Lexicon Overview

Lexicon is a data dictionary that stores descriptions of events and their properties.

Project owners and admins can add and manage descriptions for all events and properties, and organize data for clarity and discoverability.

In this article, you'll explore the Lexicon user interface and learn how to:

• Add and change event and event property descriptions.
• Filter events and properties.
• Hide or show events and properties.
• Add and change one or more event tags.
• Drop and undrop events and properties.
• Merge or unmerge events and properties.
• Understand query volumes for events and properties.

Exploring Lexicon

This section provides a tour of Lexicon.

To open Lexicon, select the Data Management icon on the right side of the top navigation menu and then select Lexicon.

When you open Lexicon, you see four views:

1. Events
2. Custom Events
3. Event Properties
4. Profile Properties

Events

Events are actions a user performs in your application or website.

This table contains descriptions for each field in the “Events” view. 

Field	Description
Name	The database name of the event.
Display Name	The event name that displays in the Mixpanel interface.
Description	The information that describes the event, such as what triggers it or what properties are sent with it.
Status	The event is either hidden or visible in the Mixpanel project.
Volume	The total number of events that users fired in the last 30 days.
Queries	The total number of API and UI queries that project members executed in the last 30 days.

 

Custom Events

Custom events are events and properties you combine into one event to use in Mixpanel reports.

The fields for custom events are “Name”, “Display Name”, “Description”, and “Queries”.

See the table in Events for field descriptions.

Event Properties

Event properties describe details about events, such as distinct_id or browser.

This table contains descriptions for each field in the “Event Properties” view. 

Field	Description
Name	The database name of the property.
Display Name	The property name that displays in the Mixpanel interface.
Description	The information that describes the property, such as what events it is sent with.
Status	Indicates whether the property is visible or hidden from the Mixpanel interface. Also indicates if the property is dropped, merged, or marked as sensitive.
Events With Property	The total number of events that contain this property in the last 30 days.
Queries	The total number of API and UI queries that project members executed in the last 30 days.

 

Profile Properties

Profile properties describe details about your users, such as username or email address.

This table contains descriptions for each field in the “Profile Properties” view.

Field	Description
Name	The database name of the property.
Display Name	The property name that displays in the Mixpanel interface.
Description	The information that describes the property, such as when it is added or updated in a user profile.
Status	Indicates whether the property is visible or hidden from the Mixpanel interface. Also indicates if the property is dropped, merged, or marked as sensitive.
Users With Property	The total number of profiles that contain this property.
Queries	The total number of API and UI queries that project members executed in the last 30 days.

If you have Group Analytics enabled, you will see a dropdown on the Profile Properties tab that will let you select any Group Types that you may have configured. The default selection will be "User Profiles" which correspond to User properties.

 

Default Properties

Lexicon contains property definitions for the default properties that Mixpanel’s client-side libraries automatically send with each event across web and mobile platforms.

• If you use the Mixpanel JavaScript library for your web implementation, Mixpanel sends this list of properties.

• If you use the Mixpanel Android library for your mobile application, Mixpanel sends this list of properties.
• If you use the Mixpanel iOS Objective C library or the Mixpanel iOS Swift library for your mobile application, Mixpanel sends this list of properties.  

Export and Import Lexicon Data

Mixpanel supports exporting and importing Lexicon data dictionaries.

Learn more about how to export and import data dictionaries here.

Filtering Events, Custom Events, and Properties

Lexicon provides several options for you to filter your events, custom events, event properties, and profile properties.

You can filter by visible or hidden events, dropped events, merged events, tags, your defined events, autotracked events, and default Mixpanel events.

These filtering options help you arrive at the most useful data to analyze your performance.

Filter Events

In the "Events" view, you can filter by:

• All Status: You can select: “Visible Events”, “Hidden Events”, “Dropped Events”, or “Merged Events”. Select “All Status” to filter by the entire status list.
• All Tags: You can select one or more tags. Select “All Tags” to filter by the entire list of tags.
• All Types: You can select: “Your Events”, “Autotracked Events”, or “default Mixpanel Events”. Select “All Types” to filter by the entire events list.

Filter Custom Events

In the "Custom Events" view, you can filter by one or more, or all tags.

Filter Event Properties

In the "Event Properties" view, you can filter by:

• All Status: You can select: “Visible Properties”, “Hidden Properties”, “Dropped Properties”, or “Merged Properties. Select “All Status” to filter by the entire status list.
• All Types: You can select: “Your Events”, “Autotracked Events”, or “default Mixpanel Events”. Select “All Types” to filter by the entire events list.

