User Events

User events provide real-time tracking of user activity in your Qlik Sense environment.

Unlike polling-based user sessions data, user events are pushed to Butler SOS as they happen via UDP messages.

Event types

Event Type	Description
Session start/stop	Users logging in or out of Qlik Sense
Connection open/close	Apps being opened or closed in browser tabs

How it works

User events rely on Qlik Sense's Log4Net logging framework:

1. A log appender XML file is deployed on the Sense server(s)
2. The XML file instructs Log4Net to forward specific log events to Butler SOS via UDP
3. Butler SOS receives and processes the events in near real-time
4. Events are stored in InfluxDB and/or forwarded to other destinations

INFO

Events arrive at Butler SOS within seconds of the actual event occurring in Qlik Sense.

Data captured

Each user event includes:

• Host - The Sense server where the event originated
• Event action - Start session, Stop session, Open connection, Close connection
• User information - User directory and user ID
• Origin - What caused the event (e.g., AppAccess)
• App information - App ID and name (when applicable)
• User agent - Browser and OS information (see below)

UDP Message Format

User events are received as semicolon-separated UDP messages with the following format:

message_type;host;command;user_directory;user_id;origin;context;message

The full field specification, including field types, maximum lengths, and example payloads, is available in the UDP Payload Format Reference.

Message Queue

Butler SOS uses a managed queue to handle incoming user event UDP messages. The queue provides controlled concurrency, optional rate limiting, message size validation, and backpressure detection. Queue health metrics can optionally be stored in InfluxDB for monitoring. See the UDP Message Queue documentation for details.

Configuration

Butler SOS config file

Butler-SOS:
  userEvents:
    enable: true
    excludeUser: # Optional blacklist
      - directory: LAB
        userId: testuser1
    udpServerConfig:
      serverHost: 192.168.1.100 # Where Butler SOS listens
      portUserActivityEvents: 9997 # UDP port for user events
    tags: # Custom tags for InfluxDB
      - tag: env
        value: PROD
    sendToMQTT:
      enable: false
      postTo:
        everythingTopic:
          enable: true
          topic: qliksense/userevent

Log appender XML file

A log appender XML file must be deployed on each Sense server where you want to capture user events.

The file should be placed in:

C:\ProgramData\Qlik\Sense\Proxy\LocalLogConfig.xml

Example content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
  <appender name="EventSession" type="log4net.Appender.UdpAppender">
    <remoteAddress value="192.168.1.100" />
    <remotePort value="9997" />
    <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
      <conversionPattern value="/proxy-user-event/;%property{hostname};%property{subsystem};%property{context};%message" />
    </layout>
    <filter type="log4net.Filter.StringMatchFilter">
      <regexToMatch value="^(Start|Stop) session" />
    </filter>
    <filter type="log4net.Filter.StringMatchFilter">
      <regexToMatch value="^(Opening|Closing) connection" />
    </filter>
    <filter type="log4net.Filter.DenyAllFilter" />
  </appender>
  <logger name="Session.Proxy">
    <appender-ref ref="EventSession" />
  </logger>
</configuration>

Firewall configuration

Ensure firewalls allow UDP traffic from the Sense server(s) to Butler SOS on the configured port.

Use cases

User events are extremely valuable for:

• Real-time dashboards - Show who is currently using Sense
• Security monitoring - Track user access patterns
• Troubleshooting - Correlate user activity with system issues
  • Example: "Who caused that 250 GB drop in RAM we were just alerted about?"
• Usage analytics - Understand when and how users access apps

Data destinations

User events can be sent to:

• InfluxDB - For Grafana visualization
• New Relic - For cloud-based monitoring
• MQTT - For integration with other systems

User agent tracking

User events include the browser's user agent string, which Butler SOS parses to extract:

Field	Example
Browser name	Chrome
Browser version	119
OS name	Windows
OS version	10

This data is stored as InfluxDB tags (qs_uaBrowserName, qs_uaBrowserMajorVersion, qs_uaOsName, qs_uaOsVersion) and can be used to:

• Track which browsers access your Sense environment
• Identify outdated browsers that may have security issues
• Understand mobile vs desktop usage patterns