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Bug None Property Value


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Hello everybody!


We have identify we have a too low volume of users in a funnel dashboard that segment 2 audiences via the context page url property. Amplitude says we have 10 users in the variant B meanwhile Analytics says we have around 100 users. (Also, with no need of comparison, we know that the specific page is not receiving only 10 users with any event). 

Research

We have found that Ampltiude is registering around 90% of events such as page view or any events with the property context page url = none . So it has a big impact on our data. (I can share the dashboard with you if you need). Also we see that this event with properties none during this month. So this would underestimate the explanation that is on this amplitude article: https://help.amplitude.com/hc/en-us/articles/360016257391-FAQ-Why-is-this-user-counted-under-none-or-an-unexpected-value- 


First conclussions
Our conclusion is that these none results could be affecting the results on our dashboard. 
Also, we have a test with my user to go to the specific page and check the user look up section. In this case, the context page url is being shown correctly. It appears as a context page url= variant. 

 

​Is there anyone that could offer some ideas here? Someone had a similar experience?​

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Best answer by Denis Holmes 25 August 2022, 12:22

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11 replies

Userlevel 6
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Hi @Marta Catalá ,

 

Thanks for contacting support. It is important to remember that Amplitude is an events-based Platform and so any events we ingest are ingested with the user and event properties at the time they occurred. Our event data is historical and immutable and cannot be changed once ingested. So when you query on some Event A where some_property=X, we are looking for the users who have triggered Event A and some_property was equal to X at the time the event occurred. 

 

If you are seeing none for some users but you are seeing a value at the top of their user profile, this just means that the user currently has the value of X on their profile as this is their most recent event. The none comes from the user not having that property or a value for it at the time the event occurred. 

If you do not wish to see these '(none)' values, then you will need to make sure that the user property you are looking at is set by the time of the event you are looking at.

Can you link me your dashboard and what specific data points you are unsure of or think are wrong? I can then look into this for you but if (none) is being sent a lot, you would need to make sure that you are adding a value to that property when you send the event. I look forward to your reply!

 

Kind Regards,
Denis

 

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Hey Denis,

Let me know if you prefer to talk via private message..

In this dashboard, you can see the 2 variants we try to test. They are segmented by context.url.page property. As you can see the variant B should have context.url.page=erudit.ai/variant. This one has only 10 users. This results is incorrect. 

 

In this dashboard, you can see the group of users with context.url.page=none. In this spreadsheet, you can see the users with none value in this current month. 

Also, what we are seeing now is that when I do any event in the spefic page, the event is triggered in user look ap but the context.url.page is not erudit.ai/variant but erudit/. The specific page is this one. https://www.erudit.ai/variant

Do you know if this none bug could see the reason why we are not getting all the data.

 

Thanks in advance, Denis!

Userlevel 6
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Hi @Marta Catalá ,

 

I took a look at your chart but I do not see any Variant B. I see Variant 1- Human and Variant 1- Product. Is Variant 2 - Product what you are referring to? Please use the exact names in Amplitude so I can assist you better. 

 

I looked at the dashboard here and I see the (none) values. The (none) value is not a bug. As I have said, Amplitude is an events-based Platform and so any events we ingest are ingested with the user and event properties at the time they occurred. If the property is not on the event at the time it occurred, it will be (none). It is also important to note in your funnel that the user segment filters on the funnel will only apply to the first step, and not the entire funnel. If you want it to apply to the entire funnel, you need to add that filter to the subsequent events.

 

If there is a particular User ID/Device ID/Amplitude ID that you can point out that should be in the funnel but is not, I am more than happy to look into it for you so we can ensure you understand the funnel and you are set up for success @Marta Catalá !

 

 

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Hey @Denis Holmes !🤓

Thanks for the help! I am not following you. Maybe I am not interpreting correctly the dashboard. What I see is than during this august week, there are several page events that have been ocurring, so the users have done “page views” in our website. However, that august page views events, bring the property page.context.url with value none. You say “If the property is not on the event at the time it occurred, it will be (none)”, but the property was included in august, as far as I know. 

So, I have some questions: Why the page.context.url has value none? the Event was fired in august, so it would make sense to have any value inside the page.context.url, right? such as erudit.ai/, or erudit.ai/product.

 Which would be the use case of thaat property being none once both event and property exists? Which Page has seen the user to receive non value?

 

Also, related to the context.url property, we are having another issue. 

We are seeing now that when I do any event in the spefic page, “erudit/variant” the event is triggered in user look up but the context.url.page is not erudit.ai/variant but erudit/. If I navigate through other pages, I receive the  context.url.page correctly. This page is being included in a AB test via optimize. Do you know if this is something to do with the fact that we are not receiving the correct  context.url.page, Denis?

Thanks a lot!

