title	description	ms.topic	ms.date	ms.custom
Application Insights API for custom events and metrics \| Microsoft Docs	Insert a few lines of code in your device or desktop app, webpage, or service, to track usage and diagnose issues.	conceptual	05/11/2020	devx-track-js, devx-track-csharp

Application Insights API for custom events and metrics

Insert a few lines of code in your application to find out what users are doing with it, or to help diagnose issues. You can send telemetry from device and desktop apps, web clients, and web servers. Use the Azure Application Insights core telemetry API to send custom events and metrics, and your own versions of standard telemetry. This API is the same API that the standard Application Insights data collectors use.

API summary

The core API is uniform across all platforms, apart from a few variations like GetMetric(.NET only).

Method	Used for
`TrackPageView`	Pages, screens, blades, or forms.
`TrackEvent`	User actions and other events. Used to track user behavior or to monitor performance.
`GetMetric`	Zero and multi-dimensional metrics, centrally configured aggregation, C# only.
`TrackMetric`	Performance measurements such as queue lengths not related to specific events.
`TrackException`	Logging exceptions for diagnosis. Trace where they occur in relation to other events and examine stack traces.
`TrackRequest`	Logging the frequency and duration of server requests for performance analysis.
`TrackTrace`	Resource Diagnostic log messages. You can also capture third-party logs.
`TrackDependency`	Logging the duration and frequency of calls to external components that your app depends on.

You can attach properties and metrics to most of these telemetry calls.

Before you start

If you don't have a reference on Application Insights SDK yet:

Add the Application Insights SDK to your project:
In your device or web server code, include:

C#: using Microsoft.ApplicationInsights;

Visual Basic: Imports Microsoft.ApplicationInsights

Java: import com.microsoft.applicationinsights.TelemetryClient;

Node.js: var applicationInsights = require("applicationinsights");

Get a TelemetryClient instance

Get an instance of TelemetryClient (except in JavaScript in webpages):

For ASP.NET Core apps and Non HTTP/Worker for .NET/.NET Core apps, it is recommended to get an instance of TelemetryClient from the dependency injection container as explained in their respective documentation.

If you use AzureFunctions v2+ or Azure WebJobs v3+ - follow this document.

C#

private TelemetryClient telemetry = new TelemetryClient();

For anyone seeing this method is obsolete messages please visit microsoft/ApplicationInsights-dotnet#1152 for further details.

Visual Basic

Private Dim telemetry As New TelemetryClient

Java

private TelemetryClient telemetry = new TelemetryClient();

Node.js

var telemetry = applicationInsights.defaultClient;

TelemetryClient is thread-safe.

For ASP.NET and Java projects, incoming HTTP Requests are automatically captured. You might want to create additional instances of TelemetryClient for other module of your app. For instance, you may have one TelemetryClient instance in your middleware class to report business logic events. You can set properties such as UserId and DeviceId to identify the machine. This information is attached to all events that the instance sends.

C#

TelemetryClient.Context.User.Id = "...";
TelemetryClient.Context.Device.Id = "...";

Java

telemetry.getContext().getUser().setId("...");
telemetry.getContext().getDevice().setId("...");

In Node.js projects, you can use new applicationInsights.TelemetryClient(instrumentationKey?) to create a new instance, but this is recommended only for scenarios that require isolated configuration from the singleton defaultClient.

TrackEvent

In Application Insights, a custom event is a data point that you can display in Metrics Explorer as an aggregated count, and in Diagnostic Search as individual occurrences. (It isn't related to MVC or other framework "events.")

Insert TrackEvent calls in your code to count various events. How often users choose a particular feature, how often they achieve particular goals, or maybe how often they make particular types of mistakes.

For example, in a game app, send an event whenever a user wins the game:

JavaScript

appInsights.trackEvent({name:"WinGame"});

C#

telemetry.TrackEvent("WinGame");

Visual Basic

telemetry.TrackEvent("WinGame")

Java

telemetry.trackEvent("WinGame");

Node.js

telemetry.trackEvent({name: "WinGame"});

Custom events in Analytics

The telemetry is available in the customEvents table in Application Insights Logs tab or Usage Experience. Events may come from trackEvent(..) or Click Analytics Auto-collection Plugin.

