This article explains how to use Track Events to install Pendo on non-web-view environments, such as desktop applications, smart TV apps, and point-of-sale software.
To install Pendo in a standard format, see:
- The Developer's guide to implementing Pendo using the install script for information on how to install Pendo in a web application.
- The articles in the Mobile installation product documentation for how to install Pendo in a mobile application.
Supported capabilities
Using Track Events to install Pendo supports:
- Analytics and reporting for Track Events, which includes data on dashboards, Data Explorer, paths, funnels, retention, PES, metadata, and behavior-based segmentation.
- Targeting guides in other applications based on user behavior in your non-web-view application.
Unsupported capabilities
Using Track Events to install Pendo doesn't support:
- In-app messaging capabilities such as guides, polls, NPS, or the Resource Center.
- Automatic event collection. Instead, your developers must add code to send a Track Event for every event.
- Retroactive analytics. If you launch a new feature, but forget to send a Track Event for when it’s clicked, there’s no way to retrieve that data.
- Pendo Feedback.
How installation works
Because the Pendo Web SDK can’t be installed in non-web-view environments, nothing is collected automatically. Instead, your developers must write code to send server-side Track Events for every activity that you want to track in Pendo. This includes Page views and Feature clicks. If your product is integrated with Twilio Segment, you might be able to send Track Events to Pendo through Twilio Segment instead.
Note: For more information about configuring Track Events, see Configure Track Events and the API documentation for server-side Track Events. After your development team configures the Track Events, collaborate with them to determine the best method for sending them from your app to Pendo.
You can also pass metadata to Pendo through the API and use it to define segments for your reports. For more information, see our API documentation for metadata.
Installation best practices
This section outlines best practices for using Track Events to install Pendo in non-web-view environments.
Enable "Count Track Events as time in app"
By default, this setting is disabled. Track events can support multiple use cases, and not all implementations should treat track events as visitor activity. However, when installing Pendo using track events, you should enable this setting so that each track event is treated as visitor activity in the application. For more information about the Count Track Events as time in app setting, see Track Events in our Time on page and app calculations article.
Use existing logs
If your product is already logging Page loads or Feature clicks in another tool (such as Splunk or Logstash), your developers can modify the existing logging function to send these as Track Events to Pendo.
Decide on a naming convention
The Track Event name is how your Track Event is represented in the Pendo UI. We strongly recommend that you define your naming conventions to keep them in a data dictionary. Maintain a document outside of Pendo that defines naming conventions so that it’s easy for Pendo users to understand what a specific Track Event represents.
For example:
- Page views start with “Page | “
- Feature clicks start with “Feature | “
- Feature names start with the page they’re on and the section of the page: “Feature | {page name} | {section} {feature name}”
Screenshots of pages with labeled areas are useful for busy applications, for example:
Keep track with a data dictionary
Data is only useful if everyone is in agreement on what it represents. We recommend keeping a data dictionary. Make your data dictionary accessible to the engineers who implement Pendo and the Pendo users who view analytics.
Use event properties
For enhanced reporting and segmentation capabilities, use event properties. You can include additional context about each event using event properties, which are configured in the JSON object’s properties key. You can then expand your segmentation and reporting capabilities in Pendo by specifying event properties. For more information, refer to the Custom event properties section of the Event properties article.