Understanding contact properties and events

Contact properties describe a person. Product events record actions in your application. They are related, but they are managed and queried through different Userorbit surfaces.

Contact properties

Built-in contact fields include identity and delivery state. Custom values can be stored in contact metadata and defined in Contacts → Properties with a name, display name, type, description, and required setting.

Identify and update a person

Call userorbit.identify(userId, options) for a known user. Pass stable attributes in options.attributes, or call setEmail() and setAttribute() after initialization.

Track product events

Call userorbit.track("event-name", properties) for product actions. Track events with stable names and a small, intentional property set. Use Analytics to inspect product events; do not expect every event to appear as an editable contact property.

Use data for targeting

Build a saved segment from contact properties, then select that segment in a supported experience. Test the audience before publishing.