If sampling is in operation, the itemCount property shows a value greater than 1. For example itemCount==10 means that of 10 calls to trackEvent(), the sampling process only transmitted one of them. To get a correct count of custom events, you should therefore use code such as customEvents | summarize sum(itemCount).

GetMetric

To learn how to effectively use the GetMetric() call to capture locally pre-aggregated metrics for .NET and .NET Core applications visit the GetMetric documentation.

TrackMetric

Note

Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.TelemetryClient.TrackMetric is not the preferred method for sending metrics. Metrics should always be pre-aggregated across a time period before being sent. Use one of the GetMetric(..) overloads to get a metric object for accessing SDK pre-aggregation capabilities. If you are implementing your own pre-aggregation logic, you can use the TrackMetric() method to send the resulting aggregates. If your application requires sending a separate telemetry item at every occasion without aggregation across time, you likely have a use case for event telemetry; see TelemetryClient.TrackEvent (Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.DataContracts.EventTelemetry).

Application Insights can chart metrics that are not attached to particular events. For example, you could monitor a queue length at regular intervals. With metrics, the individual measurements are of less interest than the variations and trends, and so statistical charts are useful.

In order to send metrics to Application Insights, you can use the TrackMetric(..) API. There are two ways to send a metric:

Single value. Every time you perform a measurement in your application, you send the corresponding value to Application Insights. For example, assume that you have a metric describing the number of items in a container. During a particular time period, you first put three items into the container and then you remove two items. Accordingly, you would call TrackMetric twice: first passing the value 3 and then the value -2. Application Insights stores both values on your behalf.
Aggregation. When working with metrics, every single measurement is rarely of interest. Instead a summary of what happened during a particular time period is important. Such a summary is called aggregation. In the above example, the aggregate metric sum for that time period is 1 and the count of the metric values is 2. When using the aggregation approach, you only invoke TrackMetric once per time period and send the aggregate values. This is the recommended approach since it can significantly reduce the cost and performance overhead by sending fewer data points to Application Insights, while still collecting all relevant information.

Examples

Single values

To send a single metric value:

JavaScript

appInsights.trackMetric({name: "queueLength", average: 42});

C#

var sample = new MetricTelemetry();
sample.Name = "queueLength";
sample.Value = 42.3;
telemetryClient.TrackMetric(sample);

Java

telemetry.trackMetric("queueLength", 42.0);

Node.js

telemetry.trackMetric({name: "queueLength", value: 42.0});

Custom metrics in Analytics

The telemetry is available in the customMetrics table in Application Insights Analytics. Each row represents a call to trackMetric(..) in your app.

valueSum - This is the sum of the measurements. To get the mean value, divide by valueCount.
valueCount - The number of measurements that were aggregated into this trackMetric(..) call.

Page views

In a device or webpage app, page view telemetry is sent by default when each screen or page is loaded. But you can change that to track page views at additional or different times. For example, in an app that displays tabs or blades, you might want to track a page whenever the user opens a new blade.

User and session data is sent as properties along with page views, so the user and session charts come alive when there is page view telemetry.

Custom page views

JavaScript

appInsights.trackPageView("tab1");

C#

telemetry.TrackPageView("GameReviewPage");

Visual Basic

telemetry.TrackPageView("GameReviewPage")

Java

telemetry.trackPageView("GameReviewPage");

If you have several tabs within different HTML pages, you can specify the URL too:

appInsights.trackPageView("tab1", "http://fabrikam.com/page1.htm");

Timing page views

By default, the times reported as Page view load time are measured from when the browser sends the request, until the browser's page load event is called.

Instead, you can either:

Set an explicit duration in the trackPageView call: appInsights.trackPageView("tab1", null, null, null, durationInMilliseconds);.
Use the page view timing calls startTrackPage and stopTrackPage.

JavaScript

// To start timing a page:
appInsights.startTrackPage("Page1");

...

// To stop timing and log the page:
appInsights.stopTrackPage("Page1", url, properties, measurements);

The name that you use as the first parameter associates the start and stop calls. It defaults to the current page name.

The resulting page load durations displayed in Metrics Explorer are derived from the interval between the start and stop calls. It's up to you what interval you actually time.

