FBAppEvents
This class is no longer available in the most recent version of the SDK.
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Client-side event logging for specialized application analytics available through Facebook App Insights and for use with Facebook Ads conversion tracking and optimization.

Discussion:

The FBAppEvents static class has a few related roles:

  • Logging predefined and application-defined events to Facebook App Insights with a numeric value to sum across a large number of events, and an optional set of key/value parameters that define "segments" for this event (e.g., 'purchaserStatus' : 'frequent', or 'gamerLevel' : 'intermediate')

  • Logging events to later be used for ads optimization around lifetime value.

  • Methods that control the way in which events are flushed out to the Facebook servers.

Here are some important characteristics of the logging mechanism provided by FBAppEvents:

  • Events are not sent immediately when logged. They're cached and flushed out to the Facebook servers in a number of situations:
  • when an event count threshold is passed (currently 100 logged events).
  • when a time threshold is passed (currently 60 seconds).
  • when an app has gone to background and is then brought back to the foreground.

  • Events will be accumulated when the app is in a disconnected state, and sent when the connection is restored and one of the above 'flush' conditions are met.

  • The FBAppEvents class in thread-safe in that events may be logged from any of the app's threads.

  • The developer can set the flushBehavior on FBAppEvents to force the flushing of events to only occur on an explicit call to the flush method.

  • The developer can turn on console debug output for event logging and flushing to the server by using the FBLoggingBehaviorAppEvents value in [FBSettings setLoggingBehavior:].

Some things to note when logging events:

  • There is a limit on the number of unique event names an app can use, on the order of 300.
  • There is a limit to the number of unique parameter names in the provided parameters that can be used per event, on the order of 10. This is not just for an individual call, but for all invocations for that eventName.
  • Event names and parameter names (the keys in the NSDictionary) must be between 2 and 40 characters, and must consist of alphanumeric characters, _, -, or spaces.
  • The length of each parameter value can be no more than on the order of 100 characters.
Inherits from:NSObject
Declared in:FBAppEvents.h
Class Methods
activateApp

Notifies the events system that the app has launched & logs an activatedApp event. Should typically be placed in the app delegates' applicationDidBecomeActive: method.

+ (void) activateApp;
Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
flush

Explicitly kick off flushing of events to Facebook. This is an asynchronous method, but it does initiate an immediate kick off. Server failures will be reported through the NotificationCenter with notification ID FBAppEventsLoggingResultNotification.

+ (void) flush;
Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
flushBehavior

Get the current event flushing behavior specifying when events are sent back to Facebook servers.

+ (FBAppEventsFlushBehavior) flushBehavior;
Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
limitEventUsage

This method has been replaced by [FBSettings limitEventAndDataUsage]

+ (BOOL) limitEventUsage __attribute__((deprecated("use [FBSettings limitEventAndDataUsage] instead")));
Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
logEvent:

Log an event with just an eventName.

ParameterDescription
eventName

The name of the event to record. Limitations on number of events and name length are given in the FBAppEvents documentation.

+ (void) logEvent:(NSString *)eventName;
Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
logEvent:parameters:

Log an event with an eventName and a set of key/value pairs in the parameters dictionary. Parameter limitations are described above.

ParameterDescription
eventName

The name of the event to record. Limitations on number of events and name construction are given in the FBAppEvents documentation. Common event names are provided in FBAppEventName* constants.

parameters

Arbitrary parameter dictionary of characteristics. The keys to this dictionary must be NSString's, and the values are expected to be NSString or NSNumber. Limitations on the number of parameters and name construction are given in the FBAppEvents documentation. Commonly used parameter names are provided in FBAppEventParameterName* constants.

+ (void)
logEvent: (NSString *)eventName
parameters: (NSDictionary *)parameters;
Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
logEvent:valueToSum:

Log an event with an eventName and a numeric value to be aggregated with other events of this name.

ParameterDescription
eventName

The name of the event to record. Limitations on number of events and name length are given in the FBAppEvents documentation. Common event names are provided in FBAppEventName* constants.

valueToSum

Amount to be aggregated into all events of this eventName, and App Insights will report the cumulative and average value of this amount.

