Question from a non-technical Product Manager about Firebase Analytics setup

[Jean-Sébastien Chouinard]

Hi group! 

I'm a mobile product manager  and I try to create an simplified implementation guide for our devs. I'm pretty new with Firebase Analytics (FBA) and I have a couple of questions:

• What is the meaning of "The following event names are reserved and cannot be used in firebase analytics". Do those events are already build in with FBA?

• Can I attribute any of listed parameters to any events? Let's say I would like to use ITEM_NAME param for a CONTENT event. 
  

• Can I have more than one value per parameter? for ITEM_CATEGORY I would pick t-shirt, pants, shoes.

• When I attribute more than one parameter to an event are they related one to the other? Let's say I use VIEW_ITEM to track all icons selected from a box, can I use ITEM_CATEGORY for t-shirt, pants, shoes and ITEM_NAME for brands and join them. Ex : t-shirt and Pantagonia, pants and levis ... 

• How can I extract user id from my db and use it as an identifier in FBA?
  

Thanks! 

JS

[Steve Ganem]

Hi, Jean-Sébastien.  I've responded inline below :

On Wednesday, June 1, 2016 at 2:50:25 PM UTC-7, Jean-Sébastien Chouinard wrote:

Hi group! 

I'm a mobile product manager  and I try to create an simplified implementation guide for our devs. I'm pretty new with Firebase Analytics (FBA) and I have a couple of questions:

• What is the meaning of "The following event names are reserved and cannot be used in firebase analytics". Do those events are already build in with FBA?

Yes, that is correct.  Those events are automatically logged for you by Firebase Analytics, and so developers are prevented from logging them manually so that the metrics for those key events can be as pure as possible.

 

• Can I attribute any of listed parameters to any events? Let's say I would like to use ITEM_NAME param for a CONTENT event. 
  

You are free to log any parameter that follows the naming convention and does not begin with the "firebase_" prefix.  

• Can I have more than one value per parameter? for ITEM_CATEGORY I would pick t-shirt, pants, shoes.

Yes.

 

• When I attribute more than one parameter to an event are they related one to the other? Let's say I use VIEW_ITEM to track all icons selected from a box, can I use ITEM_CATEGORY for t-shirt, pants, shoes and ITEM_NAME for brands and join them. Ex : t-shirt and Pantagonia, pants and levis ... 

Yes, you would be able to perform that sort of custom analysis in BigQuery, for example.

 

• How can I extract user id from my db and use it as an identifier in FBA?
  

You can call the setUserId() API and supply your identifier.

 

Thanks! 

JS

You're welcome.

Steve Ganem

Product Manager, Firebase Analytics 

[Jean-Sébastien Chouinard]

Thank you Steve for your fast and complete response. I do really appreciate it.

I have other questions for you. :) 

Let's say we do have a messaging app.

I've trouble choosing what to tag between SELECT_CONTENT and VIEW_ITEM, they seem to track the same kind of tasks. 

For the moment, I would do this:

SELECT_CONTENT 

• CONTENT_TYPE to track :
  
• video shared
• audio shared
• image shared
• emoji shared
• button

• ITEM_NAME to track: 
  
• emoji_name
• accept_friend request
• start a conversation

VIEW_ITEM

• ITEM_CATEGORY
• SCREEN NAME
• ERROR MESSAGE
• ITEM_NAME
• screen_name
• type_of_error

That being said, when i add a parameter, do I need to indicate string values? Let's say I want to use name convention taken for emoji without having to add new one to the list. Or for SEARCH_TERM param, do I have to leave the string values empty to gather data automatically? 

thanks again! 

JS

On Wednesday, June 1, 2016 at 5:50:25 PM UTC-4, Jean-Sébastien Chouinard wrote:

Hi group! 

I'm a mobile product manager  and I try to create an simplified implementation guide for our devs. I'm pretty new with Firebase Analytics (FBA) and I have a couple of questions:

• What is the meaning of "The following event names are reserved and cannot be used in firebase analytics". Do those events are already build in with FBA?

• Can I attribute any of listed parameters to any events? Let's say I would like to use ITEM_NAME param for a CONTENT event. 
  

• Can I have more than one value per parameter? for ITEM_CATEGORY I would pick t-shirt, pants, shoes.

