Mixpanel

Mixpanel

Projects in Mixpanel have a lexicon which is "a data dictionary that stores descriptions of events and their properties". The lexicon needs to be updated when new events are added.

• Terra Analytics Dev
• Terra Analytics Prod

Note: Only project owners and admins are able to add and manage descriptions in Lexicon. If you don’t have the right account roles to make changes, ping the #mixpanel-help slack channel

Naming an event or property

1. Check to see if the event or property already exists in the lexicon.
2. Use established naming conventions in the lexicon.
3. Give the event or property a descriptive name.

Documenting an event

1. Every event and property must be documented in the lexicon.
2. Every event must be marked as expected.

As of September 2022, the Terra Analytics projects are configured to use the Data Audit tool to "Hide unexpected events and properties from reports" by default. This prevents garbage data from penetration testing or other hacking attempts from skewing reports. As a result, new events must be marked as expected when they are added. This applies to any new event, including page view events for new pages.

Events can be marked as expected by finding them in the Data Audit section of the lexicon under "unexpected events." Complete instructions (Slack thread for video):

1. Go to the silo-and-gear icon at upper right, which says "Data Management" on hover; click it
2. Ensure you see a "Data Audit" in the dropdown menu.
3. If you don't see that, then ensure you're an Admin; simply asking in #mixpanel-help with a brief use case often suffices
4. Click "Data Audit"
5. In the Data Audit page, click "Search Unexpected Events", and enter the name of your event
6. Confirm your event is now shown in the table below
7. Click the ellipsis-button at right in the row for your event
8. Click "Mark as Expected"
9. Wait, up to ~1 day, for that change to be reflected throughout Mixpanel. This lag is a known issue.

NB: events won't show up in prod until they are triggered IN PROD, so you will need to wait for your change to be deployed before you can mark events as expected in the prod project.

• Data Audit Dev
• Data Audit Prod

You can also find the unexpected events list by clicking on the database icon, and selecting "data audit" for whichever project you are updating. You should be sure to do this for both dev and prod!