- What is the RudderStack JavaScript SDK?
- How to use the RudderStack JavaScript SDK?
- Querystring API
- Adding Callbacks to Standard Methods
- Self-Hosted Control Plane
- Contribute
| IMPORTANT: We have deprecated the Autotrack feature for the RudderStack JavaScript SDK. If you still wish to use it for your project, refer to this repository. |
|---|
RudderStack is a customer data pipeline tool for collecting, routing and processing data from your websites, apps, cloud tools, and data warehouse.
More information on RudderStack can be found here.
The RudderStack JavaScript SDK (released under Apache License 2.0) allows you to utilize our npm module rudder-sdk-js or rudder-analytics.js library to start sending event data from your website to RudderStack. After integrating this SDK, you will also be able to connect to multiple destinations such as Amplitude, Google Analytics, etc. to send your data.
This Quick Start Guide will help you get up and running with using the RudderStack JavaScript SDK in no time. You just need to follow the steps below:
To integrate the SDK, place the following code snippet in the <head> section of your website.
You can use either the minified or non-minified version of the code:
The minified version is as follows:
<script>
rudderanalytics=window.rudderanalytics=[];for(var methods=["load","page","track","identify","alias","group","ready","reset","getAnonymousId","setAnonymousId"],i=0;i<methods.length;i++){var method=methods[i];rudderanalytics[method]=function(a){return function(){rudderanalytics.push([a].concat(Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments)))}}(method)}rudderanalytics.load(YOUR_WRITE_KEY,DATA_PLANE_URL),rudderanalytics.page();
</script>
<script src="https://cdn.rudderlabs.com/v1/rudder-analytics.min.js"></script>
The non-minified version of the code is shown below:
<script>
rudderanalytics = window.rudderanalytics = [];
var methods = [
"load",
"page",
"track",
"identify",
"alias",
"group",
"ready",
"reset",
"getAnonymousId",
"setAnonymousId"
];
for (var i = 0; i < methods.length; i++) {
var method = methods[i];
rudderanalytics[method] = function (methodName) {
return function () {
rudderanalytics.push([methodName].concat(Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments)));
};
}(method);
}
rudderanalytics.load(YOUR_WRITE_KEY, DATA_PLANE_URL);
//For example,
//rudderanalytics.load("1Qb1F3jSWv0eKFBPZcrM7ypgjVo", "http://localhost:8080");
rudderanalytics.page();
</script>
<script src="https://cdn.rudderlabs.com/v1/rudder-analytics.min.js"></script>
You can also execute the min file in async/defer way, like:
<script async src="https://cdn.rudderlabs.com/rudder-analytics.min.js"></script>
Combining the initialization and the above async script together
<script type="text/javascript">
!function(){var e=window.rudderanalytics=window.rudderanalytics||[];e.methods=["load","page","track","identify","alias","group","ready","reset","getAnonymousId","setAnonymousId"],e.factory=function(t){return function(){var r=Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments);return r.unshift(t),e.push(r),e}};for(var t=0;t<e.methods.length;t++){var r=e.methods[t];e[r]=e.factory(r)}e.loadJS=function(e,t){var r=document.createElement("script");r.type="text/javascript",r.async=!0,r.src="https://cdn.rudderlabs.com/v1/rudder-analytics.min.js";var a=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];a.parentNode.insertBefore(r,a)},e.loadJS(),
e.load(YOUR_WRITE_KEY,DATA_PLANE_URL),
e.page()}();
</script>
NOTE: Whichever version of the code you use, you need to replace
YOUR_WRITE_KEYwith the write key in the RudderStack Control Plane andDATA_PLANE_URLwith the URL of the RudderStack Server/ Data Plane.
NOTE : In all the above versions, there is an explicit
pagecall at the end. This is added to ensure that whenever the SDK loads in a page, apagecall is being sent. You can remove this call completely or modify with extra page properties to suit your requirement. You can also addpagecalls in your application in places not tied directly to page load, ex: virtual page views, page renders on route change such as in SPAs.
| IMPORTANT: We are moving our SDK to a different path from https://cdn.rudderlabs.com/rudder-analytics.min.js to https://cdn.rudderlabs.com/v1/rudder-analytics.min.js. The earlier path may not be maintained in coming releases. |
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While we recommended you use the JavaScript snippet above to use the SDK in your websites, you can also use this NPM module to package RudderStack directly into your project.
- To install, run:
npm install rudder-sdk-js --save - Since the module exports a bunch of APIs on an already-defined object combined with node module caching, you should run the below code only once and use the exported object throughout your project :
import * as rudderanalytics from "rudder-sdk-js"
rudderanalytics.ready(() => {console.log("we are all set!!!")})
rudderanalytics.load(YOUR_WRITE_KEY, DATA_PLANE_URL)
export { rudderanalytics }
For ES5, with require:
var rudderanalytics = require("rudder-sdk-js")
rudderanalytics.load(YOUR_WRITE_KEY, DATA_PLANE_URL)
exports.rudderanalytics = rudderanalytics
You can also refer to the sample projects for a walkthrough of the above: Sample Angular Project and Sample React Project
SDK-supported Browser Versions
- Safari >=6
- IE >=10
- Edge >=15
- Mozilla >=40
- Chrome >= 37
- Opera >= 23
- Yandex>=14.12
NOTE: If the SDK doesn't work on the versions you are targeting, check if adding browser polyfills to your application solves the issue.
The identify() method allows you to link users and their actions to a specific userid.
