Event

Mixpanel’s mission is to increase the rate of innovation. Companies use Mixpanel to analyze how & why users engage, convert, and retain in real-time on web, mobile, and IoT devices, and then use the data to improve their products.

Overview & Prerequisites

If you are new to setting up Mixpanel’s Mobile App Analytics, your best place to start is Mixpanel itself and the below are must-reads before proceeding:

• Mobile App Analytics Setup Overview: https://mixpanel.com/help/reference
• Best Practices for setting up your events: https://mixpanel.com/help/reference/ios#sending-events

When mParticle sends data to Mixpanel, Mixpanel’s APIs are utilized. This allows mParticle to implement server side data forwarding and supports our value proposition to customers of not requiring that additional app SDK components be continually added and updated for integrations.

In order to enable mParticle’s integration with Mixpanel, you will need an account with Mixpanel and have your Mixpanel Token for mParticle configuration. Your Mixpanel Token can be found at the Mixpanel topic, Find Project Token.

Data Processing Notes

• User and Event attributes with string values of "true" or "false" (not case sensitive), will be converted to boolean values before being forwarded to Mixpanel.

Supported Features

mParticle’s SDK supports nearly all of the Mixpanel SDK specific features natively. When you use the mParticle SDK, mParticle events will be transformed using Mixpanel-compliant naming conventions and activate the corresponding features automatically.

Feature Name	mParticle Support	Feature Description
Funnels	Yes	Analyze where users drop off.
Identity Management	Yes	Aliasing to merge identities.
In-app Notifications	No	Showing your messages when app an opens.
People Profiles	Yes	Get to know your users, track their LTV.
Retention	Yes	Analyze how many users come back to your apps, break down by cohorts
Segmentation, now known as Insights	Yes	Slice and dice data using all available dimensions (by events, event attributes, user attributes, etc.). For information about Insights replacing Segmentation see, Segmentation Retirement FAQ.
Survey	No	Ask users what they think of your apps.

User Identification

One of the key features of Mixpanel is funnel tracking, this feature requires a consistent approach to identifying your users as they sign up, and progress from being only identifiable by their device, to having a unique “logged in” ID.

mParticle manages this process using its IDSync feature. IDSync gives you granular control over how user profiles are managed. To support IDSync, mParticle maintains a hierarchy of different ID types.

A traditional Mixpanel implementation, using the Mixpanel SDK, manages sign-up funnels by using the following process:

1. When a user first downloads your app, the Distinct ID is set using a default anonymous device id (Apple Advertising ID for iOS, a random GUID for Android, a Cookie ID for Web).
2. When you know the identity of the current user, typically after log-in or sign-up, you call Mixpanel’s identify method. Mixpanel recommends against using identify for anonymous visitors to your site.

If your project has Mixpanel’s ID Merge feature enabled, the call to identify will connect pre- and post-authentication events when appropriate.

If your project does not have ID Merge enabled, identify will change the user’s local distinct_id to the unique ID you pass. Events tracked prior to authentication will not be connected to the same user identity. If ID Merge is disabled, Alias can be used to tie the original Distinct ID (an anonymous device ID) and the new Distinct ID (a unique User ID) together in Mixpanel.

If this process is not followed correctly, funnel tracking won’t be possible, as Mixpanel will see the two Distinct IDs as two completely separate users.

If you wish to use Mixpanel’s funnel tracking features, here is one option for implementing with mParticle:

Option 1 - Use mParticle ID as the Distinct ID

This option is recommended for new implementations. This option lets your Mixpanel user profiles mirror those maintained by mParticle. This option lets your mParticle Identity strategy take care of aliasing for you, before your data ever reaches Mixpanel.

For this to work, you need to have selected an Identity Strategy that supports funnel tracking, such as the Profile Conversion Strategy. If you use the Profile Conversion Strategy and mParticle’s Customer ID as your logged-in ID type, a sign-up flow works as follows:

1. When a user first downloads your app, mParticle creates a new user profile, with a new, unique mParticle ID. mParticle immediately begins forwarding event data to Mixpanel, mapping the mParticle ID to Mixpanel’s Distinct ID.
2. When the user creates an account, and you add a Customer ID, mParticle associates the new Customer ID with the original user profile. Now you have a new way of identifying users in the mParticle SDK, the mParticle ID — mapped to Mixpanel as the Distinct ID — which never changes.

To use this option, set the External Identity Type to mParticle ID in the Configuration Settings.

Note that this example is the minimum necessary to demonstrate the required sign-up flow and does not include additional features, such as completion handlers. Refer to the full Identity documentation:

• iOS
• Android
• Web

Supported Feature Reference

To support each feature in the Supported Features table above, multiple methods will need to be implemented. The following table shows the mapping between each feature and SDK methods.

