View Google Analytics event value

Question

I'm using GA to track events for an Android App.

I track an event the usual way:

t.send(new HitBuilders.EventBuilder()
.setCategory(getString(categoryId))
.setAction(getString(actionId))
.setLabel(getString(labelId))
.setValue(longValue)
.build());

I can see the event in my reports but I can only see the total amount the event has occured. How can I see a brakedown of all the values I sent?

Answer 1

You can't. That's not what the value argument is for. It's meant to be a metric (what you see on the right side of a report, the thing that gets added up). If you want to see those values individually (as a dimension), you're going to have to restructure what you are sending to include it in category, action, or label.

Update:

But I DO want to use them as a metric. I want to create a custom report with these values as metrices and with another custom dimension I have created. I even asked about it in another question here: stackoverflow.com/questions/30213318/…

Okay, I think you are misunderstanding what the difference between a dimension and a metric is. A dimension tells you the "what",e.g. what event took place or what item was viewed. A metric tells you the "amount", e.g. how many times the event took place or how much a video was consumed.

So, you are putting a specific number as the value for your events, which is a metric, but you are wanting to see the individual values you sent in. That's not what metrics do. If you want to see the individual numbers, this is why I said you need to restructure how you are sending those values in. You need to instead send them in as the category, action, or label. Then you will be able to do what you want, for example:

Let's say I'm creating a custom report or a dashboard. There I can choose the dimension and metrices I want. Is there a way to somehow choose a regular event as the metric? Let's say I got an event with the label "label1" then I want a report with a dimension of date and a metric "label1". Is that possible?

What you can then do is pick the date as a dimension, then choose the category, action, or label as a 2ndary dimension. This will show you how many of one of those happened for a given date. Or you can flip it, e.g. use category as primary dimension and then date as 2ndary and it will show you a breakdown by date.

But you can't put the category, action, or label in the metrics column. That doesn't make sense. As mentioned, metrics show you how many/much of the dimension there is. The only exception is the value part of the event, which is a metric. But the metric column doesn't show you individual values. You can read more about how value shows up in reports, here.

Value is meant to give value to the dimension, e.g. establish order of importance. For example, if you have a registration system in place and a visitor can register for a free or a premium account, from a conversion PoV, a premium registration is more valuable to you. So for e.g. you may give the free registration event a value of 1, but the premium reg a value of 2.

Or, it can be used in other ways, such as recording time consumed for a video, e.g. every 5 seconds a video is played, you pop an event with values e.g. Videos, Some Video Name, Time Consumed and a value of 5. Then you can use that value metric to see things like total/avg time consumed for a given video.

TL;DR: A given event will let you send in 3 dimensions (category, action,label) and a metric (value) to give weight/amount to it. You are attempting to use value as if it were a dimension, when it's not. You are also attempting to use the dimensions as metrics, when they aren't. I think what you really want is to break down one dimension (e.g. "Date") by another dimension (e.g category), and you also need to figure out how to record what you are currently putting into value as one of the dimension args.

Update #2:

I was actually thinking of dimensions and metrices as an SQL table where the dimensions are the primary keys and the metrices are the regular column which will hold the value I will give it when I'm sending the metric. So I wanted to see for example the dimension date and a user id which can not repeat itself and in the metrices columns just see every value I sent.. so it's actually wrong you say.

Ultimately everything is stored in a database, yes, but it's note as simple as being a straight, single table with entries, with simple queries. It's significantly more complex when it comes to analytics.

If I were to compare it to a SQL Table then dimensions (category,action,label) would be columns. Then each row would represent a hit (where you trigger an event), and have values for them, e.g.

Category       Action       Label
Some Category  Some Action  Some Label
Some Category  Some Action  Some Label
Category 2     Some Action  Some Label

Now in reality, the db/table structure looks nothing like this. It's broken up into several tables etc.. but for sake of example this will do.

Now metrics on the other hand would be more like e.g. let's say you use Category as the dimension and just want to see a count of how many times the category values were recorded. So (again, super simplifying it), it'd look something like this:

select Category,count(Category) as `Total Events` from Table group by Category

So in the SQL results you'd have your rows showing your Category values and "Total Events" showing a sum of each one, e.g.

Category            Total Events
Some Category       2
Category 2          1

So that "Category" results column is a dimension, but that "Total Events" results column is a metric. So when you say e.g. "I want to use Label as a metric" well that doesn't make sense, because that's trying to take a value like "Some Category" and use it in an aggregated context, e.g. "Some Category" + "Category 2" = ?? doesn't make sense!

So again, if you want to see the individual values you pass in Value, you will need to track it as a value in Category,Action, or Label (or, you can set a custom variable with your event), and then add it as a dimension in your report.