Filter Profile Properties

In the “Profile Properties” view, you can filter by:

• All Status: You can select: “Visible Properties”, “Hidden Properties”, or “Merged Properties”. Select “All Status” to filter by the entire status list.
• All Types: You can select:  “Your Events”, “Autotracked Events”, or “default Mixpanel Events”. Select “All Types” to filter by the entire events list.
• Profile Type (If Group Analytics Enabled): You can select: "User Profiles" or any Group Profile type.

Viewing Query Volumes for Events and Properties

In each view, you can see the total UI and API queries in the last 30 days for any of these data types and sort by it. 

This data lets you easily discover the parts of your implementation that are most valuable and the parts that are not being used. You can use this information to determine which events and properties you should drop.

Adding or Changing Descriptions

Event and Property Descriptions

In Lexicon, you can add or change descriptive information about your events and their properties.

Events are actions a user performs in your application or website.

Event properties are the specific details that describe the action.

In large implementations of Mixpanel with multiple teams and hundreds of events and properties, it can be difficult for other team members to interpret event information.

Using Lexicon, you can better understand your events because you can add or change event information, track who modified it, and verify whether the current information is accurate.

Lexicon lets you add or change descriptions for:

• Events
• Custom Events
• Event Properties
• Profile Properties

Project owners and admins can add and manage descriptions in Lexicon.

Add or Change Event Details

To add or change events:

1. Select the “Events” view.
2. Click an event to display "EVENT DETAILS".
3. In “EVENT DETAILS”, click the Pencil icon at right side of the property to modify the “Display name”, “Description”, “Tags”, and “Platforms” fields.
   
   You can scroll down to “EVENT PROPERTIES” and add or modify the “Display Name”, “Description”, and “Example Value” fields.
   

Add or Change Custom Event Details

To add or change custom events:

1. Select the “Custom Events” view.
2. Click a custom event to display "EVENT DETAILS".
3. In “EVENT DETAILS”, click the Pencil icon at the right side of the property to modify the “Display Name”, “Description”, “Tags”, and “Platforms” fields.
   
   You can scroll down to “EVENT PROPERTIES” and add or modify the “Display Name”, “Description”, and “Example Value” fields.

Add or Change Event Properties

To add or change event properties:

1. Select the “Event Properties” view.
2. Click an event property to display "PROPERTY DETAILS".
3. In the "PROPERTY DETAILS", click the Pencil icon at right side of the property to add or change the information in the "Display Name", "Description", and "Example Value" fields.

Add or Change Profile Property Details

To add or change profile properties:

1. Select the “Profile Properties” view.
2. Click a profile property to display "PROPERTY DETAILS".
3. In the "PROPERTY DETAILS", click the Pencil icon at right side of the property to add or change the information in the "Display Name", "Description", and "Example Value" fields.
   

Adding Tags to Events

Mixpanel provides tags to help you organize and find your data.

A tag is a label you assign to an event to help you organize and find it. Tags enable you to categorize events and make them easier to find–especially in large Mixpanel implementations with multiple teams.

Event and property definitions that are clear, accurate, and findable reduce the learning curve and help teams get up to speed faster. This feature is particularly useful when a new member joins the team.

Before new members join your project, you can review your event and property definitions for accuracy and add tags to better organize them.

You can add tags to one or more events in the “Events” or “Custom Events” view.

To add tags to an event:

1. In the “Events” or “Custom Events” view, select one or more events. The “Tag” icon appears.
   
2. Click Tag to display the “Tag Selector” box.
   
3. Add or change tags to one or more events:

• To add tags, enter the name of one or more tags in the “Tag Selector” box and click Save. As you add tags, they appear in a searchable list in the “Tag Selector” box.
• To change tags assigned to an event, select one or more tags in the “Tag Selector” box, add or remove tags, and then click Save.

Using Tags in Reports

Tags will show up as filtering options in the event dropdown menu. When you select a tag, a list of events that share the same tag appears.

Use Cases

Suppose your mobile gaming application has hundreds of events and you want to find events that are associated with game purchases.

If you’re new to the project, it could be time-consuming to search hundreds of events to find them. Using Lexicon, you can assign a tag to events that relate to a specific category.

For example, we’ll use a purchases tag for all events and properties that relate to purchasing, such as In-App Purchase or Booster Pack Purchased. The purchases tag makes the search much easier, because the purchase related events are listed under the purchase tag.

In addition to the previous example, tags are useful to identify specific events of interest for certain teams, distinguish events that are relevant to a specific product or service, or indicate events that are associated with certain key performance indicators.

Dropping Events and Properties

In Lexicon, you can intercept and drop incoming events or properties. Mixpanel won’t store any new data for the event or property you select to drop.

