Document if Mobile SDKs are supported for library authors

[marandaneto]

Issue

Document if Mobile SDKs are supported for library authors.
Often we get questions like https://forum.sentry.io/t/restrict-sentry-events-just-from-the-android-sdk-library/13977/3

Description

There are a few issues when using the Android SDK for libraries.
eg you can't use SentryAndroid#init, you also have to disable the auto-init mode.
You can't use the Sentry#capture Events.
You can't add the Sentry Android Gradle plugin for libs, hence you can't demangle events if minified by the final App.
Ideally, you'd create your own instance of Hub and pass it around to capture your own events, but Hub does not add all the default integrations, so you lose Device context, uncaught handler, etc...

Suggested Solution

Either we documented as non supported and explain why or we document how to do it, creating a SentryOptions and Hub

[getsentry-release]

Routing to @getsentry/team-mobile for triage. ⏲️

[PeloWriter]

Looking at the history of this issue, I'm adding the label Needs More Info so we can capture the need for discussion on this topic.

[sagrawal31]

Looking forward to this.

[marandaneto]

@PeloWriter we've decided that no Sentry SDKs should be embedded into any 3rd party libraries/SDKs.
Only final apps should embed the Sentry SDKs.

Where should we place this info in the docs? this should be visible across all the SDKs, maybe something your team can help us with? thanks

[sagrawal31]

Thanks, @marandaneto, for the update. May I also know the reason for this decision, please?

[marandaneto]

@sagrawal31 there are a few, they will probably be available on this page, but a TLDR is: The final App owns the data, not SDKs/libraries, so only them should decide whether to capture or not.
The final App authors can file issues for libraries/SDKs with proper stack traces and erased PII if necessary.

[sagrawal31]

Sure @marandaneto. I would like to add just in case you guys might want to reconsider.

As an SDK provider, we want to make sure that the app is not crashing or behaving differently because of our SDK that's where we thought of integrating Sentry (and we did).

I read your earlier comments as well (about using Hub) but this is how we have got it integrated into our SDK.

It definitely makes sense that the final app owners should be deciding whether to use it or what to capture but there has to be a way that allows the SDKs owners as well to do the same thing. Maybe via the concept of multi-account setup in Sentry? Thoughts?

[marandaneto]

@sagrawal31 those points have been discussed as well, but still, I'd say it's more like a recommendation rather than being forbidden I guess, because of legal aspects, so then we'd not like to offer "official" support.

It's already technically possible to use Sentry in SDKs and libraries, filtering or not the stack trace is up to the developer though.

Stay tuned for the docs update, we'll probably add more info about it, and thanks for engaging with us.