Pendo calculates metrics for your analytics based on events collected. You can use Exclude Lists to define specific criteria to filter out (exclude) events as a way of keeping your analytics clean of unwanted data. You can do this based on server hosts, IP addresses, Visitor IDs, and Account IDs.
You can also use an Include List to display captured events only for server hosts and domains that you specify. You must choose between using an Exclude List or Include List for server hosts and domains.
Exclude and Include Lists are a subscription-wide option accessible by your Pendo Admins in Settings > Exclude & Include Lists.
Tabs
You can exclude events based on domain, IP address, Visitor ID, and Account ID. You can restrict event inclusion to specific server hosts and domains. These options are separated across four tabs in Settings > Exclude & Include Lists.
Server Host/Domain
The Server Host/Domain tab allows you to exclude or include specific location or address of a server on the internet. You can also add wildcards such as "dev*" or "*:3000." An item created with a wildcard counts as a single item in your list.
The Include List for server hosts and domains can be very restrictive. If you run into issues such as missing data, check your Include List configuration.
IP Address
The IP Address tab allows you to exclude specific IP addresses of locations, for example, your home or office. To add your own IP address to a list, select Add IP Address and then Detect My IP.
Visitor ID
The Visitor ID tab allows you to exclude visitors based on their Visitor ID. You can also exclude individual visitors by selecting Exclude Visitor from the details section of that visitor in Pendo.
You can use wildcards in your lists. For example, if your Visitor IDs are email addresses, you can use *@acme.com to exclude all visitors that have an @acme.com in their ID.
Account ID
The Account ID tab allows you to exclude visitors based on their Account ID. For example, if your employees all sign in under "YourCompany" account, you can exclude the full "YourCompany" account to clean out all of that data. Similar to Visitor IDs, you can use wildcards to exclude a certain pattern of Account IDs, for example, AcmeIndustries_*.
Excluded Account ID events don't update the account list or first and last visit time. They also don't associate visitor events with the excluded account.
Exclude List
You can add up to 10,000 unique items on your Exclude Lists. This is a global limit across all four lists. To avoid a negative impact on performance, we don't recommend exceeding 5,000 items.
When modifying your Exclude List, the time it takes for your analytics to refresh increases with the volume of data associated with the excluded item.
Your Exclude List filters out events from Pendo's metrics and details for all segments (except Excluded Accounts and Visitors) that match at least one of the filter settings: Server Host/Domain, Source IP Address, Visitor ID, and Account ID.
The Exclude List doesn't affect visitor guide eligibility. Excluded visitors can still see and interact with guides, but those events are filtered out of Pendo analytics.
Metadata processing for excluded filters
Pendo processes metadata events immediately at the time of receipt. Unlike recalculating metrics when exclude filters change, Pendo never "recalculates" metadata. The following describes the metadata processing behavior for events matching Exclude List filters.
Even if the Exclude List filters change, the effect of the following remain. This effect depends on the state of the Exclude List at the time Pendo receives the event.
- Agent or API defined metadata values for visitors and accounts always update immediately.
- Metadata values applicable to guide segmentation continue to affect guide eligibility.
- First Visit and Last Visit Account (automatic) metadata values don't update.
- If a visitor isn't already associated with an Account ID, an excluded event doesn't create an association between the Visitor ID and Account ID. This affects Account ID of a visitor and the Visitor List on the Account Details page. Despite this potentially missing association, if an exclude filter changes to expose previously excluded events, the detail view of an account includes the events in the metrics and list the Visitor ID, which could be missing the association in the visitor's Account ID field.
"Excluded Accounts and Visitors" segment
This segment shows a list of visitors or accounts that have at least one event matching a current exclude filter for the time range. The metrics on the Accounts Overview and Visitors Overview pages (including summary and column data) represent the values of the excluded events of visitors or accounts listed. Even though these visitors are listed and you can navigate to the Visitor Details page, the metrics still omit excluded events.
Include List
The Include List is currently only available for server hosts and domains. Subdomains must be explicitly added to the Include List to display in Pendo analytics.
The Include List performs the exact opposite operation of the Exclude List and must be used instead of the Exclude List. When enabled, data from only server hosts and domains you specify appear in Pendo analytics.
To enable (switch to) the Include List, go to Settings > Exclude & Include Lists > Server Host/Domain and select Convert to Include List next to + Exclude Server Host/Domain. You are then given two options for your current Exclude List settings:
- Clear List. This removes all Exclude List settings in that specific filter.
- Transfer List. This allows you to keep a record of the current settings you've defined.
If you plan to use the Include List and have NPS email backup enabled, add app.pendo.io, us1.app.pendo.io, app.eu.pendo.io, or app.jpn.pendo.io (based on your data hosting environment) to the Include List. If you don't do this, email NPS responses only appear when filtering by the Excluded Visitors and Accounts segment.