+ (void)
logEvent: (NSString *)eventName
valueToSum: (double)valueToSum;
Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
logEvent:valueToSum:parameters:

Log an event with an eventName, a numeric value to be aggregated with other events of this name, and a set of key/value pairs in the parameters dictionary.

ParameterDescription
eventName

The name of the event to record. Limitations on number of events and name construction are given in the FBAppEvents documentation. Common event names are provided in FBAppEventName* constants.

valueToSum

Amount to be aggregated into all events of this eventName, and App Insights will report the cumulative and average value of this amount.

parameters

Arbitrary parameter dictionary of characteristics. The keys to this dictionary must be NSString's, and the values are expected to be NSString or NSNumber. Limitations on the number of parameters and name construction are given in the FBAppEvents documentation. Commonly used parameter names are provided in FBAppEventParameterName* constants.

+ (void)
logEvent: (NSString *)eventName
valueToSum: (double)valueToSum
parameters: (NSDictionary *)parameters;
Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
logEvent:valueToSum:parameters:session:

Log an event with an eventName, a numeric value to be aggregated with other events of this name, and a set of key/value pairs in the parameters dictionary. Providing session lets the developer target a particular FBSession. If nil is provided, then [FBSession activeSession] will be used.

ParameterDescription
eventName

The name of the event to record. Limitations on number of events and name construction are given in the FBAppEvents documentation. Common event names are provided in FBAppEventName* constants.

valueToSum

Amount to be aggregated into all events of this eventName, and App Insights will report the cumulative and average value of this amount. Note that this is an NSNumber, and a value of nil denotes that this event doesn't have a value associated with it for summation.

parameters

Arbitrary parameter dictionary of characteristics. The keys to this dictionary must be NSString's, and the values are expected to be NSString or NSNumber. Limitations on the number of parameters and name construction are given in the FBAppEvents documentation. Commonly used parameter names are provided in FBAppEventParameterName* constants.

session

to direct the event logging to, and thus be logged with whatever user (if any) is associated with that .

+ (void)
logEvent: (NSString *)eventName
valueToSum: (NSNumber *)valueToSum
parameters: (NSDictionary *)parameters
session: (FBSession *)session;
Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
logPurchase:currency:

Log a purchase of the specified amount, in the specified currency.

ParameterDescription
purchaseAmount

Purchase amount to be logged, as expressed in the specified currency. This value will be rounded to the thousandths place (e.g., 12.34567 becomes 12.346).

currency

Currency, is denoted as, e.g. "USD", "EUR", "GBP". See ISO-4217 for specific values. One reference for these is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_4217.

+ (void)
logPurchase: (double)purchaseAmount
currency: (NSString *)currency;
Discussion:

This event immediately triggers a flush of the FBAppEvents event queue, unless the flushBehavior is set to FBAppEventsFlushBehaviorExplicitOnly.

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
logPurchase:currency:parameters:

Log a purchase of the specified amount, in the specified currency, also providing a set of additional characteristics describing the purchase.

ParameterDescription
purchaseAmount

Purchase amount to be logged, as expressed in the specified currency.This value will be rounded to the thousandths place (e.g., 12.34567 becomes 12.346).

currency

Currency, is denoted as, e.g. "USD", "EUR", "GBP". See ISO-4217 for specific values. One reference for these is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_4217.

parameters

Arbitrary parameter dictionary of characteristics. The keys to this dictionary must be NSString's, and the values are expected to be NSString or NSNumber. Limitations on the number of parameters and name construction are given in the FBAppEvents documentation. Commonly used parameter names are provided in FBAppEventParameterName* constants.

+ (void)
logPurchase: (double)purchaseAmount
currency: (NSString *)currency
parameters: (NSDictionary *)parameters;
Discussion:

This event immediately triggers a flush of the FBAppEvents event queue, unless the flushBehavior is set to FBAppEventsFlushBehaviorExplicitOnly.