Page telemetry in Analytics

In Analytics two tables show data from browser operations:

The pageViews table contains data about the URL and page title
The browserTimings table contains data about client performance, such as the time taken to process the incoming data

To find how long the browser takes to process different pages:

browserTimings
| summarize avg(networkDuration), avg(processingDuration), avg(totalDuration) by name

To discover the popularities of different browsers:

pageViews
| summarize count() by client_Browser

To associate page views to AJAX calls, join with dependencies:

pageViews
| join (dependencies) on operation_Id

TrackRequest

The server SDK uses TrackRequest to log HTTP requests.

You can also call it yourself if you want to simulate requests in a context where you don't have the web service module running.

However, the recommended way to send request telemetry is where the request acts as an operation context.

Operation context

You can correlate telemetry items together by associating them with operation context. The standard request-tracking module does this for exceptions and other events that are sent while an HTTP request is being processed. In Search and Analytics, you can easily find any events associated with the request using its operation ID.

See Telemetry correlation in Application Insights for more details on correlation.

When tracking telemetry manually, the easiest way to ensure telemetry correlation by using this pattern:

C#

// Establish an operation context and associated telemetry item:
using (var operation = telemetryClient.StartOperation<RequestTelemetry>("operationName"))
{
    // Telemetry sent in here will use the same operation ID.
    ...
    telemetryClient.TrackTrace(...); // or other Track* calls
    ...

    // Set properties of containing telemetry item--for example:
    operation.Telemetry.ResponseCode = "200";

    // Optional: explicitly send telemetry item:
    telemetryClient.StopOperation(operation);

} // When operation is disposed, telemetry item is sent.

Along with setting an operation context, StartOperation creates a telemetry item of the type that you specify. It sends the telemetry item when you dispose the operation, or if you explicitly call StopOperation. If you use RequestTelemetry as the telemetry type, its duration is set to the timed interval between start and stop.

Telemetry items reported within a scope of operation become 'children' of such operation. Operation contexts could be nested.

In Search, the operation context is used to create the Related Items list:

See Track custom operations with Application Insights .NET SDK for more information on custom operations tracking.

Requests in Analytics

In Application Insights Analytics, requests show up in the requests table.

If sampling is in operation, the itemCount property will show a value greater than 1. For example itemCount==10 means that of 10 calls to trackRequest(), the sampling process only transmitted one of them. To get a correct count of requests and average duration segmented by request names, use code such as:

requests
| summarize count = sum(itemCount), avgduration = avg(duration) by name

TrackException

Send exceptions to Application Insights:

To count them, as an indication of the frequency of a problem.
To examine individual occurrences.

The reports include the stack traces.

C#

try
{
    ...
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    telemetry.TrackException(ex);
}

Java

try {
    ...
} catch (Exception ex) {
    telemetry.trackException(ex);
}

JavaScript

try
{
    ...
}
catch (ex)
{
    appInsights.trackException({exception: ex});
}

Node.js

try
{
    ...
}
catch (ex)
{
    telemetry.trackException({exception: ex});
}

The SDKs catch many exceptions automatically, so you don't always have to call TrackException explicitly.

ASP.NET: Write code to catch exceptions.
Java EE: Exceptions are caught automatically.
JavaScript: Exceptions are caught automatically. If you want to disable automatic collection, add a line to the code snippet that you insert in your webpages:

({
    instrumentationKey: "your key",
    disableExceptionTracking: true
})

Exceptions in Analytics

In Application Insights Analytics, exceptions show up in the exceptions table.

If sampling is in operation, the itemCount property shows a value greater than 1. For example itemCount==10 means that of 10 calls to trackException(), the sampling process only transmitted one of them. To get a correct count of exceptions segmented by type of exception, use code such as:

exceptions
| summarize sum(itemCount) by type

Most of the important stack information is already extracted into separate variables, but you can pull apart the details structure to get more. Since this structure is dynamic, you should cast the result to the type you expect. For example:

exceptions
| extend method2 = tostring(details[0].parsedStack[1].method)

To associate exceptions with their related requests, use a join:

exceptions
| join (requests) on operation_Id

TrackTrace

Use TrackTrace to help diagnose problems by sending a "breadcrumb trail" to Application Insights. You can send chunks of diagnostic data and inspect them in Diagnostic Search.

