Antenna is a well known remote logging framework that is exclusively available for iOS devices. Antenna got instant popularity among iOS developers upon its release because of two main reasons; first of all, it is developed by Matt Thompson who is a famous iOS developer which now works for Apple. Second, it allows developers to set up their own server so they can collect logs.
Matt is a regular contributor on GitHub and he has thousands of followers all over the globe. The Antenna framework is designed to provide maximum insights about an app and its behavior yet developers and testers easily configure it to work according to their specific needs. The remote logging feature runs like a charm yet you need to set your own server to collect logs.
As an iOS developer, you probably already know that an app development lifecycle consists of mostly monitoring and debugging, that is only possible via logging because Application Performance Monitoring only covers core performance metrics and does not work effectively with cloud based systems. Gladly, Antenna and Bugfender could be used for apps as well as for games. There are many reasons to treat games as a different niche than apps.
- As gaming is about beautiful visuals, heavy graphics put rendering load on the device and developers need to cover everything perfectly. Also, games are significantly more difficult to test on different types of devices as compared to apps.
- A game and app using online feature might have a similar back-end structure but they work drastically different. Games which depend on the internet initiate much more data and transactions than apps. That means the network load is intense too. Not to mention, games usually have aggressive network traffic that makes things even harder from developers’ perspective.
- Generally, games are complicated to build as compared to apps.
Monitor Events and Usage Patterns
Games usually experience more types of events and more frequently; Antenna and Bugfender can help developers log, monitor, analyze and understand the cause behind errors, downtime, crashes, fatal errors and abnormal behavior. Sometimes, apps and games abnormally because of the issue with the device itself and not the app or game; in such cases, it is important to know the usage pattern of the users to pinpoint the root cause. Antenna could be used as an analytical platform.
Third Party Integration
Most developers use IAPs and ads to generate a revenue stream and based on the geographical location of the user same devices could experience different issues. Both, IAPs and ads are highly dependent on the users’ location and show different data; that’s why developers need to test these third party integrations thoroughly and especially where the majority of their target audience lies.
Analyze Before and After Release
As mentioned earlier, games are highly complex and a newly introduced feature may cause problems in previously available features. Make sure you monitor and analyze logs before and after release of new features. This approach would help you understand the reason behind a particular issue.
Unfortunately, logging is an underrated aspect of the software development lifecycle but the good news is developers are finally catching up and realizing its importance. One of the biggest advantages of using Antenna and Bugfender is that you can see what exactly your code is doing.
Remote Logging with Bugfender
Bugfender is 100% compatible with Antenna framework and you can get the benefits of both simultaneously. As mentioned above, Antenna framework needs a separate server to collect the logs but Bugfender is powered by its cloud service that collects the logs and developers can access those logs using Bugfender Console. Using cloud server has its own benefits; for starters, you don’t have to set up the server and manage it all the time.
Some other advantages of cloud are its scalability, security and accessibility. You might not appreciate these traits while working solo on small projects but you’d realize it when your projects and teams grow. The platform has remote logging feature that allows developers and tester to analyze different bugs and issues on the real devices as soon as they happen.
Bugfender is known for its revolutionary idea to overcome device fragmentation that has become a major issue for mobile developers, testers and even for users. Device fragmentation refers to too many different hardware and software combination that make standardization almost impossible. Earlier, only Android devices were known for it but now iOS developers are experiencing the same issue because of many variants of iOS devices and iOS platform in the market.
Because of device fragmentation, developers need to test their apps on hundreds of different devices which is a very difficult task – not only it is time consuming and frustrating, but it also needs significant allocated budget. Bugfender allows developers to test their apps on real devices without even having physical access to them. That means developers can discover bugs before their users do, and fix those bugs immediately.
