Import your existing tracking plan

Import your tracking plan from various sources to get started quickly

💡 Import existing tracking specs into Avo to get started quickly. We know that tracking plans come in all shapes and sizes. If you don't see your format below you can try converting your existing spreadsheet to one of our supported formats or reach out and we'll support you.

Read on for:

• What to import
• Where to import from
• Supported formats
• Troubleshooting

What to import

You can import your event schemas, user properties, group properties, and name mapping.

Import Tracking Plan

Import your existing event schemas, aka tracking plan, to get started quickly.

💡 When importing events that already exist in Avo, the importer will only import new properties, categories and tags for the event. The importer will never archive or delete existing events or properties, or remove properties, categories or tags from existing events. You can also import user properties, group properties, and name mapping.

See supported formats for importing event schemas, aka tracking plans.

Import User Properties

💡 User properties are helpful to segment behaviors by current state of users, as opposed to the state at the time of an event trigger. Read about user property use cases and how they work.

See supported formats for importing user properties.

Import Group Properties

💡 Group analytics are important for b2b companies and can be useful in many other cases. Read about group analytics use cases and how it works.

See supported formats for importing group properties.

Import Name Mapping

💡 Different names to different destinations: You might need to send events and properties with different names to different destinations if:

a/ You have legacy event structures in specific analytics tools, which you can't change now because you need to data continuity in these tools.

b/ Analytics destinations require specific event or property names for some functionality.

Read more about name mapping and its use cases.

Reach out if you want to apply a large set of name mappings for event and property names.

Where to import from

Importing from Amplitude

1. Export your Tracking Plan from Amplitude. Open up Govern (at the bottom of the left sidebar) and then click the download arrow:

2. In the popup, select "Schema of all events and their properties" or "Schema of all user properties" and click download:

3. Finally open the Importer from your Avo workspace and drag the downloaded .csv file to the drop zone or click it and select the file:

4. Review your events and properties and finish the import 🎉

Importing from Mixpanel

1. Open up Mixpanel Lexicon (in the top right corner of your Mixpanel workspace click Data Management > Lexicon) and then click the export button:

2. In the popup, select "Events & Properties" and Send CSV. Also check "User Profile Properties" if you want to include user properties:

3. Within few minutes you should receive an email from Mixpanel with a CSV export. Open the Importer from your Avo workspace and drag the downloaded .csv file to the drop zone or click it and select the file:

4. Review your events and properties and finish the import 🎉

Importing from a Google Sheet

Avo supports importing various tracking plan formats. See supported formats for importing tracking plans.

How to import from a Google Sheet

1. Open the sheet containing your Events and Event Properties. Click File > Download > Comma-separated values (.csv)

   

2. Open the Importer from your Avo workspace and drag the downloaded .csv file to the drop zone or click it and select the file:

4. Review your events and finish the import 🎉

Supported Formats

Tracking Plan Import Formats

Following are the spreadsheet formats the Avo Importer currently supports.

We know that tracking plan spreadsheets come in all shapes and sizes. If you don't see your format below you can try converting your existing spreadsheet to one of these formats, by renaming columns etc, or you can reach out to us and we'll get the importing done for you.

Note:

• The order of the columns in your sheet does not matter
• There must be a header row in your sheet with the exact column names as described for one of the format below
• Any additional columns are ignored

You can learn more about common Tracking Plan spreadsheet formats on our blog.

Avo's Ultimate Tracking Plan Template

View example sheet

Required columns

Column Name	Description	Example value
Event Name	The name of your event	App Opened
Event Description	The description of your event	Sent when the user opens the app
Event Category	The category your event belongs to, if any	App Lifecycle
Platforms	The name of the platforms this event should be sent from	iOS, Android, Web
Event Property Name	The name of a property that should be sent with your event	Device Type
Property Description	The description of the property	The type of client user is currently using
Property Value Type	The type of the property	string
Is Property Required?	True if the property should always be sent with your event	true
Is Property Array?	True if property should be array of values	false
Property Enumeration options	Finite list of all values allowed for the property, if applicable	iOS, Android, Web, Desktop, Fire

Optional columns

Column Name	Description	Example value
Pinned Value	The pinned value of the property on this event	iOS

