This is the documentation for Recommendations AI, Retail Search, and the new Retail console.

REST Resource: projects.locations.catalogs.userEvents

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Resource: UserEvent

UserEvent captures all metadata information Retail API needs to know about how end users interact with customers' website.

JSON representation 
{
  "eventType": string,
  "visitorId": string,
  "sessionId": string,
  "eventTime": string,
  "experimentIds": [
    string
  ],
  "attributionToken": string,
  "productDetails": [
    {
      object (ProductDetail)
    }
  ],
  "completionDetail": {
    object (CompletionDetail)
  },
  "attributes": {
    string: {
      "text": [
        string
      ],
      "numbers": [
        number
      ],
      "searchable": boolean,
      "indexable": boolean
    },
    ...
  },
  "cartId": string,
  "purchaseTransaction": {
    object (PurchaseTransaction)
  },
  "searchQuery": string,
  "filter": string,
  "orderBy": string,
  "offset": integer,
  "pageCategories": [
    string
  ],
  "userInfo": {
    object (UserInfo)
  },
  "uri": string,
  "referrerUri": string,
  "pageViewId": string
}
Fields
eventType

string

Required. User event type. Allowed values are:

  • add-to-cart: Products being added to cart.
  • category-page-view: Special pages such as sale or promotion pages viewed.
  • detail-page-view: Products detail page viewed.
  • home-page-view: Homepage viewed.
  • promotion-offered: Promotion is offered to a user.
  • promotion-not-offered: Promotion is not offered to a user.
  • purchase-complete: User finishing a purchase.
  • search: Product search.
  • shopping-cart-page-view: User viewing a shopping cart.
visitorId

string

Required. A unique identifier for tracking visitors.

For example, this could be implemented with an HTTP cookie, which should be able to uniquely identify a visitor on a single device. This unique identifier should not change if the visitor log in/out of the website.

Don't set the field to the same fixed ID for different users. This mixes the event history of those users together, which results in degraded model quality.

The field must be a UTF-8 encoded string with a length limit of 128 characters. Otherwise, an INVALID_ARGUMENT error is returned.

The field should not contain PII or user-data. We recommend to use Google Analytics Client ID for this field.
sessionId

string

A unique identifier for tracking a visitor session with a length limit of 128 bytes. A session is an aggregation of an end user behavior in a time span.

A general guideline to populate the sesion_id: 1. If user has no activity for 30 min, a new sessionId should be assigned. 2. The sessionId should be unique across users, suggest use uuid or add visitorId as prefix.
eventTime

string (Timestamp format)

Only required for UserEventService.ImportUserEvents method. Timestamp of when the user event happened.

A timestamp in RFC3339 UTC "Zulu" format, with nanosecond resolution and up to nine fractional digits. Examples: "2014-10-02T15:01:23Z" and "2014-10-02T15:01:23.045123456Z".
experimentIds[]

string

A list of identifiers for the independent experiment groups this user event belongs to. This is used to distinguish between user events associated with different experiment setups (e.g. using Retail API, using different recommendation models).
attributionToken

string

Highly recommended for user events that are the result of PredictionService.Predict. This field enables accurate attribution of recommendation model performance.

The value must be a valid PredictResponse.attribution_token for user events that are the result of PredictionService.Predict. The value must be a valid SearchResponse.attribution_token for user events that are the result of SearchService.Search.

This token enables us to accurately attribute page view or purchase back to the event and the particular predict response containing this clicked/purchased product. If user clicks on product K in the recommendation results, pass PredictResponse.attribution_token as a URL parameter to product K's page. When recording events on product K's page, log the PredictResponse.attribution_token to this field.
productDetails[]

object (ProductDetail)

The main product details related to the event.

This field is optional except for the following event types:

  • add-to-cart
  • detail-page-view
  • purchase-complete

In a search event, this field represents the products returned to the end user on the current page (the end user may have not finished browsing the whole page yet). When a new page is returned to the end user, after pagination/filtering/ordering even for the same query, a new search event with different productDetails is desired. The end user may have not finished browsing the whole page yet.
completionDetail

object (CompletionDetail)

The main auto-completion details related to the event.

This field should be set for search event when autocomplete function is enabled and the user clicks a suggestion for search.
attributes[]

map (key: string, value: object)

Extra user event features to include in the recommendation model.

