Set Up Event Tracking

⏱ 30 minutes intermediate

📜CoreODP

Why event tracking matters

Customer profiles in ODP are only as useful as the data that feeds them. Without event tracking, ODP has no visibility into what your customers are doing — which pages they visit, what products they view, whether they purchase. Segments, personalization, and experiment targeting all depend on events arriving in real time.

This guide walks you through setting up event tracking on both the client side (JavaScript SDK) and the server side (Events API), covering the most common event types.

What you will do

Install the ODP JavaScript SDK on your website
Track page views automatically
Send custom events for key user actions
Track e-commerce events (product views, cart actions, purchases)
Send server-side events via the API
Verify events in the ODP debugger

Install the JavaScript SDK

Add the ODP snippet to your site’s <head> tag. Replace YOUR_API_KEY with your ODP public API key, found in Settings > API Keys in the ODP dashboard.

Add the ODP snippet

<!-- ODP JavaScript SDK -->
<script>
  var zaius = window['zaius'] || (window['zaius'] = []);
  zaius.methods = ['initialize','onload','event','entity',
    'identify','anonymize','dispatch'];
  zaius.factory = function(method) {
    return function() {
      var args = Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments);
      args.unshift(method);
      zaius.push(args);
      return zaius;
    };
  };
  for (var i = 0; i < zaius.methods.length; i++) {
    var method = zaius.methods[i];
    zaius[method] = zaius.factory(method);
  }
  zaius.initialize({ tracker_id: 'YOUR_API_KEY' });
</script>
<script async src="https://d1igp3oop3iho5.cloudfront.net/v2/zaius-min.js"></script>

The SDK loads asynchronously and queues events until it initializes. Events sent before the script loads are not lost.

Track page views

The SDK tracks page views automatically when initialized. Each page load sends a pageview event with the page URL, title, and referrer.

To send a page view manually (for single-page applications where the URL changes without a full page load):

Manual page view tracking

// Track a virtual page view in a SPA
zaius.event('pageview', {
  page_title: document.title,
  url: window.location.href,
  referrer: document.referrer
});

Call this in your router’s navigation handler whenever the route changes.

Track custom events

Custom events capture actions specific to your business — form submissions, video plays, file downloads, feature usage. Every custom event needs an action (the event type) and can include any number of custom properties.

Custom event examples

// Form submission
zaius.event('form_submit', {
  form_name: 'contact_us',
  source_page: '/contact'
});

// Video engagement
zaius.event('video_play', {
  video_id: 'intro-demo',
  video_title: 'Product Introduction',
  duration_seconds: 180
});

// Feature usage
zaius.event('feature_used', {
  feature_name: 'advanced_search',
  filters_applied: 3
});

// Newsletter signup
zaius.event('newsletter_signup', {
  list: 'weekly_digest',
  source: 'blog_sidebar'
});

Naming conventions:

Use snake_case for event actions and property names
Keep action names descriptive but concise (demo_requested, not user_clicked_the_request_demo_button)
Use consistent property names across events (always source_page, not sometimes page and sometimes source)

Track e-commerce events

E-commerce events power purchase-based segments, revenue analytics, and product recommendations. ODP expects a specific structure for product and order data.

E-commerce event tracking

// Product view
zaius.event('product', {
  action: 'detail',
  product_id: 'SKU-1234',
  name: 'Wireless Headphones',
  price: 79.99,
  category: 'Electronics > Audio'
});

// Add to cart
zaius.event('product', {
  action: 'add_to_cart',
  product_id: 'SKU-1234',
  name: 'Wireless Headphones',
  price: 79.99,
  quantity: 1
});

// Remove from cart
zaius.event('product', {
  action: 'remove_from_cart',
  product_id: 'SKU-1234',
  quantity: 1
});

// Purchase
zaius.event('order', {
  action: 'purchase',
  order_id: 'ORD-5678',
  total: 159.98,
  subtotal: 149.98,
  tax: 10.00,
  discount: 0,
  items: [
    {
      product_id: 'SKU-1234',
      name: 'Wireless Headphones',
      price: 79.99,
      quantity: 2
    }
  ]
});

Identify known users

When a visitor logs in, submits a form, or otherwise provides identifying information, link their anonymous session to a known identity:

Identify a visitor

// After login or form submission
zaius.identify({
  email: 'customer@example.com',
  first_name: 'Alex',
  last_name: 'Chen'
});

// With a customer ID from your system
zaius.identify({
  customer_id: 'CUST-9876',
  email: 'customer@example.com'
});

After identification, ODP merges the anonymous browsing history with the known profile. All past events from the same cookie are attributed to the resolved identity.