Amplitude Taxonomy Template

View example sheet

Required columns

Column Name	Description	Example value
Event Name	The name of your event	App Opened
Trigger + Event Description	The description of your event and when it should be sent	Sent when the user opens the app
Event Category	The category your event belongs to, if any	App Lifecycle
Platform	The name of the platforms this event should be sent from	iOS, Android, Web
Property Name	The name of a property that should be sent with your event	Device Type
Property Description	The description of the property	The type of client user is currently using
Property Type	Control whether the event should be sent as Event property or User property	Event
Sample Values	List of all values allowed for the property, if applicable	iOS, Android, Web, Desktop, Fire

Mixpanel Tracking Plan Template

View example sheet

Required columns

Column Name	Description	Example value
Event Name	The name of your event	App Opened
Event Definition	The definition of your event and when it should be sent	Sent when the user opens the app
Platform	The name of the platforms this event should be sent from	iOS, Android, Web
Property Name	The name of a property that should be sent with your event	Device Type
Property Definition	The description of the property	The client type
Data Type	The type of the property	string
Sample Values	List of all values allowed for the property, if applicable	iOS, Android, Web, Desktop, Fire

User Property Import Format

CSV format for importing.

💡 Optional: Associate user property to events You can either attach user properties to events or import them without them being attached to events.

1. If you list events in this import that are not already in your tracking plan, Avo will also import those events.

2. If you want to attach user properties to events that are already in your Avo tracking plan, use the event name already in your Avo tracking plan. To reduce probability of import conflict, leave all other event related columns empty.

3. If you want to import user properties without associating them with an event, leave the event related columns empty

Read how user properties work.

Note:

• The order of the columns in your sheet does not matter
• There must be a header row in your sheet with the exact column names as described for one of the format below
• Any additional columns are ignored

Required columns

Column Name	Description	Example value
Event Name	The name of the event the user property should be sent with. Leave empty if you don't want to associate user property with an event.	App Opened
Event Description	The description of your event and when it should be sent. Leave empty event is already in your tracking plan.	Sent when the user opens the app
Event Category	The category your event belongs to, if any. Leave empty event is already in your tracking plan.	App Lifecycle
Platform	The name of the platforms this event should be sent from. Leave empty event is already in your tracking plan.	iOS, Android, Web
Property Name	The name of a property that should be sent with your event	Device Type
Property Description	The description of the property	The type of client user is currently using
Property Type	Control whether the event should be sent as Event property or User property	User
Property Enumeration options	List of all values allowed for the property, if applicable	Email, Phone Number, SSO

Group Property Import Format

CSV format for importing.

Note:

• The order of the columns in your sheet does not matter
• There must be a header row in your sheet with the exact column names as described for one of the format below
• Any additional columns are ignored

Required columns

Column Name	Description	Example value
Group Type	The group type (e.g. "Workspace" if you have a Workspace group)	Workspace
Property Name	The name of the property as you want it sent to the analytics destination	Member Count
Property Description	The description of the property	The number of members of a workspace
Property Value Type	The type of the property	int (see supported types)
Is Property Array?	"Y" or "N" for whether this property is an array of property values	"Y"
Sent with Events	"/" separated list of events with which this group property should be updated	Invite Accepted / Member Removed
Property Enumeration options	Finite list of all values allowed for the property, if applicable	Email, Phone Number, SSO

Troubleshooting

How do I prevent importing duplicates of my properties?

The importer attempts to merge properties from imported events using the following criteria:

• The property name matches
• The property type matches
• The description matches

If these three criteria are not fulfilled, the importer doesn't merge the properties. The reason we decided to include the description in this criteria is that a property that shares a name and a type, can still have a totally different meaning based on the description, and documenting that difference clearly in the tracking plan is critical to ensure everyone share the same understanding of what the property should contain in different context.

In the case where you have aligned your names and types, but the description is different, you can:

• If the properties should be merged and you are in a position to reset your tracking plan: Unify the description in your import file, reset the tracking plan, and re-run the import. This will result in the properties being merged on import.
• If the properties should be merged: Use the "Replace property with..." feature in the context menu of the property modal
• If the properties should not be merged: Provide unique name and descriptions to better differentiate between these properties in the tracking plan

What's next?

Now you have a tracking plan in Avo and it's time to learn how to manage it.