This article is intended for software developers using SmartAssembly to add feature usage reporting to their programs. In text displayed to end users, feature usage reporting is called the 'quality improvement program'.

We strongly recommend that you implement a way for the user to change whether they participate in feature usage reporting in your program's user interface.

When the participation is optional

Depending on the template used to send feature usage reports, it may be possible or impossible for users to change their participation in the 'quality improvement program'.

SmartAssembly provides 3 built-in templates:

• "With consent dialog on first run" (only .NET Framework applications)
• "With consent dialog on second run" (only .NET Framework applications)
• "Automatic (without dialog box)"

If during the build of your application with SmartAssembly you choose a template with consent dialog, your users will only be asked once (the first or second time that the program runs) if they want to opt-in for the 'quality improvement program'.

When users are asked to participate

End users are asked whether they wish to participate in the quality improvement program when all of the following conditions are met:

• The end user has not already decided whether to enable feature usage reporting.
• The end user is using a feature in your program that reports its usage.
• This is the first or second time that the program has run, depending on which template you selected in the Project Settings. 

Allowing end users to change their participation at any time

You should add a version of these instructions to the documentation for your program. Ensure that you include the usual warnings about why manually editing the registry can be dangerous. 

If the end user agrees to participate in the quality improvement program, SmartAssembly's feature usage reporting is enabled. The end user's decision is recorded in the registry at:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\CompanyName\ApplicationName

(where CompanyName and ApplicationName are the values provided in the Error Reporting or Feature Usage Reporting settings in the SmartAssembly project.)

The registry key's name is SmartAssemblyReportUsage and it can take three values: True, False or Unknown:

• If the value is True, your program will report its usage. If the end user subsequently wishes to opt-out of feature usage reporting, set the value to False.
• If the value is False, your program will not report its usage. If the end user subsequently wishes to opt-in to feature usage reporting, set the value to True.
• If the value is Unknown, or if the key does not exist, your program will ask the end user to decide whether to participate when the program next runs. The end user's decision will be recorded in this key.

You can change the value of this key to allow users to opt-in or opt-out of feature usage reporting at any time.

How to let users decide to participate in .NET Core applications (SmartAssembly Professional only)

You can build your own template based on the ones provided in our SDK (see https://github.com/red-gate/SmartAssembly-demos/tree/master/UsageReporting). Custom templates used for .NET Core applications or .NET Standard libraries need to reference a RedGate.SmartAssembly.SmartUsageCore NuGet package.

Your custom template needs to inherit from SmartAssembly.SmartUsageCore.UsageReporter and override ReportUsage and CanReportUsage methods. Reports are only sent when CanReportUsage method returns True.

For more information see Feature usage reporting with the SDK.