Getting Started

Integration Guide

Version Requirements

For example, update your AndroidManifest.xml as follows:

<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="14" android:targetSdkVersion="28"
          android:compileSDKVersion="28" android:buildToolsVersion="28" />

Download the SDK

Gradle based projects

Add the following dependencies to your build.gradle file inside the depencencies section.

dependencies {
    implementation 'com.android.support:design:28.0.0'
    implementation 'com.android.support:recyclerview-v7:28.0.0'
    implementation 'com.android.support:cardview-v7:28.0.0'
    implementation 'com.helpshift:android-helpshift-aar:7.11.2'
}

design, cardview and recyclerview library are required by the Helpshift SDK, make sure they've also been added.

Helpshift SDK comes with built-in support for 47 languages. If your app supports only a subset of these languages, please follow the steps mentioned here.

Helpshift is now ready to help you have conversations with your users!

Move on to Initializing Helpshift in your App.

IntelliJ/Eclipse based projects

If your Android project is based on IntelliJ or Eclipse, download the latest version of the Android SDK.

The zip file contains the Helpshift SDK in the Android Library Project format.

• IntelliJ Integration: follow the steps here.
• Eclipse Integration: follow the steps here.

Maven based projects

If your Android project is based on Maven, follow the steps here.

Start using Helpshift

Helpshift is now integrated in your app and ready to provide customer support and collect meaningful data about your users.

Initialize Helpshift in your App

Helpshift uniquely identifies each registered App with a combination of 3 tokens:

show me

Initialize Helpshift by calling the com.helpshift.Core's install method by doing the following.

1. Initialize the Core class with the Helpshift service that you want to use.
2. Call the Core's install method.

com.helpshift.Core is the class which encapsulates all the functions which are common to all Helpshift services.

import com.helpshift.Core;
import com.helpshift.support.Support;
import com.helpshift.InstallConfig;
import com.helpshift.exceptions.InstallException;
...
...

InstallConfig installConfig = new InstallConfig.Builder().build();
...
Core.init(Support.getInstance());
try {
  Core.install(this,
               "YOUR_API_KEY",
               "YOUR_DOMAIN_NAME",
               "YOUR_APP_ID",
               installConfig);
} catch (InstallException e) {
  Log.e(TAG, "invalid install credentials : ", e);
}

import com.helpshift.Core;
import com.helpshift.support.Support;
...
...

HashMap config = new HashMap();
...
Core.init(Support.getInstance());
try {
  Core.install(this,
               "YOUR_API_KEY",
               "YOUR_DOMAIN_NAME",
               "YOUR_APP_ID",
               config);
} catch (InstallException e) {
  Log.e(TAG, "invalid install credentials : ", e);
}

Minimum supported Android version

From SDK version 4.4.0 onwards, the Helpshift Android SDK requires minimum API level to be 14. For versions 14 and 15 you will not receive the rich push notifications which are only supported after android api level 16.

Permissions needed by Helpshift SDK

The Helpshift Android SDK requires WRITE_EXTERNAL_PERMISSION. For SDK v6.2.0 and above this permission is optional, and you can choose to not include this permission in your app’s manifest file. The behaviour of the SDK based on whether this permission is mentioned in your manifest file is detailed here.

Troubleshooting

If you are having issues with Helpshift integration, head over to the Troubleshooting section for further information.

Next up

If you've successfully tested out an in-app conversation, it's time to dive into these advanced topics -

Additional Configuration

• If you are using Proguard, you will need to add the following to your project's proguard-project.txt file.

  # For Helpshift SDK <= 4.8.1
  -keepnames class * extends com.helpshift.support.fragments.MainFragment
  
  # For Serializable classes
  -keepnames class * implements java.io.Serializable
  -keepclassmembers class * implements java.io.Serializable {
      static final long serialVersionUID;
      private static final java.io.ObjectStreamField[] serialPersistentFields;
      !static !transient <fields>;
      private void writeObject(java.io.ObjectOutputStream);
      private void readObject(java.io.ObjectInputStream);
      java.lang.Object writeReplace();
      java.lang.Object readResolve();
  }
  
  # If the app uses support libs version 23 or below
  -keepclassmembernames class android.support.v4.app.Fragment {
      android.support.v4.app.FragmentManagerImpl mChildFragmentManager;
  }
  
  # Support design
  -dontwarn android.support.design.**
  -keep class android.support.design.** { *; }
  -keep interface android.support.design.** { *; }
  -keep public class android.support.design.R$* { *; }
  
  # Appcompat
  -keep public class android.support.v7.widget.** { *; }
  -keep public class android.support.v7.internal.widget.** { *; }
  -keep public class android.support.v7.internal.view.menu.** { *; }
  -keep public class * extends android.support.v4.view.ActionProvider {
      public <init>(android.content.Context);
  }
  
  # Cardview
  # Based on this issue http://stackoverflow.com/questions/29679177/cardview-shadow-not-appearing-in-lollipop-after-obfuscate-with-proguard/29698051
  -keep class android.support.v7.widget.RoundRectDrawable { *; }
  

  Proguard rules for Android support libraries are taken from the android-proguard-snippets repository, which you can review here

  Helpshift Android SDK v2.8.2 and above is not pre-obfuscated with Proguard. To shrink & obfuscate the Helpshift SDK, we recommend you use this Proguard configuration in your project.

  Proguard is recommended for shrinking, optimizing, and obfuscating your code by removing unused code and renaming classes, fields, and methods with semantically obscured names. The result is a smaller sized APK file that is more difficult to reverse engineer. For more information refer Proguard Documentation

• In your build.xml file, insert the following between the <target name="-post-compile"> tags. This will check the Helpshift xml files for the requisite resources and warn you if any of those resources are missing. If the "-post-compile" target is missing, wrap the below code snippet with <target name="-post-compile">...</target> tags.

  <path id="helpshift-classpath">
    <fileset dir="<path/to/Helpshift-SDK/libs>">
      <include name="Helpshift.jar"/>
    </fileset>
  </path>
  <java classname="com.helpshift.HSPostCompileCheck" failonerror="true">
    <classpath refid="helpshift-classpath"/>
    <arg value="<YOUR_APPLICATION_NAMESPACE>"/>
  </java>