For context: We are currently discussing implementing a tracker solution based on theTracking HTTP API.

The documentation listsaction_name as one of theRecommended parameters. It also states that "you should provide as much information as you can" with regard to the parameters. We understand this as setting the recommended parameters as frequent as possible.

Here is thequoted description ofaction_name from the documentation:

action_name (recommended) — The title of the action being tracked. For page tracks this is used as page title. If enabled in your installation you may use the category tree structure in this field. For example, “game / register new user” would then create a group “game” and add the item “register new user” in it.

The second sentence of the quote makes it clear to me how to useaction_name when tracking page views.

Now, I had a rather long discussion with one of my collegs on how to useaction_name when not tracking a page view.
As aRecommended parameter, the documentation kind of suggests to set it in every tracking call if possible, but only gives advice on what to set it to when tracking page views.

Now, I viewaction_name more like apage_name and I only want to set it when tracking page views, while he wants to set it for every tracking call (to the name of the page the action happens on).

To prove my point, I did two things:

• I reffered to the JavaScript tracking API, which only usesaction_name inlogPageView. (Side question: Am I correct to treat the JavaScript implementation as a "Tracker Refference Implementation"?)
• I tracked an event using the event paramterse_c ande_a, and also set anaction_name; The event was logged and I inspected the Matomo database directly, but found out thataction_name for the event was recorded nowhere.

He on the other hand argued that:

• The documentation recommends it, so we should set it.
• Setting a parameter thatmight not be used doesn't hurt.

Since we could not come to an agreement on this matter, we are now asking what exactlyaction_name is and how/when we should use it?