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Adding extra data: the Subject class

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You may have additional information about your application's environment, current user and so on, which you want to send to Snowplow with each event.

The Subject class has a set of set...() methods to attach extra data relating to the user to all tracked events:

Here are some examples:

// Init an empty Subject and add some values
Subject s1 = new Subject.SubjectBuilder().build();
s1.setUserId("Kevin Gleason");
s1.setLanguage("en-gb");
s1.setScreenResolution(1920, 1080);

// Init all values at build time
Subject s1 = new Subject.SubjectBuilder()
              .userId("Kevin Gleason")
              .language("en-gb")
              .screenResolution(1920, 1080)
              .build();

After that, you can add your Subject to your Tracker like so:

Tracker t1 = new Tracker.TrackerBuilder( ... )
              .subject(s1)
              .build();

Or when you track an event:

PageView pageViewEvent = PageView.builder()
    .pageTitle("Snowplow Analytics")
    .pageUrl("https://www.snowplowanalytics.com")
    .subject(s1)
    .build();

tracker.track(pageViewEvent);

Set user ID with setUserId​

You can set the user ID to any string:

s1.setUserId( "{{USER ID}}" )

Example:

s1.setUserId("alexd")

Set screen resolution with setScreenResolution​

If your Java code has access to the device's screen resolution, then you can pass this in to Snowplow too:

s1.setScreenResolution( {{WIDTH}}, {{HEIGHT}} )

Both numbers should be positive integers; note the order is width followed by height. Example:

s1.setScreenResolution(1366, 768)

Set viewport dimensions with setViewport​

If your Java code has access to the viewport dimensions, then you can pass this in to Snowplow too:

s1.setViewport( {{WIDTH}}, {{HEIGHT}} )

Both numbers should be positive integers; note the order is width followed by height. Example:

s1.setViewport(300, 200)

Set color depth with setColorDepth​

If your Java code has access to the bit depth of the device's color palette for displaying images, then you can pass this in to Snowplow too:

s1.setColorDepth( {{BITS PER PIXEL}} )

The number should be a positive integer, in bits per pixel. Example:

s1.setColorDepth(32)

Set timezone with setTimezone​

This method lets you pass a user's timezone in to Snowplow:

s1.setTimezone( {{TIMEZONE}} )

The timezone should be a string:

s1.setTimezone("Europe/London")

Set the language with setLanguage​

This method lets you pass a user's language in to Snowplow:

s1.setLanguage( {{LANGUAGE}} )

The language should be a string:

s1.setLanguage('en')

setIpAddress​

This method lets you pass a user's IP Address in to Snowplow:

s1.setIpAddress( {{IP ADDRESS}} )

The IP address should be a string:

s1.setIpAddress("127.0.0.1");

setUseragent​

This method lets you pass a useragent in to Snowplow:

s1.setUseragent( {{USERAGENT}} )

The useragent should be a string:

s1.setUseragent("Agent Smith");

setNetworkUserId​

This method lets you pass a Network User ID in to Snowplow:

s1.setNetworkUserId( {{NUID}} )

The network user id should be a string:

s1.setNetworkUserId("network-id");

setDomainUserId​

This method lets you pass a Domain User ID in to Snowplow:

s1.setDomainUserId( {{DUID}} )

The domain user id should be a string:

s1.setDomainUserId("domain-id");

setDomainSessionId​

This method lets you pass a Domain Session ID in to Snowplow:

s1.setDomainSessionId( {{SID}} )

The domain session id should be a string:

s1.setDomainSessionId("session-id");