Inherits from NSObject
Declared in FBSDKAppEvents.h

Overview

@class FBSDKAppEvents

@abstract 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 FBSDKAppEvents 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 FBSDKAppEvents:

  • 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 15 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 FBSDKAppEvents class is thread-safe in that events may be logged from any of the app’s threads.

  • The developer can set the flushBehavior on FBSDKAppEvents 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 FBSDKLoggingBehaviorAppEvents 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 1000.
  • 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 25. 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.

Class Methods

activateApp

@abstract Notifies the events system that the app has launched and, when appropriate, logs an “activated app” event. Should typically be placed in the app delegates' applicationDidBecomeActive: method.

+ (void)activateApp

Discussion

This method also takes care of logging the event indicating the first time this app has been launched, which, among other things, is used to track user acquisition and app install ads conversions.

@discussion activateApp will not log an event on every app launch, since launches happen every time the app is backgrounded and then foregrounded. “activated app” events will be logged when the app has not been active for more than 60 seconds. This method also causes a “deactivated app” event to be logged when sessions are “completed”, and these events are logged with the session length, with an indication of how much time has elapsed between sessions, and with the number of background/foreground interruptions that session had. This data is all visible in your app’s App Events Insights.

Declared In

FBSDKAppEvents.h

flush

@abstract 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 FBSDKAppEventsLoggingResultNotification.

+ (void)flush

Declared In

FBSDKAppEvents.h

flushBehavior

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

+ (FBSDKAppEventsFlushBehavior)flushBehavior

Declared In

FBSDKAppEvents.h

logEvent:

@abstract Log an event with just an eventName.

+ (void)logEvent:(NSString *)eventName

Parameters

eventName

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

Declared In

FBSDKAppEvents.h

logEvent:parameters:

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

+ (void)logEvent:(NSString *)eventName parameters:(NSDictionary *)parameters

Parameters

eventName

The name of the event to record. Limitations on number of events and name construction are given in the FBSDKAppEvents 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 FBSDKAppEvents documentation. Commonly used parameter names are provided in FBSDKAppEventParameterName* constants.

Declared In

FBSDKAppEvents.h

logEvent:valueToSum:

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

+ (void)logEvent:(NSString *)eventName valueToSum:(double)valueToSum

Parameters

eventName

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

Declared In

FBSDKAppEvents.h

logEvent:valueToSum:parameters:

@abstract 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.

+ (void)logEvent:(NSString *)eventName valueToSum:(double)valueToSum parameters:(NSDictionary *)parameters

Parameters

eventName

The name of the event to record. Limitations on number of events and name construction are given in the FBSDKAppEvents 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 FBSDKAppEvents documentation. Commonly used parameter names are provided in FBSDKAppEventParameterName* constants.

Declared In

FBSDKAppEvents.h

logEvent:valueToSum:parameters:accessToken:

@abstract 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 . If nil is provided, then [FBSession activeSession] will be used.

+ (void)logEvent:(NSString *)eventName valueToSum:(NSNumber *)valueToSum parameters:(NSDictionary *)parameters accessToken:(FBSDKAccessToken *)accessToken

Parameters

eventName

The name of the event to record. Limitations on number of events and name construction are given in the FBSDKAppEvents 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 FBSDKAppEvents documentation. Commonly used parameter names are provided in FBSDKAppEventParameterName* constants.

accessToken

The optional access token to log the event as.

Declared In

FBSDKAppEvents.h

logPurchase:currency:

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

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

Parameters

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.

Discussion

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

Declared In

FBSDKAppEvents.h

logPurchase:currency:parameters:

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

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

Parameters

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 FBSDKAppEvents documentation. Commonly used parameter names are provided in FBSDKAppEventParameterName* constants.

Discussion

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

Declared In

FBSDKAppEvents.h

logPurchase:currency:parameters:accessToken:

@abstract 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 to log to.

+ (void)logPurchase:(double)purchaseAmount currency:(NSString *)currency parameters:(NSDictionary *)parameters accessToken:(FBSDKAccessToken *)accessToken

Parameters

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 FBSDKAppEvents documentation. Commonly used parameter names are provided in FBSDKAppEventParameterName* constants.

accessToken

The optional access token to log the event as.

