Countly Event Tracking

Event Tracking Overview

Countly's event tracking system captures user interactions with flexible data structures. Track any action with counts, sums, durations, and custom segmentation.

Basic Event Tracking

Simple Events

Track occurrences of an action:

// Track a button click
Countly.add_event({
  key: 'button_click',
  count: 1
});

// Track with segmentation
Countly.add_event({
  key: 'button_click',
  count: 1,
  segmentation: {
    button_name: 'signup',
    page: 'homepage'
  }
});

Event with Sum

Track values like revenue or points:

Countly.add_event({
  key: 'purchase',
  count: 1,
  sum: 49.99,
  segmentation: {
    product: 'Premium Plan',
    currency: 'USD'
  }
});

Event with Duration

Track time-based events:

Countly.add_event({
  key: 'video_watch',
  count: 1,
  dur: 125,  // Duration in seconds
  segmentation: {
    video_id: 'intro_tutorial',
    quality: '1080p'
  }
});

Timed Events

Automatic Duration Tracking

Start and end events to automatically calculate duration:

// Start timing
Countly.start_event('video_watch');

// ... video plays ...

// End and record with calculated duration
Countly.end_event({
  key: 'video_watch',
  segmentation: {
    video_id: 'product_demo',
    completed: true
  }
});

Canceling Timed Events

// Start timing
Countly.start_event('checkout_flow');

// User cancels - don't record
Countly.cancel_event('checkout_flow');

Segmentation

Adding Context to Events

Segmentation provides dimensions for analysis:

Countly.add_event({
  key: 'search',
  count: 1,
  segmentation: {
    query: 'analytics tools',
    results_count: 15,
    filters_used: 'category,price',
    page: 1
  }
});

Standard Segments

Common segmentation patterns:

// E-commerce
segmentation: {
  product_id: 'SKU123',
  category: 'Electronics',
  brand: 'TechBrand',
  price_range: '100-500'
}

// Content
segmentation: {
  content_type: 'article',
  author: 'Jane Smith',
  topic: 'Analytics',
  word_count: 1500
}

// Features
segmentation: {
  feature: 'export',
  format: 'pdf',
  success: true
}

E-commerce Tracking

Product Views

function trackProductView(product) {
  Countly.add_event({
    key: 'product_view',
    count: 1,
    segmentation: {
      product_id: product.id,
      product_name: product.name,
      category: product.category,
      price: product.price
    }
  });
}

Add to Cart

function trackAddToCart(product, quantity) {
  Countly.add_event({
    key: 'add_to_cart',
    count: quantity,
    sum: product.price * quantity,
    segmentation: {
      product_id: product.id,
      product_name: product.name,
      category: product.category
    }
  });
}

Purchase

function trackPurchase(order) {
  Countly.add_event({
    key: 'purchase',
    count: order.items.length,
    sum: order.total,
    segmentation: {
      order_id: order.id,
      payment_method: order.payment,
      coupon_used: order.coupon || 'none',
      shipping_method: order.shipping
    }
  });
}

User Engagement Tracking

Feature Usage

function trackFeatureUse(feature, context) {
  Countly.add_event({
    key: 'feature_use',
    count: 1,
    segmentation: {
      feature_name: feature,
      context: context,
      user_plan: getUserPlan()
    }
  });
}

Content Engagement

// Article reading
Countly.start_event('article_read');

// On completion or exit
Countly.end_event({
  key: 'article_read',
  segmentation: {
    article_id: articleId,
    scroll_depth: getScrollDepth(),
    completed: didReachEnd()
  }
});

Form Interactions

// Form started
Countly.add_event({
  key: 'form_start',
  segmentation: { form_name: 'signup' }
});

// Form submitted
Countly.add_event({
  key: 'form_submit',
  segmentation: {
    form_name: 'signup',
    fields_filled: 5,
    time_spent: 45
  }
});

// Form error
Countly.add_event({
  key: 'form_error',
  segmentation: {
    form_name: 'signup',
    error_field: 'email',
    error_type: 'validation'
  }
});

Mobile SDK Events

iOS (Swift)

// Simple event
Countly.sharedInstance().recordEvent("button_click")

// With segmentation
Countly.sharedInstance().recordEvent("purchase",
    segmentation: ["product": "Premium", "price": "49.99"],
    count: 1,
    sum: 49.99)

Android (Kotlin)

// Simple event
Countly.sharedInstance().events().recordEvent("button_click")

// With segmentation
val segmentation = mapOf(
    "product" to "Premium",
    "price" to "49.99"
)
Countly.sharedInstance().events().recordEvent("purchase", segmentation, 1, 49.99)

React Native

Countly.recordEvent({
  eventName: 'purchase',
  eventCount: 1,
  eventSum: 49.99,
  segments: {
    product: 'Premium',
    price: '49.99'
  }
});

Event Analysis

Viewing Events in Dashboard

1. Navigate to Events section
2. Select the event to analyze
3. View count, sum, and duration metrics
4. Break down by segmentation values
5. Apply date ranges and filters

Creating Event-Based Funnels

1. Go to Funnels
2. Create new funnel
3. Add events as steps:
   • Step 1: product_view
   • Step 2: add_to_cart
   • Step 3: checkout_start
   • Step 4: purchase
4. Analyze conversion between steps

Best Practices

Event Naming

// Good: descriptive, hierarchical
'product_view'
'cart_add'
'checkout_complete'
'feature_export_pdf'

// Avoid: vague, inconsistent
'click'
'action1'
'UserDidSomething'

Segmentation Guidelines

• Use consistent property names
• Keep values categorical when possible
• Avoid high-cardinality values (use ranges instead)
• Don't include PII in segmentation

Performance

• Batch events when possible
• Avoid tracking every minor interaction
• Use timed events for duration tracking
• Queue events during offline periods