Geolocation

There are two options to attach geolocation information to Snowplow events:

1. Based on the user IP address in enrichments.
2. Using on device geolocation inside the Web or mobile app.

Geolocation based on the IP address

Geolocation information can be automatically extracted from the IP address of the HTTP request to the collector. This is done during enrichment using the IP Lookup Enrichment.

You can see the information added to events as atomic event properties in this table.

Geolocation context entity tracked in apps

Geolocation information can also be fetched in the app using our trackers and attached to events as a context entity. This is often more accurate than the IP-based geolocation but requires permission from the user.

geolocation_context

Entity

Schema for client geolocation contexts

Schema URIiglu:com.snowplowanalytics.snowplow/geolocation_context/jsonschema/1-1-0

Tracker compatibility

Web: ✅Mobile: ✅Tracked automatically: ✅

Example

{
  "latitude": 30.04335623,
  "longitude": 67.59633102,
  "latitude_longitude_accuracy": -24902753.22,
  "altitude": -19459.88,
  "altitude_accuracy": -29970651.08,
  "bearing": 21055653.32,
  "speed": -7127794.98
}

Schema

Table

Property	Description
latitude number	Required.
longitude number	Required.
latitudeLongitudeAccuracy number	Optional.
altitude number	Optional.
altitudeAccuracy number	Optional.
bearing number	Optional.
speed number	Optional.
timestamp integer	Optional.

JSON schema

{
  "$schema": "http://iglucentral.com/schemas/com.snowplowanalytics.self-desc/schema/jsonschema/1-0-0#",
  "description": "Schema for client geolocation contexts",
  "self": {
    "vendor": "com.snowplowanalytics.snowplow",
    "name": "geolocation_context",
    "format": "jsonschema",
    "version": "1-1-0"
  },
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "latitude": {
      "type": "number",
      "minimum": -90,
      "maximum": 90
    },
    "longitude": {
      "type": "number",
      "minimum": -180,
      "maximum": 180
    },
    "latitudeLongitudeAccuracy": {
      "type": [
        "number",
        "null"
      ]
    },
    "altitude": {
      "type": [
        "number",
        "null"
      ]
    },
    "altitudeAccuracy": {
      "type": [
        "number",
        "null"
      ]
    },
    "bearing": {
      "type": [
        "number",
        "null"
      ]
    },
    "speed": {
      "type": [
        "number",
        "null"
      ]
    },
    "timestamp": {
      "type": [
        "integer",
        "null"
      ]
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "latitude",
    "longitude"
  ],
  "additionalProperties": false
}

How to track?

• Using the JavaScript tracker.
• Using the TrackerConfiguration object on the Android tracker and the iOS tracker.