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Using your Data Index

The Data Index provides information about the events and attributes stored on people and objects in your workspace. It can help you understand what data you’re using and where you use it—segments, campaigns, and more.

Why use the Data Index

The Data Index is useful for things like:

• Troubleshooting: Are your campaigns behaving strangely? Check the Data Index to see if a particular event is being sent multiple times or if it’s being used by multiple campaigns.
• Data clean-up: Data gets messy sometimes. Check if your attributes or events are similarly named or near-duplicates and clean your data accordingly.
• Visibility and clarity: Determine if a piece of data you need for a campaign is already being sent to Customer.io or if you need to start sending it to us. Add tags to your data to help you organize and keep track of related data.
• Marking attributes as sensitive: On certain plans, account admins and workspace admins can locate and mark attributes as sensitive in the Data Index to ensure data privacy across team members.

How to use the Data Index

On the left-hand navigation, go to Data & Integrations > Data Index. All roles can view the index, but only account admins and workspace admins can edit descriptions or export data.

At the top, you can switch between Attributes and Events.

• Attributes are data stored on your customers or objects. Customers are referred to as “people” in Customer.io, and each person has a profile where we store attributes. Objects are data that help you relate people to entities like accounts they belong to or courses they’re enrolled in. You can switch between people’s profile data and objects data with the dropdown filter.

  

  
  • Profile Attributes show any attribute stored on people’s profiles.
  • Custom Object Attributes show attributes saved across any object in an object typeAn object type is a group of objects. An object type could be Online Classes while an object within the type could be English 101. Customer.io generates a unique, immutable object_type_id. (what you see in the left-hand navigation of your workspace), like Online Classes Attributes.
  • Custom Object Relationship Attributes show attributes saved on relationshipsThe connection between an object and a person in your workspace. For instance, if you have Account objects, people could have relationships to an Account if they’re admins. between people and any object in an object type, like Online Classes Relationship Attributes.

• Events are actions your people perform in your mobile app, website, or wherever you track them.

You can filter your data further by Usage. Click Attributes in use to filter out unused data. An attribute is in use if it’s used in a campaign, newsletter, segment, email template and/or snippet.

Tag your data

In your Data Index, you can manage tags for your attributes and events. Tags you create here are available across all automations as well as segments.

You can also assign tags from the Data Index table or from individual attribute pages.

Our AI-powered segment builder takes these tags into account to generate more relevant segment conditions too!

Attribute list

By default, the Attributes tab lists all the peopleAn instance of a person. Generally, a person is synonymous with their profile; there should be a one-to-one relationship between a real person and their profile in Customer.io. You reference a person’s profile attributes in liquid using customer—e.g. {{customer.email}}. attributes in your workspace in alphabetical order. Use the dropdown menu to switch to objectAn object is a non-person entity that you can associate with one or more people—like a company, account, or online course. or relationshipThe connection between an object and a person in your workspace. For instance, if you have Account objects, people could have relationships to an Account if they’re admins. attributes.

Use the search bar to find a specific attribute in the list. This list does not include event attributes. For event data, switch to the Events tab.

View a single attribute

Click an attributeA key-value pair that you associate with a person or an object—like a person’s name, the date they were created in your workspace, or a company’s billing date etc. Use attributes to target people and personalize messages. to see where it’s used and recent activity involving the attribute. The attribute page shows:

• SegmentsA segment is a group of people in your workspace. Use segments to trigger campaigns, track membership over time, or fine-tune your audience. There are two types of segments: data-driven and manual. Data-driven segments automatically update when people start or stop matching criteria. Manual segments are static. using the attribute.
• CampaignsCampaigns are automated workflows you set up to send people messages and perform other actions when they meet your criteria. using the attribute, including how it’s used. This includes, but is not limited to, a filter, trigger condition, action condition, and goal.
• BroadcastsA message sent to a group of people at the same time. Unlike campaigns, where individuals can enter campaigns and receive messages on their own time, you’ll trigger a broadcast for everybody meeting your criteria at once. When yous end a broadcast, you can personalize broadcasted messages for individual members of your audience; everybody doesn’t have to get exactly the same message. using the attribute.
• Emails referencing the attribute, indicated as “Templates”.
• SnippetsA common value that you can reuse with Liquid in messages and other workflow actions—like your company address. You can store Liquid inside a snippet, making it easy to save and reuse advanced values and statements across your messages. referencing the attribute.
• The five most recent occurrences in your Activity Logs—when the attribute was assigned or updated, etc.

You can also perform a few actions from this page:

• Mark people’s attributes as sensitive to ensure data privacy across team members
• Create a segmentA segment is a group of people in your workspace. Use segments to trigger campaigns, track membership over time, or fine-tune your audience. There are two types of segments: data-driven and manual. Data-driven segments automatically update when people start or stop matching criteria. Manual segments are static. directly from the attribute
• Draft a campaignCampaigns are automated workflows you set up to send people messages and perform other actions when they meet your criteria. triggered by the attribute
• Draft a broadcastA message sent to a group of people at the same time. Unlike campaigns, where individuals can enter campaigns and receive messages on their own time, you’ll trigger a broadcast for everybody meeting your criteria at once. When yous end a broadcast, you can personalize broadcasted messages for individual members of your audience; everybody doesn’t have to get exactly the same message. where the attribute is a recipient condition
• Create a snippetA common value that you can reuse with Liquid in messages and other workflow actions—like your company address. You can store Liquid inside a snippet, making it easy to save and reuse advanced values and statements across your messages. where the attribute is referenced

Describe an attribute

You can add descriptions to attributes in the Data Index so all of your teammates are on the same page. Our AI-powered segment builder takes these descriptions into account to generate more relevant segment conditions too!