A sample example of how the identify() method works is as shown:
rudderanalytics.identify(
"12345",
{ email: "name@domain.com" },
{
page: {
path: "",
referrer: "",
search: "",
title: "",
url: ""
}
},
() => {console.log("in identify call");}
);
In the above example, information such as the user ID, email along with contextual information such as IP address, anonymousId, etc. will be captured.
NOTE: There is no need to call
identify()for anonymous visitors to your website. Such visitors are automatically assigned ananonymousId.
The track() method allows you to track any actions that your users might perform.
A sample example of how the track() method works is as shown:
rudderanalytics.track(
"test track event GA3",
{
revenue: 30,
currency: 'USD' ,
user_actual_id: 12345
},
() => {console.log("in track call");}
);
In the above example, the method tracks the event ‘test track event GA3’, and information such as the revenue, currency, anonymousId.
You can use this method to track various other success metrics for your website, such as user signups, item purchases, article bookmarks, and much more.
NOTE: To override contextual information, for ex: anonymizing IP and other contextual fields like page properties, the following template can be used. Similarly one can override the auto-generated anonymousId with provided ID. For this:
rudderanalytics.track(
"test track event GA3",
{
revenue: 30,
currency: 'USD' ,
user_actual_id: 12345
},
() => {console.log("in track call");}
);
You’ve now successfully installed rudder-analytics.js tracking. You can enable and use any event destination to send your event data via RudderStack, in no time at all.
There are cases when you may want to tap into the features provide by end destination SDKs to enhance tracking and other functionalities. RudderStack's JavaScript SDK exposes a ready API with a callback parameter, that fires when the SDK is done initializing itself and other third-party native SDK destinations.
For example:
rudderanalytics.ready(
() => {console.log("we are all set!!!");}
);
| For detailed technical documentation and troubleshooting guide on the RudderStack’s JavaScript SDK, check out our docs. |
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RudderStack's Querystring API allows you to trigger track, identify calls using query parameters. If you pass the following parameters in the URL, then it will trigger the corresponding SDK API call.
For example:
http://hostname.com/?ajs_uid=12345&ajs_event=test%20event&ajs_aid=abcde&ajs_prop_testProp=prop1&ajs_trait_name=Firstname+Lastname
For the above URL, the below SDK calls will be triggered:
rudderanalytics.identify("12345", {name: "Firstname Lastname"});
rudderanalytics.track("test event", {testProp: "prop1"});
rudderanalytics.setAnonymousId("abcde");
You may use the below parameters as querystring parameter and trigger the corresponding call.
ajs_uid : Makes a rudderanalytics.identify() call with userId having the value of the parameter value.
ajs_aid : Makes a rudderanalytics.setAnonymousId() call with anonymousId having the value of the parameter value.
ajs_event : Makes a rudderanalytics.track() call with event name as parameter value.
ajs_prop_<property> : If ajs_event is passed as querystring, value of this parameter will populate the properties of the corresponding event in the track call.
ajs_trait_<trait> : If ajs_uid is provided as querysting, value of this parameter will populate the traits of the identify call made.
You can also define callbacks to the common methods of the rudderanalytics object.
Note: For now, the functionality is supported for
syncPixelmethod which is called in the SDK when making sync calls in integrations for relevant destinations.
For example:
<script>
rudderanalytics.syncPixelCallback = obj => {
rudderanalytics.track(
"sync lotame",
{ destination: obj.destination },
{ integrations: { All: false, S3: true } }
);
};
</script>
<script src="https://cdn.rudderlabs.com/rudder-analytics.min.js"></script>
In the above example, we are defining a syncPixelCallback on the analytics object before the call to load the SDK. This will lead to calling of this registered callback with the parameter {destination: <destination_name>} whenever a sync call is made from the SDK for relevant integrations like Lotame.
The callback can be supplied in options parameter like below as well:
//define the callbacks directly on the load method like:
rudderanalytics.load(YOUR_WRITE_KEY, DATA_PLANE_URL,
{ clientSuppliedCallbacks: {
"syncPixelCallback": () => {console.log('sync done!')}
}
}
)
We will be adding similar callbacks for APIs such as track, page, identify, etc.
| IMPORTANT: We have deprecated the Autotrack feature for the RudderStack JavaScript SDK. If you still wish to use it for your project, refer to this repository. |
|---|
If you are using a device mode destination like Heap, FullStory, etc., the JavaScript SDK needs to fetch the required configuration from the Control Plane. If you are using the RudderStack Config Generator to host your own Control Plane, then follow this guide and make a load call as shown:
rudderanalytics.load(YOUR_WRITE_KEY, DATA_PLANE_URL, {configUrl: CONTROL_PLANE_URL});
You can start adding integrations of your choice for sending data through their JavaScript SDKs.
-
Look for run scripts in the
package.jsonfile for getting browser minified and non-minified builds. The builds are updated in thedistfolder of the directory. Among the others, the important ones are:npm run buildProdBrowser: This outputs rudder-analytics.min.js.npm run buildProdBrowserBrotli: This outputs two files, rudder-analytics.min.br.js (the original minified file, same as above) and rudder-analytics.min.br.js.br (the brotli compressed file).npm run buildProdBrowserGzip: This outputs two files, rudder-analytics.min.gzip.js (the original minified file, same as above) and rudder-analytics.min.gzip.js.gz (the gzipped compressed file).
We are using rollup to build our SDKs, configuration for it is present in
rollup.config.jsin the repo directory. -
For adding or removing integrations, modify the imports in
index.jsunder integrations folder.
For more support on using the RudderStack JavaScript SDK, feel free to contact us or start a conversation on our Slack channel.