The Events tab in Data Manager allows you to manage event definitions, metadata, and schema configuration. This includes creating, editing, categorizing, transforming, and deleting events, as well as managing segmentations and visibility settings.
Event name: The editable display name of the event. An event name input field is limited to the SDK limits.
Description: A description of the event and its purpose. Subject to the SDK limits.
Category: Used to organize events. If no category is assigned, the event is listed as Uncategorized.
Count: The total number of times the event has occurred.
Last modified: The date and time the event was last modified by a user (format: DD/MM/YY hh:mm).
Last Triggered: The most recent date the event was received by Countly (format: DD/MM/YY).
Status: Indicates the lifecycle state of the event: Created, Approved, Live, Blocked, Unplanned, or Deleted.
Visibility: Controls whether the event appears in reporting interfaces. When set to Hidden, the event does not appear in dashboards, but historical data remains available.
Some columns are displayed by default. Additional columns can be enabled or disabled using the column selector menu.
The Last modified by and Last modified date fields are retrieved from the Audit log feature. If Audit Logs are disabled, this information is not displayed.
Schema vs Tracking
The Event Schema defines and governs event structure. The SDK or API implementation is responsible for sending event data.
Event Lifecycle Overview
Event is created in Data Manager (Planned)
The developer implements it in the SDK
Event data is sent
Status is updated to Live
Reporting becomes available
Creating or approving an event in Data Manager does not automatically start collecting event data. Event tracking only begins when the event is implemented and sent via the SDK or API.
Capabilities of the Events Tab
The Events tab supports:
Viewing event details and segmentations
Viewing the event key
Updating visibility
Updating status
Editing display name and description
Modifying event property labels (count, sum, duration)
Categorizing events
Deleting events
Searching and filtering by Status, Category, and Visibility
Exporting the events table
Customizing visible columns
Creating transformations
Creating new events
Performing bulk updates via Event Schema (CSV)
Note on Blocking Events
Events can be blocked using the Filtering Rules feature.
When an event is blocked:
New data is not collected or processed.
Historical data remains available.
Data Manager only displays the blocked status. Blocking and unblocking must be performed through the Filtering Rules feature.
Creating an Event
To create an event: Click Create New and select Create New Event.
Give your (display) name to the event, which is a mandatory field.
Enter a unique event key, which is a mandatory field. Event_key of the events sent via SDK will be matched over event_key on UI. event_key is case sensitive. Note that if event_key doesn’t exactly match with event key sent via SDK, all requests for this event will be shown as “Unplanned” on Validation and a warning message will be shown.
Enter a description by considering the applicable character limitations. Description is an optional field.
Select a category (this is not mandatory; if it is not selected, the event is automatically listed as “uncategorized”)
Add segmentation (this is not mandatory) to your events if it needed and desired, by clicking on Add more.
Enter the Segmentation key.
Set the type of each segmentation.
Check the “Required” option if segmentation is mandatory.
Enter segmentation description. Make this field mandatory if the “Required” option is checked. Save changes.
New events are listed with Created status.
Deleting an Event
Available in both Countly Lite and Countly Enterprise. Deleting an event:
Permanently removes its historical data
Removes it from reporting and query builders (e.g., Drill)
Prevents future querying of that event
If the same event key is sent again via SDK after deletion, data collection restarts from zero.
Deleted events do not appear in filters or query builders. In Enterprise Edition, newly received data for a deleted event may appear as Unplanned.
Editing and Managing Events
Editable fields include:
Display name
Description
Category
Status
Event property labels
Visibility
Omit Segments (to exclude segment data from aggregated reporting)
The event key cannot be modified after it is created.
Updating an Event
Open the event drawer via the ellipsis menu.
Select Edit.
Update the required fields.
Click Save.
Changing the event status also updates the segmentation status, unless it is modified separately in the Segmentation tab.
Omit Segments excludes segmentation data from aggregated reports to improve performance.
Category, status, and visibility can also be updated via bulk selection from the action bar.
