As an OEM partner, you can share visitor metadata with your end customers. Passing metadata fields, such as role or user type, helps your end customers build more relevant segments, filter data in analytics, and personalize their guides.
How shared metadata works
Before you share metadata fields with your end customers, it’s important to know how those fields behave in Pendo OEM. When you pass down a metadata value, it becomes available in every end-customer account. This ensures consistent field access across all end customers in your Pendo OEM subscription.
After visitors interact with your app and generate events, the shared metadata fields appear in the end customer’s analytics. They can then use those fields to create segments, filter data, and deliver guides more effectively.
Note: Historical events won’t include metadata fields that weren’t shared at the time the event was generated. Making a field available later won’t retroactively apply it to past data.
Prerequisites
To share visitor metadata with your end customers:
- You must be an OEM partner.
- Metadata must already be passed through your install script or an integration. For more information, refer to Configure visitor and account metadata.
Default metadata fields
The following fields are automatically shared with your end customers in Pendo OEM:
- Visitor ID*
- First visit*
- Last visit*
- Most recent browser name*
- Most recent operating system*
- Days active
- Events
*Fields marked with an asterisk can be used in segmentation.
Share additional metadata fields
In addition to default metadata fields, you can share other metadata to help end customers improve guide targeting and analytics. If end customers want to translate guides or Resource Center content, you must request that the language preference metadata field be shared, as it isn’t included by default.
To share additional metadata fields:
- Email your Partner Enablement Manager (PEM) or send a request to pem@pendo.io
with the list of metadata fields you'd like to share with your end customers. - Your PEM will send a link for guest access, which must be approved by a subscription admin.
- After access is granted, your PEM will share the requested field with your end customer in your Pendo OEM.
- (Optional) Verify the metadata fields are shared by signing in to your partner OEM demo account. Once logged in:
- In the left-side menu, go to People > Visitors.
- Select a Visitor ID to open their details page.
- Select the Details dropdown component to expand it.
- Below the SDK section, look for the metadata fields you requested to be shared.
Metadata returning zero results
After you share metadata fields, your end customer won’t see values for those fields until their visitors log in and generate activity in the app. This is because metadata is attached to visitor events going forward and isn't applied retroactively.
If your end customer reports zero results when using a shared metadata field in a segment:
- Confirm that the field was shared and is visible in their account.
- Make sure at least one visitor has logged in to the app since the field was shared.
- Encourage the end customer to review the “Eligible Visitors” preview in the segment builder before saving.
This behavior is expected and ensures that metadata is only applied to sessions where the field was actively passed.
Remove shared metadata fields
After a metadata field is shared with your end customers in Pendo OEM, it can’t be removed. This behavior is intentional and helps prevent issues for your end customers.
End customers can use shared metadata fields to create segments, deliver guides, and filter analytics. If a field were removed after being shared, any segments or guides the end customer has set up could stop working. To avoid this, the Remove button isn't available for metadata fields that are shared with end customers.
If the Remove button is available for a metadata field, that field hasn’t been shared, and it can be safely removed.