In .NET Log adapters use this API to send third-party logs to the portal.

In Java, the Application Insights Java agent auto-collects and sends logs to the portal.

C#

telemetry.TrackTrace(message, SeverityLevel.Warning, properties);

Java

telemetry.trackTrace(message, SeverityLevel.Warning, properties);

Node.js

telemetry.trackTrace({
    message: message,
    severity: applicationInsights.Contracts.SeverityLevel.Warning,
    properties: properties
});

Client/Browser-side JavaScript

trackTrace({
    message: string, 
    properties?: {[string]:string}, 
    severityLevel?: SeverityLevel
})

Log a diagnostic event such as entering or leaving a method.

Parameter	Description
`message`	Diagnostic data. Can be much longer than a name.
`properties`	Map of string to string: Additional data used to filter exceptions in the portal. Defaults to empty.
`severityLevel`	Supported values: SeverityLevel.ts

You can search on message content, but (unlike property values) you can't filter on it.

The size limit on message is much higher than the limit on properties. An advantage of TrackTrace is that you can put relatively long data in the message. For example, you can encode POST data there.

In addition, you can add a severity level to your message. And, like other telemetry, you can add property values to help you filter or search for different sets of traces. For example:

C#

var telemetry = new Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.TelemetryClient();
telemetry.TrackTrace("Slow database response",
                SeverityLevel.Warning,
                new Dictionary<string,string> { {"database", db.ID} });

Java

Map<String, Integer> properties = new HashMap<>();
properties.put("Database", db.ID);
telemetry.trackTrace("Slow Database response", SeverityLevel.Warning, properties);

In Search, you can then easily filter out all the messages of a particular severity level that relate to a particular database.

Traces in Analytics

In Application Insights Analytics, calls to TrackTrace show up in the traces table.

If sampling is in operation, the itemCount property shows a value greater than 1. For example itemCount==10 means that of 10 calls to trackTrace(), the sampling process only transmitted one of them. To get a correct count of trace calls, you should use therefore code such as traces | summarize sum(itemCount).

TrackDependency

Use the TrackDependency call to track the response times and success rates of calls to an external piece of code. The results appear in the dependency charts in the portal. The code snippet below needs to be added wherever a dependency call is made.

Note

For .NET and .NET Core you can alternatively use the TelemetryClient.StartOperation (extension) method that fills the DependencyTelemetry properties that are needed for correlation and some other properties like the start time and duration so you don't need to create a custom timer as with the examples below. For more information consult this article's section on outgoing dependency tracking.

C#

var success = false;
var startTime = DateTime.UtcNow;
var timer = System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch.StartNew();
try
{
    success = dependency.Call();
}
catch(Exception ex) 
{
    success = false;
    telemetry.TrackException(ex);
    throw new Exception("Operation went wrong", ex);
}
finally
{
    timer.Stop();
    telemetry.TrackDependency("DependencyType", "myDependency", "myCall", startTime, timer.Elapsed, success);
}

Java

boolean success = false;
Instant startTime = Instant.now();
try {
    success = dependency.call();
}
finally {
    Instant endTime = Instant.now();
    Duration delta = Duration.between(startTime, endTime);
    RemoteDependencyTelemetry dependencyTelemetry = new RemoteDependencyTelemetry("My Dependency", "myCall", delta, success);
    dependencyTelemetry.setTimeStamp(startTime);
    telemetry.trackDependency(dependencyTelemetry);
}

Node.js

var success = false;
var startTime = new Date().getTime();
try
{
    success = dependency.Call();
}
finally
{
    var elapsed = new Date() - startTime;
    telemetry.trackDependency({
        dependencyTypeName: "myDependency",
        name: "myCall",
        duration: elapsed,
        success: success
    });
}

Remember that the server SDKs include a dependency module that discovers and tracks certain dependency calls automatically--for example, to databases and REST APIs. You have to install an agent on your server to make the module work.

In Java, many dependency calls can be automatically tracked using the Application Insights Java agent.

