Setting Up Firebase Analytics Event Custom Parameters (Dimensions And Metrics)
Firebase Analytics is confusing. I have no idea why. Sure, if you just want to log events on iOS and Android it’s pretty easy but if you want custom parameters it’s a pain. It seemed like whatever I did the custom parameters were not showing in the dashboard. This has led me to try all kinds of ways to circumvent Firebase Analytics.
I’ve tried putting the parameter information in the log itself. So instead of added_language I could have added_language_es (es is the iso code for Spanish). This works but it also puts a bunch of random logs in your analytics and you only get a finite number of those.
Then I tried using Firebase Firestore to log events. Firestore is just a NoSQL database. And it’s really easy to use. All you have to do is tell it which table to write to and the key value pairs you want to write. My thinking was this is basically what analytics does anyways so I could try using Firestore to log things.
And this actually works surprisingly well. I was shocked how well this works. When you log something to Firestore it works instantly and you can add whatever parameters you like. There are a few problems like permissions and exporting the data. But the biggest problem is that it’s not automatic so I decided not to go this route. I still use Firestore…
