Quick start for Internal Event Tracking

In an effort to provide a more efficient, scalable, and unified tracking API, GitLab is deprecating existing RedisHLL and Snowplow tracking. Instead, we're implementing a new track_event (Backend) and trackEvent(Frontend) method. With this approach, we can update both RedisHLL counters and send Snowplow events without worrying about the underlying implementation.

In order to instrument your code with Internal Events Tracking you need to do three things:

1. Define an event
2. Define one or more metrics
3. Trigger the event

Defining event and metrics

To create an event and metric definitions you can use the internal_events generator.

This example creates an event definition for an event called project_created and two metric definitions, which are aggregated every 7 and 28 days.

bundle exec rails generate gitlab:analytics:internal_events \
--time_frames=7d 28d \
--group=project_management \
--stage=plan \
--section=dev \
--event=project_created \
--unique=user.id \
--mr=https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/merge_requests/121544

Where:

• time_frames: Valid options are 7d and 28d if you provide a unique value and all for metrics without unique. We are working to make 7d and 28d work for metrics with all time frame in this issue.
• unique: Valid options are user.id, project.id, and namespace.id, as they are logged as part of the standard context. We are actively working on a way to define uniqueness on arbitrary properties sent with the event, such as merge_request.id.

Trigger events

Triggering an event and thereby updating a metric is slightly different on backend and frontend. Please refer to the relevant section below.

Backend tracking

To trigger an event, call the Gitlab::InternalEvents.track_event method with the desired arguments:

Gitlab::InternalEvents.track_event(
        "i_code_review_user_apply_suggestion",
        user: user,
        namespace: namespace,
        project: project
        )

This method automatically increments all RedisHLL metrics relating to the event i_code_review_user_apply_suggestion, and sends a corresponding Snowplow event with all named arguments and standard context (SaaS only).

Frontend tracking

Vue components

In Vue components, tracking can be done with Vue mixin.

To implement Vue component tracking:

1. Import the InternalEvents library and call the mixin method:

   import { InternalEvents } from '~/tracking';
   const trackingMixin = InternalEvents.mixin();

2. Use the mixin in the component:

   export default {
     mixins: [trackingMixin],
   
     data() {
       return {
         expanded: false,
       };
     },
   };

3. Call the trackEvent method. Tracking options can be passed as the second parameter:

   this.trackEvent('i_code_review_user_apply_suggestion');

   Or use the trackEvent method in the template:

   <template>
     <div>
       <button data-testid="toggle" @click="toggle">Toggle</button>
   
       <div v-if="expanded">
         <p>Hello world!</p>
         <button @click="trackEvent('i_code_review_user_apply_suggestion')">Track another event</button>
       </div>
     </div>
   </template>

Raw JavaScript

For tracking events directly from arbitrary frontend JavaScript code, a module for raw JavaScript is provided. This can be used outside of a component context where the Mixin cannot be utilized.

import { InternalEvents } from '~/tracking';
InternalEvents.trackEvent('i_code_review_user_apply_suggestion');

Data-track attribute

This attribute ensures that if we want to track GitLab internal events for a button, we do not need to write JavaScript code on Click handler. Instead, we can just add a data-event-tracking attribute with event value and it should work. This can also be used with HAML views.

  <gl-button
    data-event-tracking="i_analytics_dev_ops_adoption"
  >
   Click Me
  </gl-button>

Haml

= render Pajamas::ButtonComponent.new(button_options: { class: 'js-settings-toggle',  data: { event_tracking: 'action' }}) do

Internal events on render

Sometimes we want to send internal events when the component is rendered or loaded. In these cases, we can add the data-event-tracking-load="true" attribute:

= render Pajamas::ButtonComponent.new(button_options: { data: { event_tracking_load: 'true', event_tracking: 'i_devops' } }) do
        = _("New project")

Props

Apart from eventName, the trackEvent method also supports extra and context props.

extra: Use this property to append supplementary information to GitLab standard context. context: Use this property to attach an additional context, if needed.

The following example shows how to use the extra and context props with the trackEvent method:

this.trackEvent('i_code_review_user_apply_suggestion', {
  extra: {
    projectId : 123,
  },
  context: {
    schema: 'iglu:com.gitlab/design_management_context/jsonschema/1-0-0',
    data: {
      'design-version-number': '1.0.0',
      'design-is-current-version': '1.0.1',
    },
  },
});