User Id property is set incorrectly

The user.Id property is set to be a randomString, however this Id is then used and sent to the track api in property tags.ai.user.id.

In doing this it then causes this random string Id to be used in the Users/Sesssions blade when viewing "Meet your users" it displays the randomString as the "User Id".

[zakimaksyutov]

@jonrigney, you're correct - User Id is a random string. You can populate Authenticated User Id field and then Application Insights will use that field.

@zakimaksyutov in that case would it be Application Insights that uses the incorrect field, see the image below which has the User Id set as the random string

The payload going to AI includes the following tags:

ai.device.id : "browser"
ai.device.type : "Browser"
ai.internal.sdkVersion : "javascript:1.0.15"
ai.operation.id : "BqEzG"
ai.operation.name : "/"
ai.session.id : "C1KTM"
ai.user.accountId : "Jon Rigney"
ai.user.id : "sIuw7"

I am running the following line of code (userName = "Jon Rigney") and it appears to be setting the ai.user.accountId tag

appInsights.setAuthenticatedUserContext(userName); 

[QuentinLuc]

I'm also using that line of code but still seeing a custom User Id.

[jpiyali]

@jonrigney, @n0is, can you please try calling appInsights.clearAuthenticatedUserContext() and then appInsights.setAuthenticatedUserContext(userName); In the event, the cookie is set incorrectly in your browser, it may cause the result above.

You should see ai.user.authUserId being set from the call to
appInsights.setAuthenticatedUserContext(username);

@jpiyali ai.user.authUserId is being set correctly, so to "Jon Rigney", however the UserId property is not. AppInsights seems to use the UserId property when rendering (see image above). I did try "appInsights.setAuthenticatedUserContext(username);", it made no difference to the payload going to AI API

[QuentinLuc]

Same for me, I also tried using clearAuthenticateUserContext before setAuthenticatedUserContext but no difference.

[jpiyali]

@jonrigney , @n0is, looks like I answered the wrong question :) To update the ai.user.id, you'll have to setup a telemetry initializer. This will provide you full access to the envelope before it is sent to us. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/application-insights/app-insights-api-filtering-sampling#javascript-telemetry-initializers

Sample code below

<script type="text/javascript"> // ... initialization code ...({ instrumentationKey: "your instrumentation key" }); window.appInsights = appInsights; // Adding telemetry initializer. // This is called whenever a new telemetry item // is created. if (appInsights.queue) { // sdk download not completed, put in queue appInsights.queue.push(function () { appInsights.context.addTelemetryInitializer(function (envelope) { var telemetryItem = envelope.data.baseData; // To check the telemetry item’s type - for example PageView: if (envelope.name == Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.Telemetry.PageView.envelopeType) { telemetryItem.tags["ai.user.id"] = telemetryItem.tags["ai.user.authUserId"]; // or access appropriate state in the context to assign this value above } }); }); } else { appInsights.context.addTelemetryInitializer(function (envelope) { var telemetryItem = envelope.data.baseData; // To check the telemetry item’s type - for example PageView: if (envelope.name == Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.Telemetry.PageView.envelopeType) { telemetryItem.tags["ai.user.id"] = telemetryItem.tags["ai.user.authUserId"]; // or access appropriate state in the context to assign this value above } }); } // End of inserted code. appInsights.trackPageView(); </script>

[jpiyali]

Also, the feature to support timelines for authenticatedUserId is on our backlog and should be coming in a few weeks time.

[jpiyali]

Please let me know if the code changes work. Thanks!

No it doesn't work.
So, when I implement the code the code tries to set telemetryItem.tags property, this is undefined when tracking pageViews.
I tried to change this to envelope.tags as this contained an array with the expected key pair values, but this does not go further downstream and the track AI API call still had the same userId (the random string)

Even if this did work it's a bit unclean, surely the ai.user.id should be the ai.user.authUserId when populated?!, if ai.user.authUserId is not set then it remains the random string?

[jjgriff93]

Im also running into issues with this using Angular - I'm calling AppInsights.setAuthenticatedUserContext(username); and still getting the generic app insights generated random string when checking in the portal in the user sessions. Realise this is an old thread, has there been any developments here / changes I need to make @jpiyali ?

[jpiyali]

@jjgriff93 - unfortunately this feature (showing user sessions based on authenticated user id and not user id) still hasnt made it to production. The usage team is trying to get to this but the feature is yet to be completed.

As a workaround, can you kindly try the following (run it after snippet in your code)
https://github.com/Microsoft/ApplicationInsights-JS/blob/master/API-reference.md#addtelemetryinitializer

let telemetryInitializer = function () {
appInsights.context.addTelemetryInitializer(function (envelope) {
var tags= envelope.tags;
if (tags && tags["ai.user.authUserId"]) {
tags[ai.userId] = tags["ai.user.authUserId"]; // updates anonymous id generated by sdk with
// authenticated user id
}
});
};

if (appInsights.queue !== undefined) {
appInsights.queue.push(telemetryInitializer);
} else {
telemetryInitializer();
}

[jpiyali]

The user Id that is being set here is correct as expected. The ask is to display user sessions by authenticated user id which is being tracked here: https://feedback.azure.com/forums/357324-application-insights/suggestions/31664080-support-authenticated-user-id-in-usage-scenarios