If you provide custom attributes for ingested user events, also include them in the user events that you associate with prediction requests. Custom attribute formatting must be consistent between imported events and events provided with prediction requests. This lets the Retail API use those custom attributes when training models and serving predictions, which helps improve recommendation quality.

This field needs to pass all below criteria, otherwise an INVALID_ARGUMENT error is returned:

  • The key must be a UTF-8 encoded string with a length limit of 5,000 characters.
  • For text attributes, at most 400 values are allowed. Empty values are not allowed. Each value must be a UTF-8 encoded string with a length limit of 256 characters.
  • For number attributes, at most 400 values are allowed.

For product recommendations, an example of extra user information is traffic_channel, which is how a user arrives at the site. Users can arrive at the site by coming to the site directly, coming through Google search, or in other ways.
attributes[].text[]

string

The textual values of this custom attribute. For example, ["yellow", "green"] when the key is "color".

Empty string is not allowed. Otherwise, an INVALID_ARGUMENT error is returned.

Exactly one of text or numbers should be set. Otherwise, an INVALID_ARGUMENT error is returned.
attributes[].numbers[]

number

The numerical values of this custom attribute. For example, [2.3, 15.4] when the key is "lengths_cm".

Exactly one of text or numbers should be set. Otherwise, an INVALID_ARGUMENT error is returned.
attributes[].searchable
(deprecated)

boolean

This field is normally ignored unless AttributesConfig.attribute_config_level of the Catalog is set to the deprecated 'PRODUCT_LEVEL_ATTRIBUTE_CONFIG' mode. For information about product-level attribute configuration, see Configuration modes. If true, custom attribute values are searchable by text queries in SearchService.Search.

This field is ignored in a UserEvent.

Only set if type text is set. Otherwise, a INVALID_ARGUMENT error is returned.
attributes[].indexable
(deprecated)

boolean

This field is normally ignored unless AttributesConfig.attribute_config_level of the Catalog is set to the deprecated 'PRODUCT_LEVEL_ATTRIBUTE_CONFIG' mode. For information about product-level attribute configuration, see Configuration modes. If true, custom attribute values are indexed, so that they can be filtered, faceted or boosted in SearchService.Search.

This field is ignored in a UserEvent.

See SearchRequest.filter, SearchRequest.facet_specs and SearchRequest.boost_spec for more details.
cartId

string

The ID or name of the associated shopping cart. This ID is used to associate multiple items added or present in the cart before purchase.

This can only be set for add-to-cart, purchase-complete, or shopping-cart-page-view events.
purchaseTransaction

object (PurchaseTransaction)

A transaction represents the entire purchase transaction.

Required for purchase-complete events. Other event types should not set this field. Otherwise, an INVALID_ARGUMENT error is returned.
searchQuery

string

The user's search query.

See SearchRequest.query for definition.

The value must be a UTF-8 encoded string with a length limit of 5,000 characters. Otherwise, an INVALID_ARGUMENT error is returned.

At least one of searchQuery or pageCategories is required for search events. Other event types should not set this field. Otherwise, an INVALID_ARGUMENT error is returned.
filter

string

The filter syntax consists of an expression language for constructing a predicate from one or more fields of the products being filtered.

See SearchRequest.filter for definition and syntax.

The value must be a UTF-8 encoded string with a length limit of 1,000 characters. Otherwise, an INVALID_ARGUMENT error is returned.
orderBy

string

The order in which products are returned.

See SearchRequest.order_by for definition and syntax.

The value must be a UTF-8 encoded string with a length limit of 1,000 characters. Otherwise, an INVALID_ARGUMENT error is returned.

This can only be set for search events. Other event types should not set this field. Otherwise, an INVALID_ARGUMENT error is returned.
offset

integer

An integer that specifies the current offset for pagination (the 0-indexed starting location, amongst the products deemed by the API as relevant).

See SearchRequest.offset for definition.

If this field is negative, an INVALID_ARGUMENT is returned.

This can only be set for search events. Other event types should not set this field. Otherwise, an INVALID_ARGUMENT error is returned.
pageCategories[]

string

The categories associated with a category page.

To represent full path of category, use '>' sign to separate different hierarchies. If '>' is part of the category name, replace it with other character(s).

Category pages include special pages such as sales or promotions. For instance, a special sale page may have the category hierarchy: "pageCategories" : ["Sales > 2017 Black Friday Deals"].

