Facebook App Events

Send your event data from RudderStack to Facebook App Events.

9 minute read

Facebook App Events is Facebook’s event tracking functionality which lets you track events via your app or web page, including user activities such as app installation, purchases, etc.

Find the open source transformer code for this destination in the GitHub repository.

Get started

RudderStack supports sending event data to Facebook App Events via the following connection modes:

Connection Mode	Web	Mobile	Server
Device mode	-	Supported	-
Cloud mode	Supported	Supported	-

Once you have confirmed that the source platform supports sending events to Facebook App Events, follow these steps:

From your RudderStack dashboard, add a source. Then, from the list of destinations, select Facebook App Events.
Assign a name to the destination and click Continue.

Connection settings

To successfully configure Facebook App Events as a destination, you will need to configure the following settings:

APP ID: Enter your Facebook App ID. See FAQ for more information on getting your Facebook App ID.

The following settings are applicable only if you are sending events to Facebook using device mode:

Limited Data Use: Enable this setting to send the end user’s country and state information. Facebook processes the user data according to the data regulations set for that region. See Limited Data Use for more information on this setting.

You can allow Facebook to detect your country and state automatically by choosing the Use Facebook to detect Automatically option.

Client-side Events Filtering: This setting lets you specify which events should be blocked or allowed to flow through to Facebook App Events. See Client-side Events Filtering for more information.
OneTrust Cookie Categories: This setting lets you associate the OneTrust cookie consent groups to Facebook App Events.

Add device mode integration

Depending on your platform of integration, follow the below steps to integrate App Events with your app.

Add the following line to your CocoaPodsPodfile:

pod 'Rudder-Facebook'

Initialize the Facebook App Events iOS SDK just before intializing the RudderStack iOS SDK:

[[FBSDKApplicationDelegate sharedInstance] application:application
                             didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:launchOptions];

Send the user’s consent to App Events as shown below:

For Objective-C:

// Set AdvertiserTrackingEnabled to YES if a user provides consent
[FBSDKSettings setAdvertiserTrackingEnabled:YES];
// Set AdvertiserTrackingEnabled to NO if a user does not provide consent
[FBSDKSettings setAdvertiserTrackingEnabled:NO];

For Swift:

// Set AdvertiserTrackingEnabled to true if a user provides consent
Settings.setAdvertiserTrackingEnabled(true)
// Set AdvertiserTrackingEnabled to false if a user does not provide consent
Settings.setAdvertiserTrackingEnabled(false)

Configure your project by adding the following lines to(<dict>...</dict>) in yourInfo.plist :

<key>CFBundleURLTypes</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>CFBundleURLSchemes</key>
<array>
<string>fbAPP-ID</string>
</array>
</dict>
</array>
<key>FacebookAppID</key>
<string>APP-ID</string>
<key>FacebookClientToken</key>
<string>CLIENT-TOKEN</string>
<key>FacebookDisplayName</key>
<string>APP-NAME</string>

Make sure you replacefbAPP-ID ,APP-ID,CLIENT-TOKEN,APP-NAME with the app-specific details from the Facebook for Developers platform.

After adding the dependency, register theRudderFacebookFactory with yourRudderClient initialization as afactory ofRudderConfig. To do this, run the following command to import theRudderFacebookFactory.h file in yourAppDelegate.m file:

#import <rudder-facebook>

Add the RudderStack iOS SDK initialization:

RSConfigBuilder *builder = [[RSConfigBuilder alloc] init];
[builder withDataPlaneUrl:DATA_PLANE_URL];
[builder withFactory:[RudderFacebookFactory instance]];
[RSClient getInstance:WRITE_KEY config:[builder build]];

This device mode integration is supported for Facebook App Events 13.0.0 and above.

InstallRudderFacebookAppEvents (available through CocoaPods) by adding the following line to yourPodfile:

pod 'RudderFacebookAppEvents', '~>; 1.0.0'

Run thepod install command.
Import the SDK depending on your preferred platform:

import RudderFacebookAppEvents

@import RudderFacebookAppEvents;

Add the imports to yourAppDelegate file under thedidFinishLaunchingWithOptions method:

let config: RSConfig = RSConfig(writeKey: WRITE_KEY)
            .dataPlaneURL(DATA_PLANE_URL)
        
RSClient.sharedInstance().configure(with: config)
RSClient.sharedInstance().addDestination(RudderFacebookAppEventsDestination())

RSConfig *config = [[RSConfig alloc] initWithWriteKey:WRITE_KEY];
[config dataPlaneURL:DATA_PLANE_URL];

[[RSClient sharedInstance] configureWith:config];
[[RSClient sharedInstance] addDestination:[[RudderFacebookAppEventsDestination alloc] init]];

Add the repository:

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
}

Add the following lines to yourapp/build.gradle file under thedependencies section:

implementation 'com.rudderstack.android.sdk:core:1.+'
implementation 'com.rudderstack.android.integration:facebook:1.0.0'
implementation 'com.facebook.android:facebook-android-sdk:11.1.0'

Open your/app/res/values/strings.xml file and add the following lines. Replace[APP_ID with your actual app ID.