Server-side event tracking

Some events originate from your backend — order fulfillment, subscription changes, support interactions. Use the ODP Events API to send these directly.

Server-side event tracking via API

const fetch = require('node-fetch');

async function trackEvent(event) {
  const response = await fetch(
    'https://api.zaius.com/v3/events',
    {
      method: 'POST',
      headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        'x-api-key': process.env.ODP_PRIVATE_API_KEY
      },
      body: JSON.stringify(event)
    }
  );

  if (!response.ok) {
    console.error('ODP event failed:', response.status);
  }
}

// Example: track a subscription renewal
trackEvent({
  type: 'subscription',
  action: 'renewed',
  identifiers: {
    customer_id: 'CUST-9876'
  },
  data: {
    plan: 'enterprise',
    annual_value: 12000,
    renewal_date: '2026-03-24'
  }
});

import requests
import os

def track_event(event: dict) -> None:
    response = requests.post(
        'https://api.zaius.com/v3/events',
        headers={
            'Content-Type': 'application/json',
            'x-api-key': os.environ['ODP_PRIVATE_API_KEY']
        },
        json=event
    )
    response.raise_for_status()

# Example: track a subscription renewal
track_event({
    'type': 'subscription',
    'action': 'renewed',
    'identifiers': {
        'customer_id': 'CUST-9876'
    },
    'data': {
        'plan': 'enterprise',
        'annual_value': 12000,
        'renewal_date': '2026-03-24'
    }
})

curl -X POST https://api.zaius.com/v3/events \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'x-api-key: YOUR_PRIVATE_API_KEY' \
  -d '{
    "type": "subscription",
    "action": "renewed",
    "identifiers": {
      "customer_id": "CUST-9876"
    },
    "data": {
      "plan": "enterprise",
      "annual_value": 12000,
      "renewal_date": "2026-03-24"
    }
  }'

Important: Server-side calls use your private API key (not the public tracker ID used in the JavaScript SDK). Never expose the private key in client-side code.

Test and debug events

Use the ODP Event Debugger

Open the ODP dashboard and navigate to Settings > Event Debugger
Trigger events on your site (load a page, click a button, complete a purchase)
Events appear in the debugger within seconds, showing the full payload
Verify that event types, actions, and properties match your expectations

Validate a customer profile

After sending events with an identifier:

Navigate to Customers in ODP
Search for the customer by email or customer ID
Open their profile and check the Activity tab
Confirm that all expected events appear with correct timestamps and properties

Debug common issues

Check the browser console for SDK errors:

Debug SDK initialization

// Check if SDK is loaded
console.log('Zaius loaded:', typeof window.zaius !== 'undefined');

// Enable verbose logging
zaius.dispatch('debug', true);

// Manually send a test event and check the response
zaius.event('test_event', { debug: true });

Troubleshooting

Issue	Cause	Fix
Events not appearing in debugger	SDK not loaded or wrong API key	Verify the snippet is in `<head>` and the tracker ID matches your ODP account
Events appear but customer profile is empty	No identifier sent	Call `zaius.identify()` with email or customer ID before or after events
Duplicate events on page load	SDK initialized multiple times	Ensure the snippet appears only once; check for tag manager conflicts
Server-side events return 401	Invalid or missing API key	Verify `x-api-key` header uses the private API key from ODP settings
Server-side events return 400	Malformed payload	Check that `type` and `action` fields are present and `identifiers` is an object
E-commerce revenue not appearing	Missing `order_id` or `total` field	Purchase events require both `order_id` and `total` in the payload
SPA page views not tracked	SDK does not detect client-side navigation	Call `zaius.event('pageview', {...})` manually on route change

Set Up Event Tracking

Feedback Review

Feedback Dashboard

Question Bank

Why event tracking matters

What you will do

Install the JavaScript SDK

Track page views

Track custom events

Track e-commerce events

Identify known users

Server-side event tracking

Test and debug events

Use the ODP Event Debugger

Validate a customer profile

Debug common issues

Troubleshooting

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Set Up Event Tracking

Feedback Review

Feedback Dashboard

Question Bank

Why event tracking matters

What you will do

Install the JavaScript SDK

Track page views

Track custom events

Track e-commerce events

Identify known users

Server-side event tracking

Test and debug events

Use the ODP Event Debugger

Validate a customer profile

Debug common issues

Troubleshooting