Required for category-page-view events. At least one of searchQuery or pageCategories is required for search events. Other event types should not set this field. Otherwise, an INVALID_ARGUMENT error is returned.
userInfo

object (UserInfo)

User information.
uri

string

Complete URL (window.location.href) of the user's current page.

When using the client side event reporting with JavaScript pixel and Google Tag Manager, this value is filled in automatically. Maximum length 5,000 characters.
referrerUri

string

The referrer URL of the current page.

When using the client side event reporting with JavaScript pixel and Google Tag Manager, this value is filled in automatically.
pageViewId

string

A unique ID of a web page view.

This should be kept the same for all user events triggered from the same pageview. For example, an item detail page view could trigger multiple events as the user is browsing the page. The pageViewId property should be kept the same for all these events so that they can be grouped together properly.

When using the client side event reporting with JavaScript pixel and Google Tag Manager, this value is filled in automatically.

ProductDetail

Detailed product information associated with a user event.

JSON representation 
{
  "product": {
    object (Product)
  },
  "quantity": integer
}
Fields
product

object (Product)

Required. Product information.

Required field(s):

Optional override field(s):

If any supported optional fields are provided, we will treat them as a full override when looking up product information from the catalog. Thus, it is important to ensure that the overriding fields are accurate and complete.

All other product fields are ignored and instead populated via catalog lookup after event ingestion.
quantity

integer

Quantity of the product associated with the user event.

For example, this field will be 2 if two products are added to the shopping cart for purchase-complete event. Required for add-to-cart and purchase-complete event types.

CompletionDetail

Detailed completion information including completion attribution token and clicked completion info.

JSON representation 
{
  "completionAttributionToken": string,
  "selectedSuggestion": string,
  "selectedPosition": integer
}
Fields
completionAttributionToken

string

Completion attribution token in CompleteQueryResponse.attribution_token.
selectedSuggestion

string

End user selected CompleteQueryResponse.CompletionResult.suggestion.
selectedPosition

integer

End user selected CompleteQueryResponse.CompletionResult.suggestion position, starting from 0.

PurchaseTransaction

A transaction represents the entire purchase transaction.

JSON representation 
{
  "id": string,
  "revenue": number,
  "tax": number,
  "cost": number,
  "currencyCode": string
}
Fields
id

string

The transaction ID with a length limit of 128 characters.
revenue

number

Required. Total non-zero revenue or grand total associated with the transaction. This value include shipping, tax, or other adjustments to total revenue that you want to include as part of your revenue calculations.
tax

number

All the taxes associated with the transaction.
cost

number

All the costs associated with the products. These can be manufacturing costs, shipping expenses not borne by the end user, or any other costs, such that:
currencyCode

string

Required. Currency code. Use three-character ISO-4217 code.

UserInfo

Information of an end user.

JSON representation 
{
  "userId": string,
  "ipAddress": string,
  "userAgent": string,
  "directUserRequest": boolean
}
Fields
userId

string

Highly recommended for logged-in users. Unique identifier for logged-in user, such as a user name. Don't set for anonymous users.

Always use a hashed value for this ID.

Don't set the field to the same fixed ID for different users. This mixes the event history of those users together, which results in degraded model quality.

The field must be a UTF-8 encoded string with a length limit of 128 characters. Otherwise, an INVALID_ARGUMENT error is returned.
ipAddress

string

The end user's IP address. This field is used to extract location information for personalization.

This field must be either an IPv4 address (e.g. "104.133.9.80") or an IPv6 address (e.g. "2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334"). Otherwise, an INVALID_ARGUMENT error is returned.

This should not be set when:
userAgent

string

User agent as included in the HTTP header. Required for getting SearchResponse.sponsored_results.

The field must be a UTF-8 encoded string with a length limit of 1,000 characters. Otherwise, an INVALID_ARGUMENT error is returned.

This should not be set when using the client side event reporting with GTM or JavaScript tag in UserEventService.CollectUserEvent or if directUserRequest is set.
directUserRequest

boolean

True if the request is made directly from the end user, in which case the ipAddress and userAgent can be populated from the HTTP request. This flag should be set only if the API request is made directly from the end user such as a mobile app (and not if a gateway or a server is processing and pushing the user events).

This should not be set when using the JavaScript tag in UserEventService.CollectUserEvent.

Methods

collect

 Writes a single user event from the browser.

import

 Bulk import of User events.

purge

 Deletes permanently all user events specified by the filter provided.

rejoin

 Starts a user-event rejoin operation with latest product catalog.

write

 Writes a single user event.