Read plugin options from environment variables

[tustanivsky]

Unreal SDK needs to support reading options from the environment variables (SENTRY_DSN, SENTRY_ENVIRONMENT, SENTRY_RELEASE).

UPD: Documentation is currently ahead.

[linear]

UNREAL-88 Read plugin options from environment variables

[LeaDevelop]

Hello, sharing an idea you may consider - bullet point two is relevant for this issue. For CI/CD and test frameworks, it would be beneficial to have crash capturing control through either:

• Build Configuration Parameter: An EnableAutoCrashCapturing parameter configurable per build type (Editor, Game Client, Server, etc.) - useful for cases where the -unattended flag isn't used
• Environment Variable: A SENTRY_ENABLE_AUTO_CRASH_CAPTURING variable for runtime control

This would give teams more flexibility in managing crash reporting across different environments and build processes.

[LeaDevelop]

Docs are currently ahead, this is not expected to work yet?

[tustanivsky]

Thank you for bringing up these suggestions!

Build Configuration Parameter: An EnableAutoCrashCapturing parameter configurable per build type (Editor, Game Client, Server, etc.) - useful for cases where the -unattended flag isn't used

EnableAutoCrashCapturing flag is specific to Microsoft platforms (Windows, Xbox) and controls which crash capturing mechanism to use - default Crash Reporter or Sentry's native integration. Can you elaborate on the scenarios where one option is preferred over the other depending on the build target type?

Docs are currently ahead, this is not expected to work yet?

Yes, environment variables aren’t supported by the Unreal SDK just yet.

[LeaDevelop]

EnableAutoCrashCapturing flag is specific to Microsoft platforms (Windows, Xbox) and controls which crash capturing mechanism to use - default Crash Reporter or Sentry's native integration.

Auto part in that argument has me confused, not the first time haha my bad 😅.
Made me sticky note now EnableAutoCrashCapturing = EnableSentryCrashCapturing, that we disable the Sentry when set to False. Thanks for pointing that out! I set few instances now but this one keeps me on my toes for now 🙈 😊
My wrong interpretation was on basis, that it's intended for automated reporting, not what mechanism it uses.

Can you elaborate on the scenarios where one option is preferred over the other depending on the build target type?

Edge cases mostly, for benchmarking workflows or simply want to run automated stress tests for example and don't want to capture crash reports until I'd change the parameter again. So in that case would want capture crashes only for example for game client I am capturing crashes and game server should continue. In such cases having the SENTRY_ENVIRONMENT ability to custom name it, is also great so we can filter those runs out.

P.S.
Fantastic work on Sentry all this years btw, really love all the unreal features you been expanding, currently considering myself still a starter on the source but am aiming to contribute to your oss one day. 😊🔜

[bruno-garcia]

Environment Variable: A SENTRY_ENABLE_AUTO_CRASH_CAPTURING variable for runtime control

note that sentry has a convention where empty string as DSN means disable SDK.
So setting env var to "" could serve this purpose