Handling Invalid Events

All events arriving at Journey Analytics are marked as either valid or invalid. Invalid events are stored in a separate table, not included in queries.

Validity information can be seen in the Live Events page. The following three columns can be selected from the columns list:

  • validation: valid/invalid/pending (a new event that will be added to the schema if valid)
  • invalidComments: will specify the reason if the event is invalid.
  • extraComments: will specify any changes made to the event data.

Once you resolve the validity issues, newly received events will be valid. Previously received events remain invalid in the Journey Analytics database.

Reasons an event could be invalid and method of handling

  • Event Structure (JSON): If the event JSON is not a valid JSON structure the event will be invalid.
  • Missing Data: Journey Analytics trackers manage user_id and event_timestamp_epoch automatically. However, when sending events via REST API all properties must be included. Each event must be sent with the following 3 mandatory properties:
    • event_name
    • user_id
    • event_timestamp_epoch
  • Wrong Data Type: If the data received with an existing property is of a different data type, the property will be invalid. For example, an integer property sent with quotation marks (as a string) will be invalid. To update/add properties go to the Project – Properties page.
  • Property Quota: Each project is set up with a certain quota on the number of properties that can be used in the Data Scheme. If you reach the limit of the Data Scheme new properties will be invalid. To extend your Data Scheme quota, please contact your customer success manager.
  • Date Out of Valid Range: A time stamp in the future or in the far past will be considered an invalid time stamp and the entire event will be invalidated. The default values of future/past events are: past – 30 days, future – 1 hour. This setting can be configured for your specific project. Contact Medallia Support for further assistance.
  • Mapping Modes: A project can have one of two mapping modes:
    • In Locked mode, new events and properties are marked as invalid and will not be stored. If any of the properties in the event is invalid for any reason, the entire event will be marked invalid and will not be saved. To update/add events go to the Project – Events page. To update/add properties go to the Project – Properties page.
    • In Self-Learned mode, new events and properties are automatically added to the project schema. Recognizing and registering new events and properties to the schema in Self-Learned mode can take up to 5 minutes, during which time new events will be marked as invalid. For more information on mapping modes see Project Configuration.
  • Event Size the size of the event sent to Journey Analytics can be no larger than 200KB.
    • Note: Events larger than 4.5MB will not be parsed and receive an error code as a response to the event sending request.

Querying Invalid Events

  1. Wait an hour or two after sending the events to Journey Analytics using a Tracker.
  2. Open a new CQL report (click the CQL button in the main menu).
  3. Select a date range in the top right hand corner (notice the invalids table is available for customer inquiring up to 7 days). To receive data on a longer period, contact Medallia Support.
  4. Paste in the following query:
    SELECT eventAsJson, reason, event_name, event_time_ts
FROM invalids
order by event_time_ts

    The eventAsJson property holds the original event sent to Journey Analytics, the reason property includes the reason for invalidating the event.

  5. To group events by failure reason, use the following query:
    SELECT reason, count(*) as invalids
FROM invalids
GROUP BY 1
ORDER BY 2 DESC