• When I attribute more than one parameter to an event are they related one to the other? Let's say I use VIEW_ITEM to track all icons selected from a box, can I use ITEM_CATEGORY for t-shirt, pants, shoes and ITEM_NAME for brands and join them. Ex : t-shirt and Pantagonia, pants and levis ... 

• How can I extract user id from my db and use it as an identifier in FBA?
  

Thanks! 

JS

[Steve Ganem]

Answers below :

On Thursday, June 2, 2016 at 7:39:05 AM UTC-7, Jean-Sébastien Chouinard wrote:

Thank you Steve for your fast and complete response. I do really appreciate it.

I have other questions for you. :) 

Let's say we do have a messaging app.

I've trouble choosing what to tag between SELECT_CONTENT and VIEW_ITEM, they seem to track the same kind of tasks. 

In general, use whichever events seem to apply to your app.  

SELECT_CONTENT is meant to help you identify content that is popular in your app.  This can be an item (like a post, a picture, a song) or it can be a mode (easy, medium, advanced) or it can be a character (superman, batman, spiderman).  And you will get a report in Firebase Analytics that helps you identify the most popular categories of content as well as the most popular items in each category.

Use VIEW_ITEM to log when an item appears on the screen.  Although the concept does overlap with SELECT_CONTENT a bit, VIEW_ITEM is more about what is presented to the user rather than what they have selected.  Also, VIEW_ITEM ties into remarketing, so if your app is an ecommerce app, and if you expect to run dynamic remarketing campaigns, you should log this event.

Keep in mind that you can log both events.  

 

For the moment, I would do this:

SELECT_CONTENT 

• CONTENT_TYPE to track :
  
• video shared
• audio shared
• image shared
• emoji shared
• button

I suggest that CONTENT_TYPE should be "video", "audio", "image", "emoji" or "button"

 

• ITEM_NAME to track: 
  
• emoji_name
• accept_friend request
• start a conversation

emoji_name seems appropriate. Are the other two button names?  In other words, to which categories do "accept_friend request" and "start a conversation" apply?

 

VIEW_ITEM

• ITEM_CATEGORY
• SCREEN NAME
• ERROR MESSAGE
• ITEM_NAME
• screen_name
• type_of_error

These seem fine.

 

That being said, when i add a parameter, do I need to indicate string values? Let's say I want to use name convention taken for emoji without having to add new one to the list. Or for SEARCH_TERM param, do I have to leave the string values empty to gather data automatically? 

The value of the emoji name can follow a naming convention. You don't need to pre-register these anywhere.

[Jean-Sébastien Chouinard]

Thanks again Steve. 

After reading at your comment, I understand that I don't really need to tag each screen with VIEW_ITEM unless I want to do remarketing in the future. However, are all screens already tagged by default? 

You've ask : Are the other two button names?  In other words, to which categories do "accept_friend request" and "start a conversation" apply? They will apply to different button type. Should I have an unique button value per action (send message, accept_friend_request, start search) in the Content_TYPE instead of having it in ITEM_NAME? 

Also, I've started to follow the implementation method for IOS and it seems that everything is already set up within the SDK. Am I right? I can't see if we have the same customization level option with parameter as Android. 

Thanks again Steve! 

JS

[Steve Ganem]

On Thursday, June 2, 2016 at 1:12:57 PM UTC-7, Jean-Sébastien Chouinard wrote:

Thanks again Steve. 

After reading at your comment, I understand that I don't really need to tag each screen with VIEW_ITEM unless I want to do remarketing in the future. However, are all screens already tagged by default? 

Not yet, but this is something  we are considering.

 

You've ask : Are the other two button names?  In other words, to which categories do "accept_friend request" and "start a conversation" apply? They will apply to different button type. Should I have an unique button value per action (send message, accept_friend_request, start search) in the Content_TYPE instead of having it in ITEM_NAME? 

If you want to measure how often certain buttons are clicked, then CONTENT_TYPE should be "Button" and ITEM_NAME should be the name of the button. 

 

Also, I've started to follow the implementation method for IOS and it seems that everything is already set up within the SDK. Am I right? I can't see if we have the same customization level option with parameter as Android. 

The Android and iOS SDKs offer the same features with regards to custom event logging.