Sending events

trackSelfDescribingEvent

Use trackSelfDescribingEvent to track a custom Self-describing events (previously known as Unstructured Events) which consists of a name and an unstructured set of properties. This is useful when:

• You want to track event types which are proprietary/specific to your business (i.e. not already part of Snowplow), or
• You want to track events which have unpredictable or frequently changing properties

You can use its alias trackUnstructEvent.

Argument	Description	Required?	Type
unstructuredEvent	Self-describing JSON containing unstructured event	Yes	SelfDescribingJson
contexts	List of custom contexts for the event	No	List[SelfDescribingJson]
timestamp	Device created timestamp or true timestamp	No	Option[Timestamp]

Create a Snowplow unstructured event self-describing JSON:

import com.snowplowanalytics.iglu.core.{SchemaKey, SchemaVer}
import io.circe.Json

val productViewEvent = SelfDescribingJson(
  SchemaKey("com.acme", "product_view", "jsonschema", SchemaVer(1,0,0)),
  Json.obj(
    "sku" := "0000013"
  )
)

Send it using the trackSelfDescribingEvent tracker method:

tracker.trackSelfDescribingEvent(productViewEvent)

You can attach any number of custom contexts to an event:

val pageTypeContext = SelfDescribingJson(
  SchemaKey("com.acme", "page_type", "jsonschema", SchemaVer(1,0,0)),
  Json.obj(
    "type" := "promotional",
    "backgroundColor" := "red"
  )
)

val userContext = SelfDescribingJson(
  SchemaKey("com.acme", "user", "jsonschema", SchemaVer(1,0,0)),
  Json.obj(
    "userType" := "tester"
  )
)

t.trackSelfDescribingEvent(productViewEvent, List(pageTypeContext, userContext))

trackStructEvent

Use trackStructEvent to track a custom event happening in your app which fits the Google Analytics-style structure of having up to five fields (with only the first two required).

Argument	Description	Required?	Type
category	The grouping of structured events which this action belongs to	Yes	String
action	Defines the type of user interaction which this event involves	Yes	String
label	A string to provide additional dimensions to the event data	No	Option[String]
property	A string describing the object or the action performed on it	No	Option[String]
value	A value to provide numerical data about the event	No	Option[Double]
contexts	List of custom contexts for the event	No	List[SelfDescribingJson]
timestamp	Device created timestamp or true timestamp	No	Option[Timestamp]

Example:

val pageTypeContext = SelfDescribingJson(
  SchemaKey("com.acme", "page_type", "jsonschema", SchemaVer(1,0,0)),
  Json.obj(
    "type" := "promotional",
    "backgroundColor" := "red"
  )
)

val userContext = SelfDescribingJson(
  SchemaKey("com.acme", "user", "jsonschema", SchemaVer(1,0,0)),
  Json.obj(
    "userType" := "tester"
  )
)

t.trackStructEvent("commerce", "order", property=Some("book"), contexts=List(pageTypeContext, userContext))

trackPageView

Use trackPageView to track a user viewing a page within your app. Arguments are:

Argument	Description	Required?	Validation
pageUrl	The URL of the page	Yes	String
pageTitle	The title of the page	No	Option[String]
referrer	The address which linked to the page	No	Option[String]
contexts	Custom contexts for the event	No	List[SelfDescribingJson]
timestamp	When the pageview occurred	No	Option[Timestamp]

Example:

t.trackPageView("www.example.com", Some("example"), Some("www.referrer.com"))

trackError

Use trackError to track exceptions raised during your app's execution. Arguments are:

Argument	Description	Required?	Validation
error	Any throwable need to be tracked	Yes	Throwable
contexts	Custom contexts for the event	No	List[SelfDescribingJson]
timestamp	When the pageview occurred	No	Option[Timestamp]

Example:

try {
  1 / 0
} catch {
  case e: java.lang.ArithmeticException =>
    t.trackError(e)
}

Note: this tracker should not be used to track exceptions happening in tracker itself, use callbacks mechanism for that.

trackAddToCart

Use trackAddToCart to track an add-to-cart event.

trackRemoveFromCart

Use trackRemoveFromCart to track a remove-from-cart event.

trackTransaction

Use trackTransaction to record view of transaction. Fire a trackTransaction to register the transaction, and then fire trackTransactionItem to log specific data about the items that were part of that transaction.

trackTransactionItem

To track an ecommerce transaction item. Fire a trackTransaction to register the transaction, and then fire trackTransactionItem to log specific data about the items that were part of that transaction.

Setting timestamp

By default, Scala Tracker will generate a dvce_created_tstamp and add it to event payload. You also can manually set it using timestamp argument in all tracking methods. It should be in milliseconds since the Unix epoch:

tracker.trackSelfDescribingEvent(productViewEvent, Nil, Some(1432806619000L))

Beside of it, you can set true_tstamp if you have more reliable source about event timestamp. You can tag timstamp as "true" using class TrueTimestamp:

tracker.trackSelfDescribingEvent(productViewEvent, Nil, Some(Tracker.TrueTimestamp(1432806619000L)))

Now event will be sent with ttm parameter instead of dtm.

Setting the subject

By default, each event is associated with the (optional) Subject defined on the tracker instance. You can also send a Subject for each individual event, which overrides the default Subject.

val subject = new Subject()
  .setUserId("user-00035")
  .setPlatform(Desktop)
t.trackPageView("www.example.com", subject = Some(subject))