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
logPurchase:currency:parameters:session:

Log a purchase of the specified amount, in the specified currency, also providing a set of additional characteristics describing the purchase, as well as an FBSession to log to.

ParameterDescription
purchaseAmount

Purchase amount to be logged, as expressed in the specified currency.This value will be rounded to the thousandths place (e.g., 12.34567 becomes 12.346).

currency

Currency, is denoted as, e.g. "USD", "EUR", "GBP". See ISO-4217 for specific values. One reference for these is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_4217.

parameters

Arbitrary parameter dictionary of characteristics. The keys to this dictionary must be NSString's, and the values are expected to be NSString or NSNumber. Limitations on the number of parameters and name construction are given in the FBAppEvents documentation. Commonly used parameter names are provided in FBAppEventParameterName* constants.

session

to direct the event logging to, and thus be logged with whatever user (if any) is associated with that . A value of nil will use [FBSession activeSession].

+ (void)
logPurchase: (double)purchaseAmount
currency: (NSString *)currency
parameters: (NSDictionary *)parameters
session: (FBSession *)session;
Discussion:

This event immediately triggers a flush of the FBAppEvents event queue, unless the flushBehavior is set to FBAppEventsFlushBehaviorExplicitOnly.

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
setFlushBehavior:

Set the current event flushing behavior specifying when events are sent back to Facebook servers.

ParameterDescription
flushBehavior

The desired FBAppEventsFlushBehavior to be used.

+ (void) setFlushBehavior:(FBAppEventsFlushBehavior)flushBehavior;
Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
setLimitEventUsage:

This method has been replaced by [FBSettings setLimitEventUsage]

+ (void) setLimitEventUsage:(BOOL)limitEventUsage __attribute__((deprecated("use [FBSettings setLimitEventAndDataUsage] instead")));
Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
Constants
FBAppEventNameAchievedLevel
extern NSString *const FBAppEventNameAchievedLevel;
Discussion:

Log this event when the user has achieved a level in the app.

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
FBAppEventNameActivatedApp
extern NSString *const FBAppEventNameActivatedApp;
Discussion:

Log this event when an app is being activated, typically in the AppDelegate's applicationDidBecomeActive.

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
FBAppEventNameAddedPaymentInfo
extern NSString *const FBAppEventNameAddedPaymentInfo;
Discussion:

Log this event when the user has entered their payment info.

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
FBAppEventNameAddedToCart
extern NSString *const FBAppEventNameAddedToCart;
Discussion:

Log this event when the user has added an item to their cart. The valueToSum passed to logEvent should be the item's price.

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
FBAppEventNameAddedToWishlist
extern NSString *const FBAppEventNameAddedToWishlist;
Discussion:

Log this event when the user has added an item to their wishlist. The valueToSum passed to logEvent should be the item's price.

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
FBAppEventNameCompletedRegistration
extern NSString *const FBAppEventNameCompletedRegistration;
Discussion:

Log this event when a user has completed registration with the app.

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
FBAppEventNameCompletedTutorial
extern NSString *const FBAppEventNameCompletedTutorial;
Discussion:

Log this event when the user has completed a tutorial in the app.

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
FBAppEventNameInitiatedCheckout
extern NSString *const FBAppEventNameInitiatedCheckout;
Discussion:

Log this event when the user has entered the checkout process. The valueToSum passed to logEvent should be the total price in the cart.

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
FBAppEventNamePurchased
extern NSString *const FBAppEventNamePurchased;
Discussion:

Log this event when the user has completed a purchase. The [FBAppEvents logPurchase] method is a shortcut for logging this event.

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
FBAppEventNameRated
extern NSString *const FBAppEventNameRated;
Discussion:

Log this event when the user has rated an item in the app. The valueToSum passed to logEvent should be the numeric rating.

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
FBAppEventNameSearched
extern NSString *const FBAppEventNameSearched;
Discussion:

Log this event when a user has performed a search within the app.

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
FBAppEventNameSpentCredits
extern NSString *const FBAppEventNameSpentCredits;
Discussion:

Log this event when the user has spent app credits. The valueToSum passed to logEvent should be the number of credits spent.

