Ask — Interactions

See what the Ask workflow reports to Miso as a reader uses the question box, and send the same records yourself when you render part of it on your own.

Each record is an interaction: a reader saw, scrolled to, clicked or rated something. Miso builds the answer metrics in Dojo from them. Below we list the interactions Ask sends, the fields Miso needs on each one, and then send one by hand.

You need a working Ask page first. See Ask — Quick Start.

What Ask sends

The SDK watches each part of the answer and sends an interaction when the reader acts on it. property names the part:

A click on a citation in the answer, such as [2], counts as a click on that source. It goes out as a sources click with event_target: "citation-link", so you can tell it apart from a click in the source list.

The rating buttons send one more type. When the reader clicks Helpful or Not helpful, Ask sends type: "feedback" with result_type: "answer" and value set to helpful or unhelpful. A second click on the same button clears the rating and sends value: "unselected". This record has no property.

The types mean:

Each part sends impression and viewable_impression once for each answer. A follow-up answer is a new question, so its parts send their own.

What a record holds

A click on the second citation of a follow-up answer goes out like this:

{
  "type": "click",
  "product_ids": ["article-1042"],
  "anonymous_id": "5f6a7b8c-9d0e-…",
  "context": {
    "custom_context": {
      "api_group": "ask",
      "api_name": "questions",
      "property": "sources",
      "event_target": "citation-link",
      "question_id": "0e1f2a3b-4c5d-…",
      "root_question_id": "9a8b7c6d-5e4f-…",
      "parent_question_id": "9a8b7c6d-5e4f-…",
      "question_source": "_organic",
      "workflow": "ask"
    }
  }
}

The fields mean:

Send an interaction yourself

Send your own when you render a part of the answer with your own code, for example a list of sources you build from the data event. Ask cannot see clicks in markup it did not render.

Turn off the SDK's tracker for that part first, so the same click does not count twice:

client.ui.asks.useTrackers({ sources: { active: false } });

To track every part yourself, turn off all the trackers:

client.ui.asks.useTrackers(false);

Then call client.api.interactions.upload with the fields above. Pass it the workflow and request from the data event you rendered the list from. client.ui.ask is the first question of the thread:

function reportSourceClick(client, { workflow, request }, productId) {
  const { metadata = {} } = request.payload;
  client.api.interactions.upload({
    type: "click",
    product_ids: [productId],
    context: {
      custom_context: {
        api_group: "ask",
        api_name: "questions",
        workflow: "ask",
        property: "sources",
        question_id: workflow.questionId,
        root_question_id: client.ui.ask.questionId,
        parent_question_id: workflow.parentQuestionId,
        question_source: metadata.question_source,
      },
    },
  });
}

The SDK adds the reader's anonymous_id or user_id and the page URL for you. Send impression and viewable_impression for the same list too, or the click-through rate for that part has nothing to divide by.

From a server, or with no SDK on the page, send the same record to POST /v1/interactions. See the API Reference.

If it does not work

Next

• Ask — Events — the events that carry workflow and the response.
• Answer Metrics — the reports Miso builds from these interactions.