About user events

This page describes user events for Gemini Enterprise apps, including user event types, requirements, and examples for user event types.

If you use the Gemini Enterprise APIs in your own apps, you need to configure search in your app to get the user events and then add the user events data to your Gemini Enterprise app.

If you create your app through the Google Cloud console, then you don't need to manually import user events (and you don't need to read this page).

For help with recording user events, see Record real-time user events. To import past user events in bulk, see Import historical user events.

User event types

You can record the following types of user events as end users browse or search your site:

User event name User action
view-item Views details of a document.
search Searches data in the Gemini Enterprise app.

For details about the user event object, see the UserEvent API reference documentation.

User event type examples and schemas

This section provides the data formats for each event type supported by Gemini Enterprise apps. Examples for JavaScript Pixel are provided. For BigQuery, the full table schema for each type is provided.

For all user events types, userId is optional.

For more details about the user event object, see the UserEvent API reference documentation.

view-item

The following shows the view-item user event data format.

Minimum required view-item object

The following examples show only the required fields of the view-item user event format.

In most cases, documents contains details for the associated document.

JavaScript Pixel

var user_event = {
  "eventType": "view-item",
  "userPseudoId": "user-pseudo-id",
  "eventTime": "2020-01-01T03:33:33.000001Z",
  "documents": [{
    "id": "document-id"
  }]
};

BigQuery

This is the complete JSON schema for this user event type. Specify this schema when creating tables for this user event type in BigQuery.

Modes for required fields are set to REQUIRED or REPEATED. Modes for optional fields are set to NULLABLE.

Note that eventTime is required for importing events with BigQuery. eventTime is a string with a Timestamp format. 

[
  {
    "name": "eventType",
    "type": "STRING",
    "mode": "REQUIRED"
  },
  {
    "name": "userPseudoId",
    "type": "STRING",
    "mode": "REQUIRED"
  },
  {
    "name": "eventTime",
    "type": "STRING",
    "mode": "REQUIRED"
  },
  {
    "name": "userInfo",
    "type": "RECORD",
    "mode": "NULLABLE",
    "fields": [
      {
        "name": "userId",
        "type": "STRING",
        "mode": "NULLABLE"
      },
      {
        "name": "userAgent",
        "type": "STRING",
        "mode": "NULLABLE"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "name": "pageInfo",
    "type": "RECORD",
    "mode": "NULLABLE",
    "fields": [
      {
        "name": "pageviewId",
        "type": "STRING",
        "mode": "NULLABLE"
      },
      {
        "name": "uri",
        "type": "STRING",
        "mode": "NULLABLE"
      },
      {
        "name": "referrerUri",
        "type": "STRING",
        "mode": "NULLABLE"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "name": "attributionToken",
    "type": "STRING",
    "mode": "NULLABLE"
  },
  {
    "name": "documents",
    "type": "RECORD",
    "mode": "REPEATED",
    "fields": [
      {
        "name": "id",
        "type": "STRING",
        "mode": "NULLABLE"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "name": "tagIds",
    "type": "STRING",
    "mode": "REPEATED"
  },
  {
    "name": "attributes",
    "type": "RECORD",
    "mode": "NULLABLE",
    "fields": [
      {
        "name": "example_text_attribute",
        "type": "RECORD",
        "mode": "NULLABLE",
        "fields": [
          {
            "name": "text",
            "type": "STRING",
            "mode": "REPEATED"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "name": "example_number_attribute",
        "type": "RECORD",
        "mode": "NULLABLE",
        "fields": [
          {
            "name": "numbers",
            "type": "NUMERIC",
            "mode": "REPEATED"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
]

The following shows the search user event format.

Minimum required search object

The following examples show only the required fields of the search user event format.

Provide searchQuery for search events where the user entered a text query.

The attributionToken is returned with the search query results.

documents should include the list of document IDs shown to the end user in the search results page.

JavaScript Pixel

var user_event = {
  eventType: "search",
  userPseudoId: "user-pseudo-id",
  eventTime: "2020-01-01T03:33:33.000001Z",
  searchInfo: {
    searchQuery: "search-query",
  }, 
  attributionToken: "attribution-token",
  documents: [
    {
      id: "document-id1",
    },
    {
      id: "document-id2",
    },
  ]
};

BigQuery

This is the complete JSON schema for this user event type. Specify this schema when creating tables for this user event type in BigQuery.

Modes for required fields are set to REQUIRED or REPEATED. Modes for optional fields are set to NULLABLE.

Note that eventTime is required for importing events with BigQuery. eventTime is a string with a Timestamp format. 

[
  {
    "name": "eventType",
    "type": "STRING",
    "mode": "REQUIRED"
  },
  {
    "name": "userPseudoId",
    "type": "STRING",
    "mode": "REQUIRED"
  },
  {
    "name": "eventTime",
    "type": "STRING",
    "mode": "REQUIRED"
  },
  {
    "name": "searchInfo",
    "type": "RECORD",
    "mode": "NULLABLE",
    "fields": [
      {
        "name": "searchQuery",
        "type": "STRING",
        "mode": "NULLABLE"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "name": "pageInfo",
    "type": "RECORD",
    "mode": "NULLABLE",
    "fields": [
      {
        "name": "pageCategory",
        "type": "STRING",
        "mode": "NULLABLE"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "name": "attributionToken",
    "type": "STRING",
    "mode": "NULLABLE"
  },
  {
    "name": "documents",
    "type": "RECORD",
    "mode": "REPEATED",
    "fields": [
      {
        "name": "id",
        "type": "STRING",
        "mode": "NULLABLE"
      }
    ]
  }
]

About user information

userPseudoId represents the unique user identifier and is required when you record a user event.

The user information (UserInfo) included when you record a user event contains the userPseudoId value and, if available, the userId value. userId is optional and can be used as a unique, persistent identifier for a user across devices whenever a user logs in to your site. When you record the userId for a user, Gemini Enterprise apps can generate more personalized results for one user across multiple devices, such as both a mobile device and a web browser.

About the timestamp

When you record a user event, be sure to include an accurate timestamp of when the event occurred. Accurate timestamps make sure that your events are stored in the correct order. Timestamps are recorded automatically for events collected using the JavaScript Pixel. When you import events, you must provide the timestamp in the eventTime field in the format specified by RFC 3339.