This article reviews each type of event property and how you can use event properties for reporting in Pendo Engage.
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.
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 historical metadata (beta).
Device data is captured on every event by default:
- For web apps, Browser Name, Browser Version, Device Type, and Operating System.
- Mobile apps, Device Model, OS Version, Device Type, Operating System, App Version (Customer app version), and SDK Version (Pendo SDK version).
Historical metadata (currently in beta) is data that originates as user metadata but acts as an event property when these values are enabled as historical in Settings > Data Mappings. To learn more, see Historical metadata (beta).
Note: Device and browser usage in event properties aren't 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's been enabled as historical 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.
Note: Your subscription can have up to 10,000 unique custom event property keys.
You can access all custom event properties through Settings > Event Properties. To learn more about Click Event properties and how to set them up, see Click Event properties. 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.
The table considers any applied filters and displays all unique event property values related to the selected Page, Feature, or Track Event and the corresponding user. It also excludes duplicate and null values. Select a Visitor or Account ID from the table to learn more about that specific user.
While the table displays up to 5000 entries, the Download CSV option includes all event properties for further analysis.
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.
Notice: If the event property type is time, you can't filter or group by this data in Data Explorer. Only string, boolean, and number types are supported.
Event property filters
With event property filters, you can filter usage data by established event properties. The dropdown menu displays up to 400 different values and allows you to search across the full range of property values.
There are a few ways to apply event property filters:
- At the event level on Feature Click Events, Page View 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.
- Over "Any Activity" events for one or more apps. 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".
- At the report level. Use the Report Filters section to apply event property filters to all events selected in the report, rather than on individual events.
Note: Custom event properties only display on events they're configured for.
Groupings
The Group By field in the query builder includes all global and custom event properties that are boolean or string data types. 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.
Note: 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. It allows you to 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.
The dropdown menu displays up to 400 different values and allows you to search across the full range of property values.
In the example image above, you can see a segment built for all visitors who searched for "always activate" in the Community Search Bar within the last 30 days.
Notice: If the event property type is time, you can't segment with this data; only string, boolean, and number types are supported. You also can't target guides with segments that use event properties. To learn more, see Segments.