New to Heap: Seeking Advice on API Usage

  • 13 July 2023
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Hello Heap Community,

I'm new to Heap and I'm trying to understand the best ways to use it. I've read about Heap's autocapture feature, but I've also seen that there are APIs available for things like custom events, dynamic user information, user identity, and custom event properties.

As I'm planning my implementation, I'm curious to hear about your experiences:

  1. Custom Events: Have you found it necessary to manually send custom events via the Track API? Could you share examples of the types of events you typically track?

  2. Dynamic User Information: How often do you track dynamic user information, such as login status or changes in user behavior? Do you use the addEventProperties API for this purpose?

  3. User Identity: How do you manage user identity in Heap? Do you use the Identify API to tie together user behavior across platforms, browsers, and devices?

  4. Custom Event Properties: Do you define custom event properties to enrich your dataset? If so, what types of properties do you typically define?

  5. API Integration: How integral are APIs in your usage of Heap? Could you achieve your goals using Heap without APIs?

  6. Data Analysis: Could you share examples of insights you've gained specifically through API-enriched data?

I appreciate any insights you can provide!

1 reply

ellysastanton
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Hi @analytics_noob_96, thanks for submitting these questions! Let me work through answering them one by one:

  1. Custom Events: Have you found it necessary to manually send custom events via the Track API? Could you share examples of the types of events you typically track?

    This Help Center document covers the most Common Use Cases for Custom Events, both Client-side and Server-side.

  2. Dynamic User Information: How often do you track dynamic user information, such as login status or changes in user behavior? Do you use the addEventProperties API for this purpose?

    These reasons can change customer-by-customer, but deciding when to use the addEventProperties API vs. the addUserProperties API comes down to whether this Property is Stateful or Stateless.

  3. User Identity: How do you manage user identity in Heap? Do you use the Identify API to tie together user behavior across platforms, browsers, and devices?

    Utilizing the identify API is the only way to tie User behavior together across different Platforms/Browsers/Devices. We recommend your identify call occur immediately upon login in order to provide the most accurate metrics.

  4. Custom Event Properties: Do you define custom event properties to enrich your dataset? If so, what types of properties do you typically define?

    Again, these may differ customer-by-customer, but we do have this list of industry-specific recommended Custom Events and Properties. Choosing which Properties to implement all depends on your business case, your tech stack, and your analysis needs!

  5. API Integration: How integral are APIs in your usage of Heap? Could you achieve your goals using Heap without APIs?

    Some customers leverage our APIs heavily while others may not! For many customers, the base Heap implementation is enough to quickly get up and running with a comprehensive set of autocaptured data. 

  6. Data Analysis: Could you share examples of insights you've gained specifically through API-enriched data?

    Leveraging the identify API can allow customers to track at-risk customers and their pain points or enable the definition of more robust Segments. Custom events sent in with either server-side or client-side track calls may allow customers to track A/B testing and improve the overall usage of their site.

I hope this was helpful and please do not hesitate to reach back out with any further questions.

Ellysa Stanton (they/them) | Solutions Engineering @ www.heap.io

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