Mixpanel SDK Method	Method Description	Related Feature	mParticle SDK Method	Notes
alias	Links two IDs as the same user.	People Analytics	Not Supported	Mixpanel no longer recommends using the alias method to merge identities.
deleteUser	Delete current user’s record from Mixpanel People.	People Analytics	Not Supported
identify	Sets the distinct ID of the current user.	People Analytics	SetUserIdentity	By default, device udid is used to identify a user. If the ‘Use Mixpanel People’ setting is enabled, and the ‘Use Customer ID’ setting is enabled, and a Customer Id is available, Customer Id is used.
increment	Increment the given numeric properties by the given values.	People Analytics	Not Supported	For revenue tracking, use logEvent with attributes and set up LTV tracking.
registerSuperProperties	Registers super properties, overwriting ones that have already been set.	Segmentation, Funnels, Retention, People Analytics	Not implemented. SetUserAttribute achieves the same effect.	Recommendation is to use mParticle’s SetUserAttribute method to set user attributes that could be added to every event if configured
registerSuperPropertiesOnce	Registers super properties without overwriting ones that have already been set.	Segmentation, Funnels, Retention, People Analytics	Not supported	mParticle leaves this type of implementation to the developer.
reset	Clears all stored properties and distinct IDs. Useful if your app’s user logs out.	People Analytics	Not Supported
set	Set user properties	Segmentation, People Analytics	SetUserAttribute	If MessageType is AppEvent or ScreenView, user attributes will be sent if the ‘Include User Attributes’ setting is enabled
track	tracks an event with or without properties	Segmentation, Funnels, Retention, People Analytics	logScreen / logEvent
trackCharge	Track money spent by the current user for revenue analytics	People Analytics	logEvent. Also, the logged events need to be set up as LTV tracking event in mParticle’s UI
union (Android only)	add an array of values to a user attribute key	People Analytics	Not supported
unset (Android only)	remove a property of the given name from a user profile	People Analytics	removeUserAttribute

Event Tracking

Tracking standard events in the mParticle SDK is fairly straightforward. Events can be standalone or include event attributes. mParticle attributes are converted to Mixpanel properties automatically when forwarded.

Mixpanel’s SDK Method	mParticle’s SDK Method
track with properties	logEvent with event attributes or logEcommerceTransactionWithProduct
track with no properties	logScreen or logEvent with no event attributes

Historical Event Tracking

mParticle sends data to different Mixpanel endpoints depending on the age of the events:

1. Events that are less than or equal to 5 days old are sent to the track endpoint.
2. Events that are greater than 5 days old are sent to the import endpoint. In order for mParticle to send the historical data to Mixpanel, you must provide the API Secret. If not provided, mParticle will drop these events.

Super Property Tracking

Super properties allow certain properties that you want to include with each event you send. Generally, these are things you know about the user rather than about a specific event, for example, the user’s age, gender, or source. These super properties will be automatically included with all tracked events. Super properties are saved to device storage, and will persist across invocations of your app.

Mixpanel’s SDK Method	mParticle’s SDK Method	Description
registerSuperProperties	SetUserAttribute	Super properties, once registered, are automatically sent for all even tracking calls.
registerSuperPropertiesOnce	Not supported

Setting User Properties and Attribute Mapping

Both Mixpanel and mParticle have the ability to set specific attributes for the user which will persist until overwritten.

Mixpanel’s SDK Method	mParticle’s SDK Method	Description
set	SetUserAttribute	Sets a single property with the given name and value for this group.

If you have enabled the ‘Include User Attributes’ setting, then any messages with type ScreenView or AppEvent will include the email user identity (if available) and all user attributes. The SetUserAttribute method can be used to set user attributes. This method will overwrite the values of any existing user attributes.

Attribute Mappings

mParticle’s attribute naming conventions closely resemble standard Mixpanel attributes, which a few exceptions:

mParticle attribute	will be changed to
$FirstName	$first_name
$LastName	$last_name
$Mobile	$phone

These mParticle attributes will just have the leading $ removed:

mParticle attribute	will be changed to
$Gender	Gender
$Age	Age
$Country	Country
$Zip	Zip
$City	City
$State	State
$Address	Address

If these attributes are seen, they will be replaced with Mixpanel attributes:

mParticle attribute	will be changed to
created	$created
email	$email
lastSeen	$last_seen
name	$name
username	$username

With available user identity info and user attributes, standard people data being sent includes:

• action type: $set for user identification
• token: the application’s Mixpanel token
• distinct_id: device’s UDID or user’s customerId
• ip: the IP address of the request or “0”
• time: the message timestamp
• insert_id: used to de-duplicate events - this is set to mParticle event_id.

