.visualstudio.com**
* If requests to azure tracking services fail (network or server errors or bad requests) you will not be alerted.
* `track_dependency` and `track_exception` decorators will try to `rescue`/`catch` any errors (and log those) and then re-raise the error / exit as appropriate. This is a different (but hopefully working) approach than what the AppSignal guys do (a separate process monitoring crashes)

ex_insights

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