I want to test my script that send event to Google Analytics via Measurement Protocol. For testing I've created a new account and trying to send the following request using the following template:
http://www.google-analytics.com/collect?v=1&tid=UA-MY_TESTING_TRACKING_ID&cid=XXX&t=event&ec=AAA&ea=BBB&el=CCC&ni=1&z=123456
In Google Analytics reports on events I see nothing (no events at all as well as users and sessions). Now I am wondering if it is because my script is incorrect or because Google Analytics ignores non-interactive hits for users that have no previous "interactive" hits (i.e. hits without ni=1 parameters).
Does Google Analytics allows to see such users or each user must have at least one interactive hit?
I had, for a test, a couple of dozen hit send via curl on the command line, and they were being processed within minutes. CID had been randomly generated especially for the purpose. All hits where being sent with the non-interaction flag. Those were event hits like in the example from the original question.
I have seen those hits in the Behavior/Events report, so they are being properly collected. However "non-interaction" is to be taken quite literally, as they are not used in any session based metric - i.e. if you just send ni-events you will not generate sessions; if you send both interaction/non-interaction hits only the interaction hits will be used in session-based metrics. I am seeing a user count, so strictly speaking the answer to your question is yes, but number of sessions is displayed as zero (likewise for all related metrics).
Makes completely sense, but since the documentation (the last time I read it) talked only about bounce rates when it comes to non-interaction hits I did not think about it this way.