Discussion

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

Declared In

FBSDKAppEvents.h

logPushNotificationOpen:

@abstract Log an app event that tracks that the application was open via Push Notification.

+ (void)logPushNotificationOpen:(NSDictionary *)payload

Parameters

payload

Notification payload received via UIApplicationDelegate.

Declared In

FBSDKAppEvents.h

logPushNotificationOpen:action:

@abstract Log an app event that tracks that a custom action was taken from a push notification.

+ (void)logPushNotificationOpen:(NSDictionary *)payload action:(NSString *)action

Parameters

payload

Notification payload received via UIApplicationDelegate.

action

Name of the action that was taken.

Declared In

FBSDKAppEvents.h

loggingOverrideAppID

@abstract Get the ‘override’ App ID for App Event logging.

+ (NSString *)loggingOverrideAppID

Declared In

FBSDKAppEvents.h

requestForCustomAudienceThirdPartyIDWithAccessToken:

@abstract Creates a request representing the Graph API call to retrieve a Custom Audience “third party ID” for the app’s Facebook user. Callers will send this ID back to their own servers, collect up a set to create a Facebook Custom Audience with, and then use the resultant Custom Audience to target ads.

+ (FBSDKGraphRequest *)requestForCustomAudienceThirdPartyIDWithAccessToken:(FBSDKAccessToken *)accessToken

Parameters

accessToken

The access token to use to establish the user’s identity for users logged into Facebook through this app. If nil, then the [FBSDKAccessToken currentAccessToken] is used.

Discussion

@discussion The JSON in the request’s response will include an “custom_audience_third_party_id” key/value pair, with the value being the ID retrieved. This ID is an encrypted encoding of the Facebook user’s ID and the invoking Facebook app ID. Multiple calls with the same user will return different IDs, thus these IDs cannot be used to correlate behavior across devices or applications, and are only meaningful when sent back to Facebook for creating Custom Audiences.

The ID retrieved represents the Facebook user identified in the following way: if the specified access token is valid, the ID will represent the user associated with that token; otherwise the ID will represent the user logged into the native Facebook app on the device. If there is no native Facebook app, no one is logged into it, or the user has opted out at the iOS level from ad tracking, then a nil ID will be returned.

This method returns nil if either the user has opted-out (via iOS) from Ad Tracking, the app itself has limited event usage via the [FBSDKSettings limitEventAndDataUsage] flag, or a specific Facebook user cannot be identified.

Declared In

FBSDKAppEvents.h

setFlushBehavior:

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

+ (void)setFlushBehavior:(FBSDKAppEventsFlushBehavior)flushBehavior

Parameters

flushBehavior

The desired FBSDKAppEventsFlushBehavior to be used.

Declared In

FBSDKAppEvents.h

setLoggingOverrideAppID:

@abstract Set the ‘override’ App ID for App Event logging.

+ (void)setLoggingOverrideAppID:(NSString *)appID

Parameters

appID

The Facebook App ID to be used for App Event logging.

Discussion

@discussion In some cases, apps want to use one Facebook App ID for login and social presence and another for App Event logging. (An example is if multiple apps from the same company share an app ID for login, but want distinct logging.) By default, this value is nil, and defers to the FBSDKAppEventsOverrideAppIDBundleKey plist value. If that’s not set, it defaults to [FBSDKSettings appID].

This should be set before any other calls are made to FBSDKAppEvents. Thus, you should set it in your application delegate’s application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: delegate.

Declared In

FBSDKAppEvents.h

setPushNotificationsDeviceToken:

@abstract Sets a device token to register the current application installation for push notifications.

+ (void)setPushNotificationsDeviceToken:(NSData *)deviceToken

Parameters

deviceToken

Device token data.

Discussion

@discussion Sets a device token from NSData representation that you get from UIApplicationDelegate.-application:didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken:.

Declared In

FBSDKAppEvents.h