Plan your direct web implementation of Pendo using the install script

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Planning your Pendo implementation helps your team accurately capture all of the visitor and account metadata you need to get an understanding of your users in your product. This article provides a summary of considerations and steps involved in implementing Pendo using the install script, allowing you to plan for this type of implementation. For information about other options, such as using the Pendo Launcher or implementing Pendo for mobile, see Implementation options.

Before you get started

To implement Pendo directly into your application, you need a Pendo subscription, a plan for sending data to Pendo, and an engineering resource to install and configure Pendo.

We highly recommend that you communicate with your developers as early as possible to coordinate your needs so that you have a quick and successful implementation. We have developer documentation that provides the details that engineers need to successfully install Pendo on your web or mobile application:

We recommend that you use the Pendo Installation Workbook to share the information you need to complete the installation with your team members.

How it works

The install script integrates the Pendo agent into your application. When the application runs in the browser, the install script calls the Pendo agent, which makes Pendo's functionality available in your application. Mobile developers add the SDK to your app, initialize Pendo when your app loads, and identify the visitor when you're ready to collect data and display guides.

For a more detailed overview, see Developer's guide to implementing Pendo using the install script and Components of the install script.

Prepare for implementation

To prepare for installation and configuration:

1. Review security and privacy policies

Detailed overviews of our policies and practices are available in the following articles. You can also contact a Pendo representative to discuss your security requirements.

2. Choose IDs and metadata

Choose the IDs and metadata that you would like to be associated with the visitors and accounts in your application. Talk to your developers about the values that are available. You should have a Visitor ID and Account ID naming convention and a list of other metadata you want to capture.

You can add additional metadata after the installation but you should avoid changing the Visitor and Account ID setup in the initial implementation.

If you're uncomfortable sharing personally identifiable information (PII), such as email and account name, Pendo only needs a unique identifier for each user in your application to work effectively. This can be a randomly generated value that is anonymous to Pendo. For more information about how we use PII, see Data collection and compliance.

3. Send instructions to your developers

Although you don’t need to be a developer to use Pendo, it does require a quick technical install using the install script.

Your developers must insert the install script into the page header. All pieces of the install script must be present on every page that you want to collect data from. This includes a call for the Pendo agent, an API key to identify your account, and an initialize method to activate the Pendo agent and define IDs and metadata.

For most web apps, the install script ("snippet") is inserted into your common HTML template without changing more than the metadata. For mobile apps, the Pendo Mobile SDK is added to your app code and initialized when you're ready to identify the visitor.

Next steps after implementation

After your developers have installed and configured Pendo, you should:

1. Verify that Pendo is recording your data

After Pendo is installed, it can take up to two hours for data to start feeding into Pendo. You receive an email when we begin receiving data. When you receive this email, go to your subscription settings page, accessible by Pendo Admin users, to check the data flowing into the Raw Events tab.

2. Invite users

After you've verified that Pendo is recording your data, you can start to invite other internal users to help set up your subscription. Internal users can have different roles with their own sets of permissions. This allows you to give internal users the access they need while also protecting your subscription settings.

To add users to your subscription:

  1. In Pendo, go to Settings > Users in the left-side menu. 
  2. Select + Add User in the top-right of the page.
  3. Enter the user's details and choose their permissions. For more information, see Roles and permissions.
  4. Select Add User in the bottom-right corner of the page.

The following people can benefit from having access to Pendo:

  • Product can use Pendo to get the insights they need to deliver products that users love.
  • Design can use Pendo to help design guide templates and themes for content creators.
  • Front-end Engineers can use Pendo to help tag Features and Pages.
  • Customer Success or Support can use Pendo analytics to find patterns in user behavior.
  • Marketing can use Pendo to develop in-app engagement strategies or set up NPS polls.
  • Professional Services can use Pendo to build onboarding Guides.
  • Cross-functional Content Creators can use Pendo to build guides for all of their internal or external in-app engagement campaigns.

3. Get started

After Pendo is installed, you have access to Pendo's data visualization, engagement, and adoption tools. We recommend starting in each of the following areas to build a foundation for your Pendo subscription that will give you room to grow as you use Pendo to learn about your users, drive adoption, and build the products they love.

 

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