Glossary

This page provides a glossary of terms used by Snowplow.

To help clarify, we've categorized the terms:

• Component: a pipeline application, package, SDK, or other code-based tool or set of tools, e.g. Snowplow Micro
• Concept: names for Snowplow things and ideas, e.g. data product
• Legal: about licensing, e.g. SLULA
• Offering: a Snowplow product that you can buy, e.g. Snowplow BDP Cloud

Term	Category	Description	More information
Atomic events table	Concept	Core warehouse table containing all Snowplow events	Single table
Atomic fields	Concept	Core event properties defined by the Snowplow atomic schema	Out-of-the-box fields
Audience Hub	Offering	Customer segmentation in warehouse, powered by Census
Collection	Concept	Generation of event data and sending to an event collector endpoint	Sources
Collector	Component	Application that receives and saves raw events, and forwards them to Enrich	Collector
Context	Concept	Deprecated name for entity	Entities
Cookie Extension service	Concept	Process for extending cookie lifespans	ITP mitigation
Data contract	Concept	Event definitions; set of data products	Data Product Studio
Data model	Component	dbt SQL package for processing events in the warehouse	Modeling your data
Data pipeline	Concept	Set of applications for collecting, processing, and storing events	Fundamentals
Data product	Concept	Set of event specifications, plus metadata	Data products
Data Product Studio	Offering	Tracking and data contracts tooling	Data Product Studio
Data quality	Concept	Tooling and reporting related to failed events and QA	Data quality
Data structure	Concept	Schema, plus metadata	Data structures
Derived events table	Concept	Warehouse table of events generated by a data model	Modeling your data with dbt
Destination	Concept	Third-party data store or data activation platform that can receive Snowplow event data	Destinations
Enrich	Component	Application that validates and enriches events	Enrichments
Enrichment	Component	A process, run by Enrich, that adds to or modifies event data	Enrichments
Entity	Concept	Supplemental or additional data included in an event; a schema or data structure describing additional data	Entities
Event	Concept	A payload, processed by a data pipeline, describing something that happened; the "main" schema or data structure (i.e. not an entity) in an event	Events
Event specification	Concept	Set of data structures, including event and entities, that an event payload should match	Event specifications
Event, canonical	Concept	One of the original Snowplow events - page view, page ping, or the legacy ecommerce transaction events - that has contains data for some atomic fields, but no schema	Canonical events
Event, enriched	Concept	An event payload that's valid and has been successfully enriched	Enrichments
Event, failed	Concept	An event payload that the pipeline had some problem processing	Failed events
Event, self-describing	Concept	Custom event, based on a custom schema	Self-describing events
Event, structured	Concept	Legacy, proto-custom event	Structured events
Event, unstructured	Concept	Deprecated name for self-describing event	Self-describing events
Event, valid	Concept	An event payload that matches its schema definitions; an event that the pipeline has collected, validated, and enriched without failure (i.e. not a failed event)	Failed events
Extension	Offering	Third-party integration
ID service	Concept	Deprecated name for Cookie Extension service	ITP mitigation
Iglu	Component	Schema registry and associated tooling	Iglu
License, Community	Legal	Deprecated license for certain Snowplow components; SCL	Copyright licenses
License, Limited Use	Legal	Non-production use license for certain Snowplow components; SLULA	Copyright licenses
License, Personal and Academic	Legal	Personal and academic license for certain Snowplow components; SPAL	Copyright licenses
Loader	Component	Application that loads data into warehouse or lake storage	Warehouses and lakes
Organization	Concept	Your organization, in the context of account management and SSO	Account management
Out-of-the-box	Concept	Non-custom events, data products, schemas, etc. that are included with Snowplow
Registry	Concept	Server that stores schemas (schema repository)	Iglu repositories
Reverse ETL	Offering	Sync insights from warehouse to other tools, powered by Census	Reverse ETL
Schema	Concept	JSON Schema that describes how data should look	Schemas
Schema respository	Concept	Server that stores schemas (schema registry)	Iglu repositories
SLULA	Legal	Snowplow Limited Use License Agreement, a non-production use license	Copyright licenses
Snowbridge	Component	Application that sends data streams into external destinations	Snowbridge
Snowplow BDP	Offering	Full Snowplow product offering	Snowplow BDP
Snowplow BDP Cloud	Offering	Snowplow running in a cloud hosted by Snowplow	Snowplow BDP
Snowplow BDP Console	Offering	Web UI for Snowplow data management
Snowplow BDP Enterprise	Offering	Deprecated name for Snowplow BDP Private Managed Cloud	Snowplow BDP
Snowplow BDP Private Managed Cloud	Offering	Snowplow running in your own cloud	Snowplow BDP
Snowplow CLI	Component	Tool for command-line management of data products and data structures	Snowplow CLI
Snowplow Community Edition	Offering	Limited license (SLULA) Snowplow product offering	Snowplow Community Edition
Snowplow Inspector	Component	Browser extension for testing and validation of web tracking	Snowplow Inspector
Snowplow Micro	Component	Testing and QA pipeline	Snowplow Micro
Snowplow Mini	Component	Sandbox development pipeline	Snowplow Mini
Snowtype	Component	Tool for custom tracking code generation	Snowtype
Snowtype CLI	Component	Tool for command-line management of Snowtype code generation	Snowtype CLI
Source	Concept	Tracker SDK or webhook that sends events to a collector endpoint	Sources
Source application	Concept	Your application where you have implemented tracking	Source applications
Tracker	Component	SDK that sends events to an event collector endpoint	Trackers
Tracking catalog	Concept	List of received event types in Snowplow BDP Console
TSV	Concept	Tab-separated values format, used for events within a Snowplow pipeline	Enriched TSV format
Validation	Concept	Pipeline process of checking events against their schemas
Visualization	Offering	Accompanying dashboard for a data model	Visualizations
Webhook	Component	API that allows you to send external data to Snowplow pipelines, usually third-party	Webhooks
Workspace	Concept	Isolated environment containing one production pipeline, and potentially multiple QA or development pipelines