You use this call if you want to track calls that the automated tracking doesn't catch.

To turn off the standard dependency-tracking module in C#, edit ApplicationInsights.config and delete the reference to DependencyCollector.DependencyTrackingTelemetryModule. For Java, see suppressing specific auto-collected telemetry.

Dependencies in Analytics

In Application Insights Analytics, trackDependency calls show up in the dependencies table.

If sampling is in operation, the itemCount property shows a value greater than 1. For example itemCount==10 means that of 10 calls to trackDependency(), the sampling process only transmitted one of them. To get a correct count of dependencies segmented by target component, use code such as:

dependencies
| summarize sum(itemCount) by target

To associate dependencies with their related requests, use a join:

dependencies
| join (requests) on operation_Id

Flushing data

Normally, the SDK sends data at fixed intervals (typically 30 secs) or whenever buffer is full (typically 500 items). However, in some cases, you might want to flush the buffer--for example, if you are using the SDK in an application that shuts down.

C#

telemetry.Flush();
// Allow some time for flushing before shutdown.
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(5000);

Java

telemetry.flush();
//Allow some time for flushing before shutting down
Thread.sleep(5000);

Node.js

telemetry.flush();

The function is asynchronous for the server telemetry channel.

Ideally, flush() method should be used in the shutdown activity of the Application.

Authenticated users

In a web app, users are (by default) identified by cookies. A user might be counted more than once if they access your app from a different machine or browser, or if they delete cookies.

If users sign in to your app, you can get a more accurate count by setting the authenticated user ID in the browser code:

JavaScript

// Called when my app has identified the user.
function Authenticated(signInId) {
    var validatedId = signInId.replace(/[,;=| ]+/g, "_");
    appInsights.setAuthenticatedUserContext(validatedId);
    ...
}

In an ASP.NET web MVC application, for example:

Razor

@if (Request.IsAuthenticated)
{
    <script>
        appInsights.setAuthenticatedUserContext("@User.Identity.Name
            .Replace("\\", "\\\\")"
            .replace(/[,;=| ]+/g, "_"));
    </script>
}

It isn't necessary to use the user's actual sign-in name. It only has to be an ID that is unique to that user. It must not include spaces or any of the characters ,;=|.

The user ID is also set in a session cookie and sent to the server. If the server SDK is installed, the authenticated user ID is sent as part of the context properties of both client and server telemetry. You can then filter and search on it.

If your app groups users into accounts, you can also pass an identifier for the account (with the same character restrictions).

appInsights.setAuthenticatedUserContext(validatedId, accountId);

In Metrics Explorer, you can create a chart that counts Users, Authenticated, and User accounts.

You can also Search for client data points with specific user names and accounts.

Note

The EnableAuthenticationTrackingJavaScript property in the ApplicationInsightsServiceOptions class in the .NET Core SDK simplifies the JavaScript configuration needed to inject the username as the Auth Id for each trace sent by the Application Insights JavaScript SDK. When this property is set to true, the username from the user in the ASP.NET Core is printed along with client-side telemetry, so adding appInsights.setAuthenticatedUserContext manually wouldn't be needed anymore, as it is already injected by the SDK for ASP.NET Core. The Auth Id will also be sent to the server where the SDK in .NET Core will identify it and use it for any server-side telemetry, as described in the JavaScript API reference. However, for JavaScript applications that don't work in the same way as ASP.NET Core MVC (such as SPA web apps), you would still need to add appInsights.setAuthenticatedUserContext manually.

Filtering, searching, and segmenting your data by using properties

You can attach properties and measurements to your events (and also to metrics, page views, exceptions, and other telemetry data).

Properties are string values that you can use to filter your telemetry in the usage reports. For example, if your app provides several games, you can attach the name of the game to each event so that you can see which games are more popular.

There's a limit of 8192 on the string length. (If you want to send large chunks of data, use the message parameter of TrackTrace.)

Metrics are numeric values that can be presented graphically. For example, you might want to see if there's a gradual increase in the scores that your gamers achieve. The graphs can be segmented by the properties that are sent with the event, so that you can get separate or stacked graphs for different games.

For metric values to be correctly displayed, they should be greater than or equal to 0.