When an event is dropped, all events of that type that have previously been ingested (before dropping it) will still show in the interface.

Only project owners can drop events and properties.

Use Cases

Here are some standard use cases for dropping events and properties.

Sensitive data

If you accidentally send sensitive data, such as passwords or credit card information, you can drop the event or property with that data and prevent it from being stored in Mixpanel servers.

Cost and Time Efficiency

Being able to drop events and properties that are no longer useful directly from Lexicon is easier and more efficient than having to implement changes to your code base.

If your app is mobile, it's easier to drop events and properties in Lexicon to submitting your app again and waiting for users to update to the new version.

Better Organization

Events and properties that are no longer useful can cause a cluttered Mixpanel project. Dropping unnecessary events and properties optimizes your code for a clean and streamlined project implementation.

Note: It takes a few hours for Mixpanel to process the dropped event.

Dropping Events

To drop an event in Lexicon:

1. Select an event to drop. The Drop icon appears.
   
   
2. Click Drop. A “Confirm dropping your event(s)” warning indicates you cannot recover the data associated with the event.
   
   
3. Click Drop. The status of the event indicates Dropped.
   

Dropping Properties

To drop a property in Lexicon:

1. Select a property to drop. The Drop icon appears.
   
   
2. Click Drop. A warning indicates that you cannot recover the data that you choose to drop. Click Drop to confirm. The status of the property will indicate Dropped.
   

Undropping Events

You can undrop events and properties when you decide you need them again.

To undrop an event:

1. Select a dropped event. The “Status” column indicates if an event is dropped.
   
   
2. Click Undrop. The “Status” column no longer contains “Dropped”.

Undropping Properties

1. Select a dropped property. The “Status” column indicates if a property is dropped.
   
   
2. Click Undrop. The “Status” column no longer contains “Dropped”.

Hiding and Showing Events and Properties

Hide events and properties to refine filtering options and maintain a clean, organized project.

Project owners and admins can hide events and properties.

Hidden Events will not count towards your metrics in reports.

However, Hidden Events still triggered by your implementation will count towards your billing.

 

Hide Events and Properties

To hide an event or property:

1. Select one or more visible events, event properties, or profile properties. The “Hide” icon appears. You can check the “Status” field to determine whether an event or property is visible or hidden.
   
2. Select Hide. A message appears to allow you to confirm hiding the event(s). After you select Hide, the event or property status changes to “Hidden”.
   

Show Events and Properties

To show an event or property:

1. Select one or more hidden events, event properties, or profile properties. The “Unhide” icon appears. You can check the “Status” field to determine whether an event or property is visible or hidden.
2. Select Unhide. After you select Unhide, the event or property status changes to “Visible”.
   
   

Merging Events and Event Properties

In Lexicon, project owners can merge events and event properties.

Let's suppose your iOS app sends an event named “Purchase”, and your Android app sends an event named “purchase item”. Even though both events have the same function, you have to individually select them every time you build a report.

By merging “Purchase” and “purchase item” into a single event named “Purchase”, you would no longer need to query each event separately since Mixpanel would recognize both “Purchase” and “purchase item” as a unique event.

Being able to merge events can help streamline your implementation, reduce your costs by eliminating redundant events being sent to Mixpanel, and simplify report analysis because you’re only using optimal events and properties.
Do note however that user profile properties cannot be merged at this time.

Merging Events

To merge events:

1. Select the events to merge. The “Merge” icon appears.
   
2. Click Merge. The “Merge Events” window appears. It shows the events you selected and explains that merging the selected events combines them into a single event, which does not affect the raw data.
   
3. In the “MERGE SELECTED EVENTS INTO…” section, specify which event Mixpanel should consider as the new unique event.
   
4. Click Merge. The merged event appears and the “Status” column indicates “Merged”.
   
   

Unmerging Events

To unmerge events:

1. Select the merged event to unmerge. The “Unmerge” icon appears.
   
2. Click Unmerge. The merged event appears as the original two distinct events.

   

Merging Properties

To merge properties:

1. Select the properties to merge. The “Merge” icon appears.
   
2. Click Merge. The “Merge Properties” window appears. It shows the properties you selected and explains that merging the selected properties combines them into a single property, which does not affect the raw data.
   
3. In the “MERGE SELECTED PROPERTIES INTO…” section, specify which property Mixpanel should recognize as the newly merged property name.
   
4. Click Merge. The merged property appears and the “Status” column indicates “Merged”.
   

Unmerging Properties

To unmerge properties:

1. Select the merged property to unmerge. The “Unmerge” icon appears.
   
2. Click Unmerge. The merged property appears as the original two distinct properties.