What are the options for Errors or Crashes tracking in Flutter App

In Flutter, tracking errors or crashes in an app helps maintain stability and improve the user experience. Here are popular tools and methods for error and crash tracking in a Flutter app:

1. Firebase Crashlytics

• Overview: Firebase Crashlytics is one of the most widely used tools for crash reporting in Flutter. It captures crashes in real-time, helping you understand where errors occur and why.
• Features:
  • Real-time crash reporting.
  • Automatic grouping and prioritization of issues.
  • Integration with Firebase Analytics for deeper insights.
• Setup: Add firebase_crashlytics to your pubspec.yaml and initialize it within your app code.

https://firebase.google.com/docs/crashlytics/get-started?platform=flutter

2. Sentry

• Overview: Sentry is a powerful error-tracking tool that captures both crashes and runtime errors. It’s a great choice if you need detailed error context and advanced alerting.
• Features:
  • Real-time error tracking.
  • Breadcrumbs for understanding the sequence of events leading to errors.
  • Customizable alerts and notifications.
• Setup: Add sentry_flutter to pubspec.yaml, configure it in your app, and initialize Sentry in the main function.

https://pub.dev/packages/sentry_flutter

3. Bugsnag

• Overview: Bugsnag is another robust tool for monitoring crashes and errors in mobile applications. It’s known for its easy-to-navigate interface and flexible configuration.
• Features:
  • Real-time error and crash reporting.
  • In-app notifications and filtering for specific error types.
  • Allows tracking of user context and error trends.
• Setup: Add the bugsnag_flutter package and follow Bugsnag’s configuration guide.

https://pub.dev/packages/bugsnag_flutter

4. Rollbar

• Overview: Rollbar is useful for tracking errors in real-time across mobile and web platforms, with automatic error grouping and root cause analysis.
• Features:
  • Automatic grouping of similar issues.
  • Root cause analysis tools.
  • Customizable notifications.
• Setup: Integrate the rollbar_flutter package, and initialize it with your project’s access token.

https://pub.dev/packages/rollbar_flutter

5. App Center by Microsoft 

https://pub.dev/packages/flutter_appcenter_bundle

• Overview: App Center provides crash analytics along with other development tools like app distribution and push notifications.
• Features:
  • Crash reporting, distribution, and analytics.
  • Built-in workflow for tracking app updates.
• Setup: Integrate using the appcenter_sdk_flutterpackage in Flutter.

6. Custom Error Logging (Using Dart or Flutter Logs)

• Overview: You can create a custom logging mechanism using Dart’s built-in dart:developer library or use packages like logger or flutter_logs.
• Features:
  • Fine-grained control over error and crash tracking.
  • Customize error context and log storage.
  • Use local storage or send logs to a custom backend.
• Setup: Manually implement log saving and handling within your Flutter app. Useful if you need something highly customized.

1. Use Try-Catch Blocks

• For synchronous code, wrap potentially error-prone code in try-catch blocks to catch specific exceptions. You can then handle the error or provide meaningful feedback to the user.

try {
   // Code that might throw an exception
} catch (e) {
   // Handle the error
   print('An error occurred: $e');
}

• For asynchronous code, you can add .catchError to the Future methods.

Future<void> fetchData() async {
   try {
      final result = await api.getData();
      // Process result
   } catch (e) {
      print('An error occurred: $e');
   }
}

2. Use Flutter’s ErrorWidget

• Flutter’s ErrorWidget can be customized to show a specific widget whenever an error occurs in the UI.

ErrorWidget.builder = (FlutterErrorDetails details) {
   return Center(child: Text("Oops, something went wrong!"));
};

3. Wrap Your App in FlutterError.onError

• Flutter provides a global error handler for uncaught errors in the Flutter framework. Set this in your main function to catch these errors.

void main() {
   FlutterError.onError = (FlutterErrorDetails details) {
      FlutterError.dumpErrorToConsole(details);
      // You can also log this error locally
   };
   runApp(MyApp());
}

4. Catch Uncaught Errors in Zones

• Wrapping the entire app in a Zone allows you to catch errors that are not handled by Flutter’s widgets.

void main() {
   runZonedGuarded(() {
      runApp(MyApp());
   }, (error, stackTrace) {
      print('Caught error: $error');
      // Handle or log error
   });
}

5. Use FutureBuilder and StreamBuilder Error Handling

• When working with asynchronous data in UI widgets, use FutureBuilder and StreamBuilder‘s error handling properties.

FutureBuilder(
   future: fetchData(),
   builder: (context, snapshot) {
      if (snapshot.hasError) {
         return Text('Error: ${snapshot.error}');
      }
      if (snapshot.connectionState == ConnectionState.done) {
         return Text('Data: ${snapshot.data}');
      }
      return CircularProgressIndicator();
   },
);

6. Handle HTTP Errors in Network Calls

• For HTTP requests, handle specific exceptions like SocketException, HttpException, etc., to provide more informative responses or retry logic.

try {
   final response = await http.get(url);
   if (response.statusCode == 200) {
      // Success
   } else {
      throw HttpException('Failed to load data');
   }
} on SocketException {
   print('No Internet connection');
} on HttpException {
   print('Server error');
} catch (e) {
   print('Unexpected error: $e');
}

By implementing these techniques, you can create a resilient and user-friendly Flutter app that can handle errors gracefully without relying on external services.

Each of these options offers unique advantages, so you may want to evaluate based on the level of detail and integration you need, as well as budget and team preferences. Firebase Crashlytics and Sentry are the most popular for their strong community support and extensive feature set, especially for Flutter projects.