There are some limits on the number of properties, property values, and metrics that you can use.

JavaScript

appInsights.trackEvent({
  name: 'some event',
  properties: { // accepts any type
    prop1: 'string',
    prop2: 123.45,
    prop3: { nested: 'objects are okay too' }
  }
});

appInsights.trackPageView({
  name: 'some page',
  properties: { // accepts any type
    prop1: 'string',
    prop2: 123.45,
    prop3: { nested: 'objects are okay too' }
  }
});

C#

// Set up some properties and metrics:
var properties = new Dictionary <string, string>
    {{"game", currentGame.Name}, {"difficulty", currentGame.Difficulty}};
var metrics = new Dictionary <string, double>
    {{"Score", currentGame.Score}, {"Opponents", currentGame.OpponentCount}};

// Send the event:
telemetry.TrackEvent("WinGame", properties, metrics);

Node.js

// Set up some properties and metrics:
var properties = {"game": currentGame.Name, "difficulty": currentGame.Difficulty};
var metrics = {"Score": currentGame.Score, "Opponents": currentGame.OpponentCount};

// Send the event:
telemetry.trackEvent({name: "WinGame", properties: properties, measurements: metrics});

Visual Basic

' Set up some properties:
Dim properties = New Dictionary (Of String, String)
properties.Add("game", currentGame.Name)
properties.Add("difficulty", currentGame.Difficulty)

Dim metrics = New Dictionary (Of String, Double)
metrics.Add("Score", currentGame.Score)
metrics.Add("Opponents", currentGame.OpponentCount)

' Send the event:
telemetry.TrackEvent("WinGame", properties, metrics)

Java

Map<String, String> properties = new HashMap<String, String>();
properties.put("game", currentGame.getName());
properties.put("difficulty", currentGame.getDifficulty());

Map<String, Double> metrics = new HashMap<String, Double>();
metrics.put("Score", currentGame.getScore());
metrics.put("Opponents", currentGame.getOpponentCount());

telemetry.trackEvent("WinGame", properties, metrics);

Note

Take care not to log personally identifiable information in properties.

Alternative way to set properties and metrics

If it's more convenient, you can collect the parameters of an event in a separate object:

var event = new EventTelemetry();

event.Name = "WinGame";
event.Metrics["processingTime"] = stopwatch.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds;
event.Properties["game"] = currentGame.Name;
event.Properties["difficulty"] = currentGame.Difficulty;
event.Metrics["Score"] = currentGame.Score;
event.Metrics["Opponents"] = currentGame.Opponents.Length;

telemetry.TrackEvent(event);

Warning

Don't reuse the same telemetry item instance (event in this example) to call Track*() multiple times. This may cause telemetry to be sent with incorrect configuration.

Custom measurements and properties in Analytics

In Analytics, custom metrics and properties show in the customMeasurements and customDimensions attributes of each telemetry record.

For example, if you have added a property named "game" to your request telemetry, this query counts the occurrences of different values of "game", and show the average of the custom metric "score":

requests
| summarize sum(itemCount), avg(todouble(customMeasurements.score)) by tostring(customDimensions.game)

Notice that:

When you extract a value from the customDimensions or customMeasurements JSON, it has dynamic type, and so you must cast it tostring or todouble.
To take account of the possibility of sampling, you should use sum(itemCount), not count().

Timing events

Sometimes you want to chart how long it takes to perform an action. For example, you might want to know how long users take to consider choices in a game. You can use the measurement parameter for this.

C#

var stopwatch = System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch.StartNew();

// ... perform the timed action ...

stopwatch.Stop();

var metrics = new Dictionary <string, double>
    {{"processingTime", stopwatch.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds}};

// Set up some properties:
var properties = new Dictionary <string, string>
    {{"signalSource", currentSignalSource.Name}};

// Send the event:
telemetry.TrackEvent("SignalProcessed", properties, metrics);

Java

long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();

// Perform timed action

long endTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
Map<String, Double> metrics = new HashMap<>();
metrics.put("ProcessingTime", (double)endTime-startTime);

// Setup some properties
Map<String, String> properties = new HashMap<>();
properties.put("signalSource", currentSignalSource.getName());

// Send the event
telemetry.trackEvent("SignalProcessed", properties, metrics);

Default properties for custom telemetry

If you want to set default property values for some of the custom events that you write, you can set them in a TelemetryClient instance. They are attached to every telemetry item that's sent from that client.

