About event specifications

Specifications define the attributes required for types of events and provide code examples for your installation. Once created, specifications allow the data quality of your events to be validated in real-time using Live Events.

Event specifications represent your data layer in the Customer Data Hub. Events entering the Customer Data Hub are identified by the tealium_event attribute. The value of this attribute represents the name of the event and the specification associated with it.

Event specifications provide two primary benefits for data management:

• To standardize the implementation of events across all platforms.
• To evaluate the data quality of incoming events.

Event data object

Let’s look at an example of an event specification for the event named video_complete, which occurs upon the completion of watching a video.

The tealium_event attribute identifies the type of event, in this case video_complete. The additional attributes provide contextual information about the event and the corresponding event specification defines the required attributes and their expected data types, as shown in the following example.

{
    "tealium_event"  : "video_complete", // name of event and specification
    "video_id"       : "xWlEk2i9r5Q",
    "video_length"   : 300,
    "video_name"     : "How to track videos in Tealium",
    "video_platform" : "YouTube",
}

Code sample

Tracking code for the cart_add event for an iQ Tag Management data source named My iOS App:

Live Events and Feeds

When you create an event specification, a matching event feed is also created. This feed can be configured for data storage or linked to connector actions.

Feeds linked to an event specification cannot be deleted and their names cannot be changed.

Once an event specification is created and the tracking code is implemented, use Live Events to view incoming events in real-time to evaluate their data quality.

Event status

When the system receives an event and the tealium_event attribute matches an event specification, the attributes are compared against the requirements of the specification and marked as valid or invalid.

• Example: Valid cart_empty event

• Example: Invalid cart_empty event due to lack of matching event specification

Event specifications do not filter out data. Even if an event is invalid, the system still processes the event.

For more information, see Event specification display filters.