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
FBAppEventNameUnlockedAchievement
extern NSString *const FBAppEventNameUnlockedAchievement;
Discussion:

Log this event when the user has unlocked an achievement in the app.

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
FBAppEventNameViewedContent
extern NSString *const FBAppEventNameViewedContent;
Discussion:

Log this event when a user has viewed a form of content in the app.

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
FBAppEventParameterNameContentID
extern NSString *const FBAppEventParameterNameContentID;
Discussion:

Parameter key used to specify an ID for the specific piece of content being logged about. Could be an EAN, article identifier, etc., depending on the nature of the app.

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
FBAppEventParameterNameContentType
extern NSString *const FBAppEventParameterNameContentType;
Discussion:

Parameter key used to specify a generic content type/family for the logged event, e.g. "music", "photo", "video". Options to use will vary based upon what the app is all about.

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
FBAppEventParameterNameCurrency
extern NSString *const FBAppEventParameterNameCurrency;
Discussion:

Parameter key used to specify currency used with logged event. E.g. "USD", "EUR", "GBP". See ISO-4217 for specific values. One reference for these is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_4217.

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
FBAppEventParameterNameDescription
extern NSString *const FBAppEventParameterNameDescription;
Discussion:

Parameter key used to specify a description appropriate to the event being logged. E.g., the name of the achievement unlocked in the FBAppEventNameAchievementUnlocked event.

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
FBAppEventParameterNameLevel
extern NSString *const FBAppEventParameterNameLevel;
Discussion:

Parameter key used to specify the level achieved in a FBAppEventNameAchieved event.

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
FBAppEventParameterNameMaxRatingValue
extern NSString *const FBAppEventParameterNameMaxRatingValue;
Discussion:

Parameter key used to specify the maximum rating available for the FBAppEventNameRate event. E.g., "5" or "10".

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
FBAppEventParameterNameNumItems
extern NSString *const FBAppEventParameterNameNumItems;
Discussion:

Parameter key used to specify how many items are being processed for an FBAppEventNameInitiatedCheckout or FBAppEventNamePurchased event.

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
FBAppEventParameterNamePaymentInfoAvailable
extern NSString *const FBAppEventParameterNamePaymentInfoAvailable;
Discussion:

Parameter key used to specify whether payment info is available for the FBAppEventNameInitiatedCheckout event. FBAppEventParameterValueYes and FBAppEventParameterValueNo are good canonical values to use for this parameter.

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
FBAppEventParameterNameRegistrationMethod
extern NSString *const FBAppEventParameterNameRegistrationMethod;
Discussion:

Parameter key used to specify method user has used to register for the app, e.g., "Facebook", "email", "Twitter", etc

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
FBAppEventParameterNameSearchString
extern NSString *const FBAppEventParameterNameSearchString;
Discussion:

Parameter key used to specify the string provided by the user for a search operation.

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
FBAppEventParameterNameSuccess
extern NSString *const FBAppEventParameterNameSuccess;
Discussion:

Parameter key used to specify whether the activity being logged about was successful or not. FBAppEventParameterValueYes and FBAppEventParameterValueNo are good canonical values to use for this parameter.

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
FBAppEventParameterValueNo
extern NSString *const FBAppEventParameterValueNo;
Discussion:

No-valued parameter value to be used with parameter keys that need a Yes/No value

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
FBAppEventParameterValueYes
extern NSString *const FBAppEventParameterValueYes;
Discussion:

Yes-valued parameter value to be used with parameter keys that need a Yes/No value

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
FBAppEventsLoggingResultNotification
extern NSString *const FBAppEventsLoggingResultNotification;
Discussion:

NSNotificationCenter name indicating a result of a failed log flush attempt

Declared In: FBAppEvents.h
Typedefs
FBAppEventsFlushBehavior enum

Control when FBAppEvents sends log events to the server

typedef enum {
FBAppEventsFlushBehaviorAuto,
FBAppEventsFlushBehaviorExplicitOnly,
} FBAppEventsFlushBehavior;
Declared In: FBAppEvents.h