Title: Data Integration Preparation
Locale: en
URL: https://sensorswave.com/en/docs/getting-started/data-integration-preparation/
Description: Preparation work and best practices before data integration
Before starting large-scale tracking instrumentation, it is recommended to first plan which data truly matters. A well-designed data integration plan not only helps you answer business questions, but also lays the foundation for future analytics needs. This guide will help you develop a complete data collection strategy.

## Why Do You Need Data Integration Preparation?

Scientific data integration planning helps you:

- **Focus on core questions**: Clearly define the business problems to solve and avoid data redundancy
- **Ensure data quality**: Guarantee data accuracy and completeness from the source
- **Save costs**: Avoid ineffective data consuming storage and compute resources
- **Support business decisions**: Provide reliable evidence for product optimization and operational strategies

## Start with Two Core Events

We recommend starting your tracking instrumentation with two fundamental events that provide the greatest business value:

### 1. User Registration Event

**Why it matters**: This is a key metric for understanding product growth, helping you answer "How many new users are joining each day?"

**Recommended event name**:
- `SignUp`

### 2. Value Moment Event

**Why it matters**: This is key to evaluating your product's core value, helping you answer "Are users experiencing the product's value?"

**How to choose the value moment**:

Select the action that best represents user value based on your product type:

#### E-commerce Platform
- `Purchase`
- `OrderCompleted`
- `PaymentSuccess`

#### Content Platform
- `ArticleRead`
- `VideoWatched`
- `ContentShared`

#### SaaS Tools
- `DocumentCreated`
- `TaskCompleted`
- `FeatureUsed`

#### Social Applications
- `PostCreated`
- `FriendAdded`
- `MessageSent`

## Tracking Strategy Recommendations

### Client-side Tracking vs Server-side Tracking

**Client-side Tracking** (Frontend / Mobile)
- (Advantage) Ideal for collecting user interactions (clicks, views, scrolls)
- (Advantage) Good real-time performance — user actions are recorded immediately
- (Disadvantage) Susceptible to ad blockers, with potential 15-30% data loss
- (Disadvantage) Cannot collect server-side business logic data

**Server-side Tracking** (Backend)
- (Advantage) Data is accurate and reliable, unaffected by client-side factors
- (Advantage) Can collect complete business logic data
- (Advantage) Supports batch processing and complex computations
- (Disadvantage) Cannot directly collect user interface interactions

**Best Practice**: **Prioritize server-side tracking**, with client-side tracking as a supplement.

### Data Collection Principles

1. **Start with the core business flow**
   - User registration → Login → Core feature usage → Payment conversion

2. **Follow the "Object-Action" naming convention**
   - (Recommended) `UserLogin`, `ProductView`, `OrderCreate`
   - (Not recommended) `login_success`, `view_product`, `create_order`

3. **Use snake_case for property names**
   - (Recommended) `user_id`, `product_name`, `order_amount`
   - (Not recommended) `userId`, `productName`, `orderAmount`

## Develop Your Data Integration Plan

### Step 1: Map Out the Business Flow

1. **Draw a user journey map**: The full flow from the user entering the product to achieving the core goal
2. **Identify key milestones**: Find the most important conversion points for the business
3. **Define data requirements**: Determine what information needs to be collected at each milestone

### Step 2: Design the Event System

1. **Core events**: 2-3 of the most important business events
2. **Supporting events**: Events that support the analysis of core events
3. **Preset Events**: Basic events automatically collected by the SDK

### Step 3: Plan the Property Structure

1. **Common properties**: Basic properties required by all events
   - `user_id`, `timestamp`, `platform`, `version`

2. **Business properties**: Properties specific to your business
   - Customize based on your product characteristics

3. **User Properties**: Information describing user characteristics
   - `registration_date`, `user_level`, `membership_type`

## Important Notes

- **Compliance first**: Ensure data collection complies with privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA, etc.)
- **Performance impact**: Avoid adding excessive tracking instrumentation on critical business paths
- **Data quality**: Establish data validation mechanisms to detect anomalies promptly
- **Version management**: Maintain a changelog for tracking plans to facilitate retrospection
- **Cross-platform consistency**: Ensure tracking logic remains consistent across different platforms

## Checklist

Before starting implementation, confirm the following:

- [ ] Business problems to be solved are clearly defined
- [ ] 2 core events have been selected for tracking
- [ ] Complete property structures have been designed for the events
- [ ] Tracking strategy has been determined (server-side first)
- [ ] Data compliance requirements have been evaluated
- [ ] A data verification plan has been prepared

## Next Steps

After completing the data integration preparation, you can:

1. **[Choose a Tracking Plan](../data-integration/tracking-strategy.mdx)**: Learn about different data collection methods
2. **Integrate the SDK**: Start integrating the Sensors Wave SDK into your product
3. **Verify Data**: Confirm data is being collected correctly and begin analysis

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**Last updated**: January 19, 2026