Data being sent in the $set section:

• user attributes: following the rules in Attribute mappings
• email address: if it exists in the user identities

Revenue Tracking and Commerce Events

In order to track revenue using mParticle and Mixpanel, you need to ensure that mParticle is forwarding on relevant data by enabling the Use Mixpanel People setting. If the mParticle SDK method has been called to log an event, the event and one event attribute have been set up for LTV tracking, and the event is not excluded by an account policy, a transaction message will be sent to Mixpanel.

Mixpanel’s SDK Method	mParticle’s SDK Method
trackCharge	logEvent or logEcommerceTransactionWithProduct. Also, the logged events need to be set up as LTV tracking event in mParticle’s UI.

Only specific data will be considered as part of the transactional funnel. Standard message data format is:

• action type: $transaction for a TrackCharge message
• token: the application’s Mixpanel token
• distinct_id: device’s UDID or user’s customerId
• ip: the IP address of the request or “0”
• time: the message timestamp
• insert_id: used to de-duplicate events - this is set to mParticle event_id.

Data being sent in the transactions section:

• $amount: the total value of the event
• $time: the message timestamp in the format yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss
• event attributes: follows the rules in Attribute Mappings

Web Attributes

Event batches sent to Mixpanel using the server-side web integration will also send the following data:

• browser: the user’s web browser
• browser version: the version of the web browser
• os: the user’s operating system

Note that this data depends on the http_header_user_agent field so they will only be set if a value is included in the batch.

EU Data Localization

By default, mParticle sends data to Mixpanel’s US Servers, but offers an EU Data Localization option for their ingestion API, which allows data to be sent and stored in the Mixpanel EU Data Center (see Mixpanel’s documentation on Storing Your Data in the European Union). This EU Residency is not automatically set within a Mixpanel project. You can find steps on how to set EU Data Localization for your Mixpanel project within the Mixpanel documentation. In mParticle, the Mixpanel Target Server Configuration Setting must be set to EU Residency Server.

Configuration Settings

Setting Name	Data Type	Default Value	Description
Token	string		Project token, found by clicking the gear icon in your project.
API Secret	string		Your Mixpanel API Secret which can be found by clicking on your name in the upper right hand corner under Project Settings. This is required to forward Historical Data.
External Identity Type	string	Customer ID	The mParticle User Identity type to forward as an External Id to Mixpanel.
Mixpanel Target Server	string	Standard Server	Mixpanel Server where the data will be stored. You can set up EU Residency in your Mixpanel project settings.

Connection Settings

Setting Name	Data Type	Default Value	Platform	Description
Forward Session Start/End Messages	bool	True	iOS, Android, tvOS, Roku, FireTV, Xbox	If enabled, all session start and session end messages will be forwarded to Mixpanel as separate events.
Session Start Event Name	string	session-start	iOS, Android, tvOS, Roku, FireTV, Xbox	The event name that will be forwarded to Mixpanel on a session start message. Only used if ‘Forward Session Start/End Messages’ is enabled.
Session End Event Name	string	session-end	iOS, Android, tvOS, Roku, FireTV, Xbox	The event name that will be forwarded to Mixpanel on a session end message. Only used if ‘Forward Session Start/End Messages’ is enabled.
Create Profile Only If Logged In	bool	False	All	If enabled, Mixpanel will only forward customer profile data if a customer ID is in the list of user’s identities; if disabled, Mixpanel will always forward customer profile data.
Use Mixpanel People	bool	True	All	Enable this setting if you are using customer profiles in Mixpanel
Include User Attributes	bool	True	All	If enabled, all user attributes will be included when tracking events
Include Attribution Info	bool	False	All	If enabled, attribution info (publisher and campaign names) will be included when tracking events.
Include IP Address	bool	True	All	If enabled, IP Address will be sent with the event. This is used by Mixpanel to retrieve location data for the event.
Send Event Attributes as Objects	bool	True	All	If enabled, mParticle will attempt to send event attributes as objects. Attributes should be string values containing serialized JSON objects.
Upper Case Idfa and Idfv	bool	False	All	Whether to upper case Idfa and Idfv as Mixpanel is case sensitive with device ids
Simplified ID Merge	bool	False	iOS, Android, tvOS, Roku, FireTV, Xbox	If enabled, mParticle will send $device_id and $user_id attributes for use with the MixPanel Simplified ID Merge API
Forward Web Requests Server Side	bool	False	Web	If enabled, requests will only be forwarded server-side.
Super Properties	Custom Field		All	Mapped user attributes here will always be sent as event properties (regardless of the ‘Include User Attributes’ setting). Note they will also be excluded from people properties.