 

 

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Also Denis, you can see the context.page.referrer brings more users vs the context.page.url in the case of erudit.ai/variant

I share this with you because I guess it does not make sense. If some page is on referrer is because somehow that page was before the main page of the event fired. So basically context.page.url should have more "events" than the referrer right?

Userlevel 6
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Hi @Marta Catalá !

 

No worries! :) That’s what I am here for. Let’s start making the chart a bit more basic and then we can build ourselves up from there. 

 

Let’s look at this chart. This is showing us the amount of page views on each day since August the 16th. For example, August 16th has 239 page view events with (none) for the context page url. On the same day, the 16th, we had 14 events that day with the value of https://www.erudit.ai/ for the context page url. 

So this chart is showing us for each day since August 16th, what were the values for each context page url for this event. If we look into them, we will find the corresponding values on one of those events. If a user does the event twice in the same day with different context page urls then they would count once under both values. 

Let’s look at August 21st for now. We see 227 users who have (none) for the context page url. So 227 unique users have done this event where they had no context page url when they triggered the event. So let’s look at some examples. We can see on this event that there is no context_page_url attached. Later on that same day, there are events where it has different values, so the person can appear under other context page urls for the same day in that chart. Taking the same user, later in the day, we can see they had a different value for context page url here, namely, https://www.erudit.ai/. 

They have the (none) value because the Page View event had no user property context page url. 

Also, I really want to note that there are two properties of the same name of “context page urls”. One for user and one for events. Please be careful with which one you are choosing. I believe right now you have the user properties one chosen. See screenshot. 

We are seeing now that when I do any event in the spefic page, “erudit/variant” the event is triggered in user look up but the context.url.page is not erudit.ai/variant but erudit/. If I navigate through other pages, I receive the  context.url.page correctly. This page is being included in a AB test via optimize. 

Would you be able to link me the exact user this happened to? Can you also send me the payload from Segment for that event so I can see if Segment sent it correctly with eurdit.ai/variant. Then I can investigate in our back end as to the issue at hand. 

 

I hope the above helps but I believe the user and event properties both named context page urls is causing the most confusion here. 

Kind Regards,
Denis

 

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Thanks @Denis Holmes !

I really appreacite you effort. All this explanation is super useful for me. 

Regarding the latest point about why context.url. /variant, is not appearing, I have attached you a video loom and the user look up url of the event.

Also,  I think what you are commenting about the property context.page.url as an user or event property.

I think I am seeing the user property of context.page.url in the Look up section, Denis. 

But it makes sense for me check the event property. As this property must be related to the event of the page view or click. But if you see the look up section and navigate though an specific event, there is not event property for the context.page.url (just user property): does it make sense to you?

Here you have the look up section url

https://analytics.amplitude.com/erudit/project/293559/search/amplitude_id%3D447175160998

 

Thanks again, Denis

Userlevel 6
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Hi @Marta Catalá ,

 

I do no see any loom attached. Only a screenshot. Yes, I see context.page.url is 

https://www.erudit.ai/ and the referrer is https://www.erudit.ai/variant. So these properties and their values are from either events or identify calls. Have you spoken with your Engineers about this yes Marta? I would recommend you do so. 

I can see context.page.url in the event properties. Please see this specific event. We can clearly see the event has the event property of context.page.url AND a user property of the exact same name. So if you are looking at the event property for context.page.url, it will be event based. Since it is event based, it will be (none) if the property does not have a value at the time of the event.

 

If you think a certain event is wrong, then please link me;
1. The specific event in question.
2. The name and date of the event. 
3. What values you expected?
4. What values are being shown?
5. A payload for the event from your source to show we should have ingested a different value. 

 

Thanks Marta.

 

Kind Regards,
​​​​​​​Denis

 

 

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Hey @Denis Holmes thank you for your reply!

Here is the loom where you can see the property has not a value of /variant although we are interacting with that page. Anyway, it seems I have fix that problem. The reason why the context.url.page was https://www.erudit.ai/ instead of https://www.erudit.ai/variant was the canonical tag we included in the page code.

Anyway, the none value issue continue being a problem for us. But I have understand that I need to talk with our engineering team. 

I have a question about user property though. The user property won’t be updated after the event is triggered? Which are the situations where a user property such as context.url.page can be updated, though?

 

Thanks in advance, Denis.

 

 

Userlevel 6
Badge +8

@Marta Catalá ,

 

A user property will update if it is included in the event payload. It can also be updated with the Identify API at the top of the user profile but the change will not be visible on an event until the next event is sent. 

Focusing on (none) once more, can you link me a chart, and please specify in the greatest detail possible ;
1. The chart link
2. Where do you see (none)? What specific day?
3. Which user ID or Amplitude ID?
4. What did you expect the user to have instead of (none) and why?

Kind Regards,
Denis

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Hey Denis, thanks for the help. I think we must talk with our dev team as this a something related to the event configuration. I really appreaciate your work on here. 

 

Thanks!

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