C#

using Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.DataContracts;

var gameTelemetry = new TelemetryClient();
gameTelemetry.Context.GlobalProperties["Game"] = currentGame.Name;
// Now all telemetry will automatically be sent with the context property:
gameTelemetry.TrackEvent("WinGame");

Visual Basic

Dim gameTelemetry = New TelemetryClient()
gameTelemetry.Context.GlobalProperties("Game") = currentGame.Name
' Now all telemetry will automatically be sent with the context property:
gameTelemetry.TrackEvent("WinGame")

Java

import com.microsoft.applicationinsights.TelemetryClient;
import com.microsoft.applicationinsights.TelemetryContext;
...

TelemetryClient gameTelemetry = new TelemetryClient();
TelemetryContext context = gameTelemetry.getContext();
context.getProperties().put("Game", currentGame.Name);

gameTelemetry.TrackEvent("WinGame");

Node.js

var gameTelemetry = new applicationInsights.TelemetryClient();
gameTelemetry.commonProperties["Game"] = currentGame.Name;

gameTelemetry.TrackEvent({name: "WinGame"});

Individual telemetry calls can override the default values in their property dictionaries.

For JavaScript web clients, use JavaScript telemetry initializers.

To add properties to all telemetry, including the data from standard collection modules, implement ITelemetryInitializer.

Sampling, filtering, and processing telemetry

You can write code to process your telemetry before it's sent from the SDK. The processing includes data that's sent from the standard telemetry modules, such as HTTP request collection and dependency collection.

Add properties to telemetry by implementing ITelemetryInitializer. For example, you can add version numbers or values that are calculated from other properties.

Filtering can modify or discard telemetry before it's sent from the SDK by implementing ITelemetryProcessor. You control what is sent or discarded, but you have to account for the effect on your metrics. Depending on how you discard items, you might lose the ability to navigate between related items.

Sampling is a packaged solution to reduce the volume of data that's sent from your app to the portal. It does so without affecting the displayed metrics. And it does so without affecting your ability to diagnose problems by navigating between related items such as exceptions, requests, and page views.

Learn more.

Disabling telemetry

To dynamically stop and start the collection and transmission of telemetry:

C#

using  Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.Extensibility;

TelemetryConfiguration.Active.DisableTelemetry = true;

Java

telemetry.getConfiguration().setTrackingDisabled(true);

To disable selected standard collectors--for example, performance counters, HTTP requests, or dependencies--delete or comment out the relevant lines in ApplicationInsights.config. You can do this, for example, if you want to send your own TrackRequest data.

Node.js

telemetry.config.disableAppInsights = true;

To disable selected standard collectors--for example, performance counters, HTTP requests, or dependencies--at initialization time, chain configuration methods to your SDK initialization code:

applicationInsights.setup()
    .setAutoCollectRequests(false)
    .setAutoCollectPerformance(false)
    .setAutoCollectExceptions(false)
    .setAutoCollectDependencies(false)
    .setAutoCollectConsole(false)
    .start();

To disable these collectors after initialization, use the Configuration object: applicationInsights.Configuration.setAutoCollectRequests(false)

Developer mode

During debugging, it's useful to have your telemetry expedited through the pipeline so that you can see results immediately. You also get additional messages that help you trace any problems with the telemetry. Switch it off in production, because it may slow down your app.

C#

TelemetryConfiguration.Active.TelemetryChannel.DeveloperMode = true;

Visual Basic

TelemetryConfiguration.Active.TelemetryChannel.DeveloperMode = True

Node.js

For Node.js, you can enable developer mode by enabling internal logging via setInternalLogging and setting maxBatchSize to 0, which causes your telemetry to be sent as soon as it is collected.

applicationInsights.setup("ikey")
  .setInternalLogging(true, true)
  .start()
applicationInsights.defaultClient.config.maxBatchSize = 0;

Setting the instrumentation key for selected custom telemetry

C#

var telemetry = new TelemetryClient();
telemetry.InstrumentationKey = "---my key---";
// ...

