Event dictionary guide

NOTE: The event dictionary is a work in progress, and this process is subject to change.

This guide describes the event dictionary and how it's implemented.

Event definition and validation

This process is meant to document all Snowplow events and ensure consistency. Every Snowplow event needs to have such a definition. Event definitions must comply with the JSON Schema.

All event definitions are stored in the following directories:

Each event is defined in a separate YAML file consisting of the following fields:

Field	Required	Additional information
`description`	yes	A description of the event.
`category`	yes	The event category (see Event schema).
`action`	yes	The event action (see Event schema).
`label_description`	no	A description of the event label (see Event schema).
`property_description`	no	A description of the event property (see Event schema).
`value_description`	no	A description of the event value (see Event schema).
`extra_properties`	no	The type and description of each extra property sent with the event.
`identifiers`	no	A list of identifiers sent with the event. Can be set to one or more of `project`, `user`, or `namespace`.
`iglu_schema_url`	no	The URL to the custom schema sent with the event, for example, `iglu:com.gitlab/gitlab_experiment/jsonschema/1-0-0`.
`product_section`	yes	The section.
`product_stage`	no	The stage for the event.
`product_group`	yes	The group that owns the event.
`milestone`	no	The milestone when the event is introduced.
`introduced_by_url`	no	The URL to the merge request that introduced the event.
`distributions`	yes	The distributions where the tracked feature is available. Can be set to one or more of `ce` or `ee`.
`tiers`	yes	The tiers where the tracked feature is available. Can be set to one or more of `free`, `premium`, or `ultimate`.

Example event definition

The linked uuid YAML file includes an example event definition.

description: Issue promoted to epic
category: epics
action: promote
property_description: The string "issue_id"
value_description: ID of the issue
extra_properties:
  weight:
    type: integer
    description: Weight of the issue
identifiers:
- project
- user
- namespace
product_section: dev
product_stage: plan
product_group: group::product planning
milestone: "11.10"
introduced_by_url: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/merge_requests/10537
distributions:
- ee
tiers:
- premium
- ultimate

Create a new event definition

Use the dedicated event definition generator to create new event definitions.

The category and action of each event are included in the filename to standardize file naming.

The generator takes three options:

--ee: Indicates if the event is for EE.
--category=CATEGORY: Indicates the category of the event.
--action=ACTION: Indicates the action of the event.

bundle exec rails generate gitlab:snowplow_event_definition --category Groups::EmailCampaignsController --action click
create  create  config/events/groups__email_campaigns_controller_click.yml