custom-events.md

#Custom Events

This document explains how to use custom events, a powerful feature that you can use to send any type of data to a Countly server.

####Basics

The structure of the simplest event object is just like below;

{
	"key": "button_click",
	"count": 1
}

Below properties are the only mandatory properties for an event;

• key identifies the event
• count is the number of times this event occured

If the event is tied to an overall numerical data, such as a purchase, we can use sum to keep track of that;

{
	"key": "in_app_purchase",
	"count": 1,
	"sum": 0.99
}

####Segmentation

In the Basics section we have seen an example in_app_purchase event that had only count and sum properties. It is nice to be able to track total number of purchases and total amount of purchases but sometimes we may need more detailed information;

• What item is purchased more?
• Which countries were top performers in terms of in app purchase?
• Which application version lead to more sales?

Segmentation makes it possible to categorize/label an event in order to answer all those questions and much more. By simply adding segmentation key-value pairs to our event we can track detailed metrics;

{
	"key": "in_app_purchase",
	"count": 1,
	"sum": 0.99,
	"segmentation": {
		"app_version": "1.0",
		"country": "Turkey",
		"item": "sword"
	}
}

An event key can have unlimited number of segmentation key-values and all these segmentation keys will be available from your dashboard the moment you first use them inside your application.

Pretty simple right? Here are some further documentation that you might find useful in order to get the best out of custom events;

• SDK methods for custom events: Function calls (for various platforms) you will need in order to send event data to Countly Server
• Countly Drill: A very very very advanced query tool for your custom events
• Countly Funnels: Track paths and goal completions inside your app using custom events