Dynamic instrumentation key

To avoid mixing up telemetry from development, test, and production environments, you can create separate Application Insights resources and change their keys, depending on the environment.

Instead of getting the instrumentation key from the configuration file, you can set it in your code. Set the key in an initialization method, such as global.aspx.cs in an ASP.NET service:

C#

protected void Application_Start()
{
    Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.Extensibility.
    TelemetryConfiguration.Active.InstrumentationKey =
        // - for example -
        WebConfigurationManager.Settings["ikey"];
    ...
}

JavaScript

appInsights.config.instrumentationKey = myKey;

In webpages, you might want to set it from the web server's state, rather than coding it literally into the script. For example, in a webpage generated in an ASP.NET app:

JavaScript in Razor

<script type="text/javascript">
// Standard Application Insights webpage script:
var appInsights = window.appInsights || function(config){ ...
// Modify this part:
}({instrumentationKey:  
    // Generate from server property:
    @Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.Extensibility.
        TelemetryConfiguration.Active.InstrumentationKey;
}) // ...

    String instrumentationKey = "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000";

    if (instrumentationKey != null)
    {
        TelemetryConfiguration.getActive().setInstrumentationKey(instrumentationKey);
    }

TelemetryContext

TelemetryClient has a Context property, which contains values that are sent along with all telemetry data. They are normally set by the standard telemetry modules, but you can also set them yourself. For example:

telemetry.Context.Operation.Name = "MyOperationName";

If you set any of these values yourself, consider removing the relevant line from ApplicationInsights.config, so that your values and the standard values don't get confused.

Component: The app and its version.
Device: Data about the device where the app is running. (In web apps, this is the server or client device that the telemetry is sent from.)
InstrumentationKey: The Application Insights resource in Azure where the telemetry appears. It's usually picked up from ApplicationInsights.config.
Location: The geographic location of the device.
Operation: In web apps, the current HTTP request. In other app types, you can set this to group events together.
- ID: A generated value that correlates different events, so that when you inspect any event in Diagnostic Search, you can find related items.
- Name: An identifier, usually the URL of the HTTP request.
- SyntheticSource: If not null or empty, a string that indicates that the source of the request has been identified as a robot or web test. By default, it is excluded from calculations in Metrics Explorer.
Session: The user's session. The ID is set to a generated value, which is changed when the user has not been active for a while.
User: User information.

Limits

[!INCLUDE application-insights-limits]

To avoid hitting the data rate limit, use sampling.

To determine how long data is kept, see Data retention and privacy.

Reference docs

ASP.NET reference
Java reference
JavaScript reference

SDK code

ASP.NET Core SDK
ASP.NET
Windows Server packages
Java SDK
Node.js SDK
JavaScript SDK

Questions

What exceptions might Track_() calls throw?

None. You don't need to wrap them in try-catch clauses. If the SDK encounters problems, it will log messages in the debug console output and--if the messages get through--in Diagnostic Search.
Is there a REST API to get data from the portal?

Yes, the data access API. Other ways to extract data include export from Analytics to Power BI and continuous export.

Next steps

Search events and logs
Troubleshooting

Files

api-custom-events-metrics.md

Latest commit

History

api-custom-events-metrics.md

File metadata and controls

Application Insights API for custom events and metrics

API summary

Before you start

Get a TelemetryClient instance

TrackEvent

Custom events in Analytics

GetMetric

TrackMetric

Examples

Single values

Custom metrics in Analytics

Page views

Custom page views

Timing page views

Page telemetry in Analytics

TrackRequest

Operation context

Requests in Analytics

TrackException

Exceptions in Analytics

TrackTrace

Traces in Analytics

TrackDependency

Dependencies in Analytics

Flushing data

Authenticated users

Filtering, searching, and segmenting your data by using properties

Alternative way to set properties and metrics

Custom measurements and properties in Analytics

Timing events

Default properties for custom telemetry

Sampling, filtering, and processing telemetry

Disabling telemetry

Developer mode

Setting the instrumentation key for selected custom telemetry

Dynamic instrumentation key

TelemetryContext

Limits

Reference docs

SDK code

Questions

Next steps