<string name="facebook_app_id">[APP_ID]</string>
<string name="fb_login_protocol_scheme">fb[APP_ID]</string>

In theapp/manifests/AndroidManifest.xmlfile, add ameta-data element to theapplication element:

<application ...="" android:label="@string/app_name">
  ...
  <meta-data android:name="com.facebook.sdk.ApplicationId" android:value="@string/facebook_app_id"></meta-data>
  ...
</application>

Change the initialization of yourRudderClient in yourApplication class:

val rudderClient = RudderClient.getInstance(
    this,
    WRITE_KEY,
    RudderConfig.Builder()
        .withDataPlaneUrl(DATA_PLANE_URL)
        .withFactory(FacebookIntegrationFactory.FACTORY)
        .build()
)

Identify

For Facebook App Events, RudderStack supports theidentify calls only in mobile device mode.

You can use the identify call to set the userId through the setUserID method from AppEventsLogger.

RudderStack sets the following properties (if available) using the setUserData method.

RudderStack property	Data type	App Events property
`traits.email` `context.traits.email`	String	`em`
`traits.firstName` `context.traits.firstName`	String	`fn`
`traits.lastName` `context.traits.lastName`	String	`ln`
`traits.phone` `context.traits.phone`	String	`ph`
`traits.gender` `context.traits.gender`	String	`ge`
`traits.birthday` `context.traits.birthday`	String	`db`
`traits.city` `context.traits.city`	String	`ct`
`traits.state` `context.traits.state`	String	`st`
`traits.zip` `context.traits.zip`	String	`zp`
`traits.country` `context.traits.country`	String	`cn`

Make sure you pass the above properties in their specific format. Otherwise, RudderStack will ignore them and not map to any Facebook properties.

A sample identify call for an iOS application is shown below:

[[RSClient sharedInstance] identify:@"developer_user_id"
                                 traits:@{@"email": @"bar@foo.com"}];

Track

RudderStack logs the track call to Facebook using the logEvent method of the AppEventsLogger class. It uses the same eventName as you have passed in the track call along with all properties, after converting them into the accepted format.

A sample track call for an iOS application is as shown:.

[[RSClient sharedInstance] track:@"Accepted Terms of Service"
                      properties:@{
                          @"foo": @"bar",
                          @"foo_int": @134
                      }];

Whenrevenue andcurrency are present in the event properties of anytrack call, RudderStack makes aPurchase call to Facebook using itslogPurchase API along with the normaltrack call using thelogEvent API.
Ifcurrency is absent in the event properties, RudderStack sets the default value toUSD.

Supported mappings for iOS v2

This section lists some track event and property mappings which are applicable only when sending events via the iOS v2 device mode.

The following table lists the track event properties mappings between RudderStack and Facebook App Events:

RudderStack property	Facebook App Events property
`product_id`	ContentID
`rating`	MaxRatingValue
`name`	AdType
`order_id`	OrderID
`currency`	Currency
`query`	Query
`description`	Description

The following table lists the ecommerce events mappings between RudderStack and Facebook App Events:

RudderStack event	Facebook App Events event
Products Searched	Search
Products Viewed	View Content
Product Added	Add to Cart
Product Added To Wishlist	Add to Wishlist
Payment Info Entered	Add Payment Info
Checkout Started	Initiate Checkout
Order Completed	Purchase
Promotion Clicked	In-App Ad Click
Promotion Viewed	In-App Ad Impression
Product Reviewed	Rate
Spend Credits	Spent Credits

RudderStack also supports the following Lifecycle events and maps them as it is before sending them to Facebook App Events:

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Page

The page method lets you record your website’s page views with any additional relevant information about the viewed page. You need not pass the event name as RudderStack automatically sets it to Viewed Page.

A sample page call using the RudderStack Android SDK is as shown:

rudderanalytics.page();

Thepage call is directly passed on to Facebook as atrack event via itslogEvent API, with the event name asViewed Page along with the the associated properties.

Screen

The screen call lets you record whenever your user views their mobile screen, with any additional relevant information about the screen.

A sample screen call using the RudderStack Android SDK is as shown:

[[RSClient sharedInstance] screen:@"Home" properties:@{
    @"category" : @"launcher"
}];

In the above snippet, RudderStack captures the information related to the viewed screen, such as screen name and category.

The abovescreen call is directly passed on to Facebook as atrack event via itslogEvent API, with the event name asViewed {screen name} screen along with the the associated properties. The above example will be sent as atrack event with nameViewed Home screen along with its properties.

Limited Data Use

In July 2020, Facebook released a Limited Data Use feature to give businesses better control over how their data is used in their California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) compliance efforts.

Using this, you can send the Limited Data Use data processing parameters to Facebook for each event via RudderStack, so that Facebook can appropriately apply the user’s data choice.

To use this feature, enable the Limited Data Use setting in the RudderStack dashboard and control its behavior via the following data processing parameters:

Parameter	Default Value	Description
Data Processing Options State	`0`	Use Facebook’s geolocation to determine the end-user’s state.
Data Processing Options Country	`0`	Use Facebook’s geolocation to determine the end-user’s country.

