Pendo keeps track of the actions visitors take within your application and saves this data as raw events. Examples of these events include when a visitor clicks on a Feature, views a Page, triggers a Track Event, or interacts with a Guide. The events include all the Visitor and Account metadata you pass through your installed snippet.
Event properties are details associated with an event at the time it takes place. You can use event properties in reports and segments to target or analyze how your visitors are using your application over time.
This article reviews each type of event property and how you can use event properties for reporting in Pendo Engage.
Event property types
There are two different types of event properties: global and custom. The main difference between these two types of event properties is that global event properties are captured on every event, whereas custom event properties are captured on specific click events and Track Events. Both types are reviewed in further detail below.
Global event properties
Global event properties are details that are captured on every event that takes place in your application. There are two subsets of global event properties: device data and promoted metadata (beta).
Device data is captured on every event by default:
- Web apps – Browser Name, Browser Version, Device Type, Operating System
- Mobile apps – Device Model, OS Version, Device Type, Operating System, App Version (Customer app version), SDK Version (Pendo SDK version)
Promoted metadata (currently in closed beta) is data that originates as user metadata but acts as an event property when these values are promoted in Settings > Data Mappings. To learn more, see Promoted Metadata (Beta).
Device and browser usage in event properties are not the same as the default metadata fields "Most recent browser name" and "Most recent operating system". Metadata shows the value in the last event processed by Pendo (unless it is promoted metadata). Event properties show the value at the time the event was stored for every event ever. This allows analysis with event properties to show historical values and provide context for how a visitor was using your app when the feature, page, track event, or guide event was recorded.
Custom event properties
Custom event properties are details collected at the time a specific event occurs in your application. There are two subsets of custom event properties: click event properties and Track Event properties.
Before Pendo can capture custom event properties, you must configure these custom values when editing a tagged Feature in the Visual Design Studio or configuring a Track Event.
Custom event properties can vary depending on your specific app and needs, but common examples include cart value, location/region, visitor source, or any other custom value available in your app at the time of a click.
To learn more about click event properties and how to set them up, see Feature Click Event Properties Overview. To learn more about how to configure Track Events, see Track Events Configuration.
Event properties in product data
When you view the details of a specific Page, Feature, or Track Event, you can access the event property values that have been recorded for that event.
- To view these details, navigate to the Product tab in the left navigation menu in Pendo Engage, then select Pages, Features, or Track Events.
- Select a specific Page, Feature, or Track Event from the list.
- Locate the Event Properties table at the bottom of the page.
This table considers any applied filters and displays all event property values related to the selected Page, Feature, or Track Event and the user who triggered the event. Select a Visitor or Account ID from the table to learn more about that specific user.
Event properties in Data Explorer
You can use event properties in Data Explorer to filter or group your analysis by common values using event property filters and groupings.
Event property filters
With event property filters, you can filter usage data by established event properties.
There are two ways to apply event property filters:
- On Feature click events and Track Events. Use event property filters on these events when you're looking at or comparing data for specific events. Both global and custom event properties are supported when placing filters on Feature click events and Track Events.
- On "Any Activity" events. Use event property filters on these events when trying to understand usage at the app level. Only global event properties are supported when viewing data for "Any Activity".
Note: Custom event properties only display on events they are configured for.
Groupings
The Group By field in the query builder includes all global and custom event properties when available. Grouping by an event property shows the breakdown of events for the target segment and date range with subtotals for each value for that property. For example, grouping Page view events by device type shows a drill-down of how many views were generated on desktop, tablet, mobile devices, or bots.
In the image below, you can see how grouping a mobile Feature click event by OS version shows the number of clicks generated in each version.
To learn more about using event properties in Data Explorer, see Data Explorer.
Event properties in segments
You can use event properties when building a segment to increase the specificity of your target segments in analytics. Create more specific segments that filter for users that have used or not used a Feature click, Page view, or Track Event with certain device properties.
In the example image above, you can see a segment built for all visitors who have clicked the Add New Button once on a tablet in the last 30 days.
Notice: You can't target guides with segments that use event properties.