Avoid being disturbed with error reports by your users

With the Q3 2013 release today, we went one two extra miles to make your life as a developer easier. Together with all updates across our .NET developer tools, we are also introducing a new service, EQATEC Application Analytics, which will reduce the time you spend on maintaining your application, and even stop the run-time error reports you are getting from your users.

For the Q3'13 release EQATEC Application Analytics (a product Telerik acquired earlier this year) made its way into RadControls for WPF and RadControls for Silverlight, but we plan to integrate in all of Telerik's UI suites. Don't worry if you are not using WPF or Silverlight: EQATEC Analytics supports more than 12 application platforms (including web and mobile), and you can add it to your application manually when you have a minute.

What is application analytics?

EQATEC Application Analytics is a clever, yet simple way to monitor and track desktop, web and mobile applications at run-time, 24/7. It is similar to Google Analytics, with one major difference: EQATEC Analytics is for developers, whereas Google Analytics is targeting marketers and business guys. All gathered data is aggregated in online reports, which you can review at your leisure. In addition, data is collected in near real time, with only a few minutes delay, and it is completely anonymous.

Today Telerik is bringing this service to you, the .NET developer. Microsoft, Google and Apple have been using similar run-time analytic services to monitor crashes and usages of their software for years, and the quality of their products have improved tremendously ever since (when was the last time you saw the Blue Screen of Death?). Analytics services are also widely used in mobile applications for the same purposes. If you are developing a mobile app, you are probably familiar with them.

What can I do with analytics?

Here are just a few of benefits of using EQATEC Analytics in your application:

• Capture crash reports and exceptions at run-time, address them quickly, and reduce support
• Learn what features your users use the most. This can help you prioritize development by focusing on the features used daily, and decreasing the priority of the features used less frequently 
• Gain insights into your end user's system, such as OS version, .NET version, browser version (for web applications), screen resolution, etc. With EQATEC Analytics you'll know when it is time to drop support for the outdated OS (or browser) that is rarely used, such as WinXP or IE6. 
• Time measurements of specific end-user actions. This can help you see if you have performance bottlenecks that you don’t know about. Maybe opening "XYZ.pdf” takes longer than expected?

We will cover each of these (and more) in detail in the following weeks, so stay put.

Use EQATEC Analytics to catch run-time exceptions and fix them before they get reported

One of the major differences between EQATEC Analytics and Google Analytics is that Telerik's service allows you to monitor the run-time stability of your application. In case a crash occurs, it will store the exception in your online account, together with the time and date when it occurred.

What is better, the service can email you the exact stack trace, together with information on how to reproduce the error. You'll know that your application is misbehaving at the exact time when one of your uses sees the problem.

The beauty of all this is that you can fix the problem before anyone contacts you to report it. If you are working on a web or a mobile application, you can even quickly deploy a fixed version to avoid similar problems (and irritated users!) in the future. In other word, by using EQATEC Analytics you can effectively reduce the support cases landing on your desk and deliver a new, better version of your application without even talking to an user. This can even free some time for working on your next great feature!

What platforms are supported?

If you are using RadControls for WPF or Silverlight, go ahead and download the Q3 2013 versions of these suites - the major controls are already instrumented. Telerik plans to integrate EQATEC Analytics in all of its UI suites, but this may take a few months.

If you are not using Telerik's WPF or Silverlight controls, head to http://www.telerik.com/analytics and create an account - you can download application monitors for more than 12 platforms: ASP.NET, MVC, WinForms, Windows Phone, WinRT, MacOS, iOS, Android, Java, Win32, and more. Instrumenting your app takes a few minutes, and you can monitor one application completely free, forever (with up to 100 installations/users per 30 days).

Is it free? Does it cost extra?

You can track one application for free, forever. The only limitation here is that the service will monitor the first 100 installations/users each 30 days.

The service won't cost you extra either if you already have a DevCraft Ultimate license: a standard license of EQATEC Analytics will be added to DevCraft Ultimate in November. All valid DevCraft Ultimate holders at that time will get the upgrade for free. Until then you can check the free service.

If you don’t have DevCraft Ultimate, or you think you will outgrow the free service, you can purchase an EQATEC license at any time. Custom subscriptions are also available.

Is it worth it?

We plan to add an online ROI calculator for developers on the website, which will tell you what the return on investment is. However, you can easily calculate the ROI: if you are in the USA, think of how much your hourly wage is. Now, how long does it take you to fix an exception and test the fix? If it takes you an hour then the service has paid for itself after fixing that first exception for the month! And here we are not counting all the other goodies you get from this service.

Learn more: http://www.telerik.com/analytics 

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