Report and validate data
Before you report data
Whichever reporting method you use, you need to find the APP_ID of the current project in Settings → Implementation in Project Settings and configure it before reporting, to make sure data is reported to the correct project.
In addition to the APP_ID, you also need to determine the address that data is reported to, namely the SERVER_URL. If you are a SaaS customer, ThinkingAI provides the data receiving URL: https://global-receiver-ta.thinkingdata.cn. If you are an on-premises customer, the ThinkingAI operations team works with your company's operations team to deploy and deliver the data receiving URL, which your company's operations team then manages. You can configure it on the General Management → General Configuration → Data Receiving URL tab in System Settings. The AE system automatically checks the validity of the domain certificate and alerts you when the certificate is about to expire.
Report data
AE supports reporting through the Client SDK and Server SDK, and also supports sending data through the Restful API. The AE system accepts data in JSON format that meets its requirements. Supported data types include number, string, time, Boolean, list, object, and object group. For details, see Data rules. To keep the system flexible, AE doesn't require a predefined table structure, and the data type of a property when it is first reported determines the property type. Therefore, confirm the types with your engineers before reporting to avoid affecting future analysis. If you use a client SDK, we also provide some event properties and user properties that can be collected automatically. See Preset properties. Client SDKs also support two special event types: updatable events and first-event check. You can decide whether to use them based on your business needs. If your project already has historical data before it connects to the AE system, you can also choose to import data. Confirm information such as how the historical data is stored, the import tool, and the conversion logic, and then start importing. The SDKs and data transfer tools of AE are updated continuously. You can find the latest version and update time of each tool in the Data Collection Guide.
Validate data
The AE backend uses zero-latency technology, so data can be viewed in the system as soon as it is received. You can view the latest 1000 stored records and the error details in Real-time Data. You can also view how data for events or user properties in the project has been received over the last 7 days in Event Counts.
In addition to errors in the reported data itself, if you have uploaded a Tracking Plan to the project, you can also validate the quality of stored data in Validation to get information such as the differences between the reported data and the tracking plan and the null rate of properties.
If you report data with a client SDK, you can also turn on Debug mode during testing to troubleshoot data issues more easily. Note that Debug mode is for testing only, and we don't recommend using it outside the testing phase.