Learn more about the different data processing options accepted by Facebook.

This section highlights the different consent-based options for configuring the App Events SDK.

Disable automatically logged events

To disable automatic event logging, open the application’s.plist as code in Xcode and add the following XML to the property dictionary:

<key>FacebookAutoLogAppEventsEnabled</key>
<false></false>

In some cases, you can delay the collection of automatically logged events to obtain user consent or fulfill legal obligations instead of disabling it entirely. To do so, call thesetAutoLogAppEventsEnabled method of theFBSDKSettings class to re-enable auto-logging after the end-user provides the required consent.

In Objective-C:

[FBSDKSettings setAutoLogAppEventsEnabled:YES];

In Swift:

FBSDKSettings.setAutoLogAppEventsEnabled(true)

To suspend event collection for any reason, set thesetAutoLogAppEventsEnabled method toNO for iOS orfalse for Swift:

In Objective-C:

[FBSDKSettings setAutoLogAppEventsEnabled:NO];

In Swift:

FBSDKSettings.setAutoLogAppEventsEnabled(false)

To disable automatically logged events, add the following to yourAndroidManifest.xml file:

<application>
  ...
  <meta-data android:name="com.facebook.sdk.AutoLogAppEventsEnabled" android:value="false"></meta-data>
  ...
</application>

In some cases, you can delay the collection of automatically logged events to obtain user consent or fulfill legal obligations instead of disabling it entirely. To do so, call thesetAutoLogAppEventsEnabled() method of theFacebookSDK class and set it totrue . This re-enables event logging after the end-user has provided the required consent.

setAutoLogAppEventsEnabled(true);

To suspend event logging again for any reason, set thesetAutoLogAppEventsEnabled() method tofalse:

setAutoLogAppEventsEnabled(false);

Disable collection of advertiser IDs

To disable the collection of advertiser ID, open the application’s.plist as code in Xcode and add the following XML to the property dictionary:

<key>FacebookAdvertiserIDCollectionEnabled</key>
<false></false>

In some cases, you can delay the collection ofadvertiser_id to obtain the user consent or fulfill any legal obligations instead of disabling it entirely. To do so, call thesetAdvertiserIDCollectionEnabled method of theFBSDKSettings class and set it toYES for iOS, ortrue for Swift after the end-user provides consent:

In Objective-C:

[FBSDKSettings setAdvertiserIDCollectionEnabled:@YES];

In Swift:

FBSDKSettings.setAdvertiserIDCollectionEnabled(true);

To suspend collection for any reason, set thesetAdvertiserIDCollectionEnabled method toNO for iOS orfalse for Swift.

In Objective-C:

[FBSDKSettings setAdvertiserIDCollectionEnabled:@NO];

In Swift:

FBSDKSettings.setAdvertiserIDCollectionEnabled(false)

To disable collection ofadvertiser-id, add the following code to yourAndroidManifest.xml file:

<application>
  ...
  <meta-data android:name="com.facebook.sdk.AdvertiserIDCollectionEnabled" android:value="false"></meta-data>
  ...
</application>

In some cases, you can delay the collection ofadvertiser_id to obtain user consent or fulfill any legal obligations instead of disabling it entirely. To do so, call thesetAdvertiserIDCollectionEnabled() method of theFacebookSDK class and set it totrue . This re-enables the collection ofadvertiser_id after the end-user provides the required consent:

setAdvertiserIDCollectionEnabled(true);

To suspend collection for any reason, set thesetAdvertiserIDCollectionEnabled() method tofalse:

setAdvertiserIDCollectionEnabled(false)

Disable automatic SDK initialization

To disable automatic SDK initialization in case of the Android SDK, add the following to yourAndroidManifest.xml file:

<application>
  ...
  <meta-data androidname="com.facebook.sdk.AutoInitEnabled" androidvalue="false"></meta-data>
  ...
</application>

In some cases, you can delay the SDK initialization to obtain user consent or fulfill any legal obligations instead of disabling it entirely. To do so, call the class methodsetAutoInitEnabled and set it totrue to manually initialize the SDK after the end-user provides the required consent.

FacebookSdk.setAutoInitEnabled(true)
FacebookSdk.fullyInitialize()

Starting from iOS version 14.5, you need to get the device consent to share data with Facebook by setting the isAdvertiserTrackingEnabled property. Refer to Facebook’s Get device consent documentation for more information.

FAQ

Where do I get the Facebook App ID?

You can find the Facebook App ID by logging into your Facebook Developer account, and navigating to the Home page of your application’s dashboard:

Where do I get the Facebook Client Token?

You can find the Facebook Client Token by logging into your Facebook Developer account and navigating to Settings > Advanced > Security section in the application’s dashboard:

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Facebook App Events

Get started

Connection settings

Add device mode integration

Identify

Track

Supported mappings for iOS v2

Page

Screen

Limited Data Use

Configure App Events SDK based on user consent

Disable automatically logged events

Disable collection of advertiser IDs

Disable automatic SDK initialization

FAQ

Where do I get the Facebook App ID?

Where do I get the Facebook Client Token?