Transformation
Transformation on Events can be applied to merge events. Event transformation allows users to merge multiple events or merge into one if an event already exists. It is simply renaming one event as another, as in, changing the event key to another event key. If these events have different segmentations from the events that will be merged, then these events’ segmentations simply add as a new segmentation to the event. But if the segmentations are the same, then the first one’s description is used for listing and reporting.
Two transformation types are supported:
Rename
Merge
Transformations can be applied to:
Events
Event Segmentations
Custom User Properties
This process is retroactive so when the transformation is applied, historical data and new data will be updated. It provides the ability to correct any mistakes on implementation or easy re-structuring of data on UI without the need for any effort on the code side or running a script.
Transformation is Irreversible, so it cannot be reversed for existing data. Transformation can be disabled from the UI, but historical raw data cannot be reversed. Only new incoming data will be updated when the transformation is disabled.
You can merge events in either of the following ways:
Merging by selecting events (for existing events)
This is useful for merging a few events into an existing event or a new event name. You can select the event from the dropdown and merge the selected events to this existing event. To use this method, follow the below steps:
-
Click the Create New button and then click on Create New Transformation
Select the Merge by selecting events option
Select the events
Select the event that will be used to rename and merge selected events
Click the Save button to complete the transformation.
Merging by Regex
If you need to merge multiple events into one event, like renaming 1200 event keys and merging them to a new event or existing event, it would be easier to do so by regex, rather than handling each case separately.
This option allows you to rename multiple event keys by Regular expressions instead of selecting them manually. Events are selected by regex for event keys and changed with the provided value. As a result, multiple events would be merged. To use this method, follow the steps below:
-
Click the Create New button and then click on Create New Transformation
Select the Merge by Regex option
Enter a regular expression in the input field to select event_keys
Then enter the new value you want to use for event_keys and save.
Segmentation Handling During Merge
Matching segmentation keys are merged.
Identical segmentation names are consolidated under a single definition.
Non-matching segmentations are added as new segmentation fields to the target event.
Aggregated and granular reporting reflect the updated structure.
Event Groups
Event Groups allow you to combine multiple events into a single unit for consolidated data analysis. For example, if you have similar events that you track, grouping them together can provide a clearer overview.
When you navigate to the Event Groups tab, you will see the following information:
Bulk Edit
Bulk Edit allows updating event schema definitions using a CSV file.
The fields that can be planned/updated via Event Schema are:
Category
Event Key
Event Display Name
Event Description
Input Field (if required)
Status
The number of Segmentation Event includes
Event Segmentation
Segmentation Description
Segmentation Type
Segmentation Status
Segmentation Is Required
Segmentation Is Array
Segmentation List Options
Segmentation Regex
The Event Schema can be exported, modified, and re-imported.
Updating Status
To update the status, follow the steps below:
Export the Event Schema.
-
Update the Status column with one of:
- Created
- Approved
- Live
- Deleted
- Unplanned
Blocked status must be managed via Filtering Rules.
Upload the updated file.
Preview changes.
Click Publish.
Updating Description, Category, and Input Fields
These fields can be updated via a CSV file by following the below steps:
Type in description or category or input field user-defined to update them.
All input fields are limited to the SDK limits. Don’t use special characters.
If the “Segmentation Required” cell is set to “True” for any segmentation, the description field of that segmentation will be a mandatory field. Therefore, you cannot leave description fields empty for required segmentations.
Empty cells in the Category column will be shown as “uncategorized” on the event overview table on the UI.
Adding New Input Field
Input fields are used to classify events or add descriptions/tags to groups, and for easy identification of them. To add a new input field, you will need to do so by adding a new column. Add a new column for extra definitions or notes by following the steps below:
Add a new column in the CSV file and type in its title (business goal), limited to the SDK limits. All input fields are assumed as input text fields by Countly.
Enter text for each cell to the added input field.
A maximum of 2 new columns can be added. If you add more, only the first 2 of them are imported to the Countly UI. The order of the columns is considered while selecting the input fields from more than 2 columns.