In the Data Index, click an attribute then click Edit next to Description to get started.

You can click in the description field to generate a description with AI. Review AI-generated descriptions for accuracy before you save them.

Export attributes

On the Attributes tab, click Export to CSV in the top right and choose the type of export you want.

You can export information for people, object, or relationship attributes. Each attribute type has two export options.

Profile attributes

The Attributes export is an overview of where you use profile attributes:

• Name: the attribute name
• Campaigns: the number of campaigns where it’s used as a filter, trigger, action condition, goal, and more
• Segments: the number of segments it’s used in
• Newsletters: the number of newsletters it’s used in as a recipient filter
• People: the number of people in your workspace who have the attribute
• Last Updated: the timestamp of when the attribute was last modified across your people

The Attribute Usage export is a breakdown of where you use profile attributes:

• Name: the attribute name
• Used In: indicates “Segment,” “Campaign,” or “Newsletter”
• Usage Name: the name of the segment, campaign, or newsletter that the attribute is used in
• Link: a link to the segment, campaign, or newsletter that the attribute is used in

Custom object attributes

The Custom Object Attributes export is an overview of how many objects use each attribute in the object type exported:

• Name: the attribute name
• Object Type: the name of the object type exported
• Objects Count: the number of objects that have the attribute

The Custom Object Attribute Usage export is a breakdown of where each object attribute is used:

• Name: the attribute name
• Object Type: the name of the object type exported
• Used In: indicates “Segment,” “Campaign,” or “Newsletter”
• Usage Name: the name of the segment, campaign, or newsletter that the attribute is used in
• Link: a link to the segment, campaign, or newsletter that the attribute is used in

Custom object relationship attributes

The Custom Object Relationship Attributes export is an overview of how many relationships use each attribute in the object type exported:

• Name: the attribute name
• Object Type: the name of the object type exported
• Relationships Count: the number of relationships that have the attribute

The Custom Object Relationship Attribute Usage export is a breakdown of where each relationship attribute is used:

• Name: the attribute name
• Object Type: the name of the object type exported
• Used In: indicates “Segment,” “Campaign,” or “Newsletter”
• Usage Name: the name of the segment, campaign, or newsletter that the attribute is used in
• Link: a link to the segment, campaign, or newsletter that the attribute is used in

Event List

The Events tab lists the events that you’ve sent to Customer.io in alphabetical order. Use the search bar to find a specific event in the list.

View a single event

Click an event to see where it’s used and recent activity. An event’s page shows:

• The segmentsA segment is a group of people in your workspace. Use segments to trigger campaigns, track membership over time, or fine-tune your audience. There are two types of segments: data-driven and manual. Data-driven segments automatically update when people start or stop matching criteria. Manual segments are static. using the event.
• The campaignsCampaigns are automated workflows you set up to send people messages and perform other actions when they meet your criteria. using the event and how it’s used—as a filter, trigger, action condition, goal, and more.
• The five most recent occurrences of the event from your Activity Log—when people last performed the event.

You can also start a segment or start a campaign triggered by the event.

Describe an event

You can add descriptions to events in the Data Index so all of your teammates are on the same page. Our AI-powered segment builder takes these descriptions into account to generate more relevant segment conditions too!

In the Data Index, click the Events tab, then click an event name. Click Edit next to Description to get started.

You can click in the description field to generate a description with AI. Review AI-generated descriptions for accuracy before you save them.

Export events

You can export Events or Events Usage from the Data Index.

On the Events tab, click Export to CSV in the top right and choose the type of export you want.

The Events export includes:

• Name: the name of the event
• Campaigns: the number of campaigns where it’s used as a filter, trigger condition, action condition, goal, and more
• Segments: the number of segments it’s used in
• People: the number of people who have performed the event at least once
• Last Received: the timestamp of when Customer.io last logged the event
• Last Data: the data sent with the last received event

The Events Usage export includes:

• Name: the event name
• Used In: whether the event is used in a segment, campaign, or newsletter
• Usage Name: the name of the segment, campaign, or newsletter that the event is used in
• Link: a link to the segment, campaign, or newsletter that the event is used in

Edit attributes details in bulk

From the Data Index, you can modify multiple attributes or events at once. You can filter or search for the data you want to edit, then check the box next to each item and you’ll see an Actions dropdown.

In the Actions dropdown, you have three options:

• Edit: Edit the descriptions or tags of multiple attributes or events at once
• Generate descriptions: Generate descriptions for multiple attributes or events using AI
• Delete: Delete the attributes from your index. This is only possible for attributes not used in segments, campaigns, or elsewhere in your workspace. Learn more about deleting attributes from your workspace.