# Recording real-time action interaction events
<a name="recording-action-interaction-events"></a>

An *action interaction* event is an interaction between a user and an *action*. For example, a user enrolling in a membership program or applying for a credit card.

If you use a PERSONALIZED\$1ACTIONS custom recipe, record real-time action interaction events as your customers interact with action recommendations. This builds out your interactions data and keeps your data fresh. It also tells Amazon Personalize about the current interests of your user, which can improve recommendation relevance. Only the PERSONALIZED\$1ACTIONS custom recipes use action interactions data. 

You record action interaction events with the [PutActionInteractions](API_UBS_PutActionInteractions.md) API operation. Amazon Personalize appends this data to the [Action interactions dataset](action-interactions-datasets.md) in your dataset group.

An action interaction event must have an event type attribute, which can be one of the following: 
+ Taken – Record *Taken* events when a user takes a recommended action.
+ Not Taken – Record *Not Taken* events when your user makes a deliberate choice to not take the action after viewing it. For example, if they choose *No* when you show them the action. *Not Taken* events can indicate that the customer isn't interested in the action.
+ Viewed – Record *Viewed* events when you show a user an action before they make a choice to take or not take an action. Amazon Personalize uses *View* events to learn about your users' interests. For example, if a user views an action but doesn't take it, this user might not be interested in this action in the future. 

 You can record real-time events using the AWS SDKs, or AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI). If you record two events with exactly the same timestamp and identical properties, Amazon Personalize keeps only one of the events.

**Topics**
+ [Requirements for recording action interaction events](#recording-action-interaction-requirements)
+ [Finding the ID of your action interaction event tracker](action-interaction-tracker-id.md)
+ [Recording a single action interaction event](record-single-action-interaction.md)
+ [Recording multiple action interaction events](recording-multiple-action-interactions.md)

## Requirements for recording action interaction events
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To record real-time action interaction events, you need the following:
+ A dataset group that includes an `Action interactions dataset`, which can be empty. For information on creating a dataset group and a dataset, see [Importing training data into Amazon Personalize datasets](import-data.md).
+ The ID of your event tracker. You specify this ID in the PutActionInteractions operation. When you create an Action interactions dataset, Amazon Personalize automatically creates an action interaction event tracker for you. For more information, see [Finding the ID of your action interaction event tracker](action-interaction-tracker-id.md). 
+ A call to the [PutActionInteractions](API_UBS_PutActionInteractions.md) operation.