Cordova

Detailed technical documentation on RudderStack’s Cordova SDK to send events from your Cordova apps to various destinations.

Apache Cordova is an open-source, cross-platform application development framework.

The RudderStack Cordova SDK lets you track event data from your Cordova applications and send it to your specified destinations via RudderStack.

Check the GitHub codebase and the sample implementation to get a more hands-on understanding of the SDK.

SDK setup requirements

To set up the Cordova SDK, follow these steps:

• You will need to set up a RudderStack account.

• Once signed up, set up a Cordova source in the dashboard. For more information, follow this guide. You should then see a Write Key for this source, as shown below:

• You will also need a data plane URL. Follow this section for more information on the data plane URL and where to get it.

Installing the Cordova SDK

To add the Cordova SDK as a dependency, navigate to the root folder of your application and run the following command:

cordova plugin add rudder-sdk-cordova

The Cordova SDK supports the device mode starting from version 1.3.0.

Initializing the RudderStack client

After adding the SDK as a dependency, you need to set up the SDK.

Add the following code in the onDeviceReady() function of your home page to initialize the SDK.

A sample Cordova SDK initialization is as shown:

RudderClient.initialize(WRITE_KEY , {
  dataPlaneUrl: DATA_PLANE_URL,
  loglevel: RudderClient.LogLevel.VERBOSE,
})

Make sure you use the await keyword with the initialize call.

The setup method has the following signature:

Name	Data Type	Presence	Description
writeKey	string	Required	Your Cordova source writeKey from the dashboard.
configuration	JSON Object	Optional	Contains the RudderStack client configuration.
options	JSON Object	Optional	Extra options to be pass along with the event.

• Check the Configuring the RudderStack Client section below for detailed information on the parameters you can send in the configuration object.

• Check the Configuring the options object section below for detailed information on the parameters you can send in the options object.

Configuring the RudderStack client

You can configure your RudderStack client by passing the following parameters in the configuration object of your RudderClient.initialize() call:

Parameter	Type	Description	Default Value
logLevel	RudderClient.LogLevel	Controls how much of the log you want to see from the Cordova SDK.	RudderClient.LogLevel.None
dataPlaneUrl	String	Your RudderStack Data Plane URL.	https://hosted.rudderlabs.com
flushQueueSize	Integer	The number of events included in a batch request to the server.	30
dbThresholdCount	Integer	The number of events to be saved in the SQLite database. Once the limit is reached, older events are deleted from the database.	10000
sleepTimeout	Integer	Minimum waiting time to flush the events to the server.	10 seconds
configRefreshInterval	Integer	RudderStack fetches the config after this time interval.	2
autoCollectAdvertId	Boolean	Determines if the SDK will collect the advertisement ID.	false
trackLifecycleEvents	Boolean	Determines if the SDK should capture the application lifecycle events automatically.	true

Identify

The identify call lets you identify a visiting user and associate them with their actions. It also lets you record the traits about them like their name, email address, etc.

As a best practice, we recommend calling identify at the start of every session or page load for logged-in users. This will ensure all their latest traits are captured in all the subsequent events.

A sample identify call is as shown below:

RudderClient.identify("userId", {
  address: {
    city: "LA",
    country: "USA",
    state: "CA",
  },
  birthday: "1984/07/17",
  company: {
    name: "RudderStack",
    id: "RS",
    industry: "IT",
  },
  email: "[e-mail]",
  firstName: "john",
});

The identify method has the following signatures:

Name	Data Type	Presence	Description
userId	string	Required	User identifier in your database.
traits	JSON Object	Optional	Information related to the user traits.
options	JSON Object	Optional	Extra options for the identify event.

Check the Configuring the options object section below for detailed information on the parameters you can send in the options object.

Track

The track call lets you record the user actions along with their associated properties. Each user action is called an event.

A sample track event called Order Completed using the Cordova SDK is shown below:

RudderClient.track('Order Completed', {
  checkout_id: '18310159091413-2',
  order_id: '1153390412189-01',
  affiliation: 'Google Play Store',
  total: 68.00,
  subtotal: 60.00,
  revenue: 70.00,
  shipping: 5,
  tax: 3,
  discount: 10,
  coupon: 'NEWUSER',
  currency: 'USD',
  products: [{
      product_id: '853913-410121910',
      sku: 'FF-21',
      name: 'Varsity Graphic T-Shirt',
      price: 25,
      quantity: 1,
      category: 'Clothing',
      url: 'https://www.myntra.com/tshirts/huetrap/huetrap-men-beige/111/buy',
    },
    {
      product_id: '113413-190158920',
      sku: 'GF-67',
      name: 'Printed Round Neck T-Shirt',
      price: 15,
      quantity: 3,
      category: 'Clothing'
    }
  ]
})

The track method has the following signature:

Name	Data Type	Presence	Description
name	String	Required	Contains the name of the event that you want to track.
properties	JSON Object	Optional	Contains the extra properties to be sent along with the event.
options	JSON Object	Optional	Contains the extra event options.

Check the Configuring the options object section below for detailed information on the parameters you can send in the options object.

RudderStack automatically tracks the following optional events:

• Application Installed

• Application Opened

You can disable these events by sending the property trackLifecycleEvents as false within the configuration object while initializing the RudderStack client. However, we highly recommend keeping them enabled.

Group

The group call lets you associate an identified user to a group - either a company, project, or a team, and record any custom traits or properties associated with that group.

A sample group call is as shown:

RudderClient.group("group1", {
  groupname: "RS",
  groupwork: "Mobile dev"
})

The group method has the following signatures:

Name	Data Type	Presence	Description
groupId	string	Required	The organization ID with which you want to associate the user.
groupTraits	JSON Object	Optional	Any other property of the organization that you want to pass along with the call.
options	JSON Object	Optional	Extra options for the group event.

Check the Configuring the options object section below for detailed information on the parameters you can send in the options object.

Screen

The screen call lets you record whenever your user views their mobile screen with any additional relevant information about the viewed screen.

A sample screen call is shown below:

RudderClient.screen("Home Screen", {
  mobile: "pixel"
})

The screen method has the following signature:

Name	Data Type	Presence	Description
screenName	string	Required	Name of the viewed screen.
property	JSON Object	Optional	Extra properties that you want to pass along with the screen call.
options	JSON Object	Optional	Extra options to be passed along with screen event.

Check the Configuring the options object section below for detailed information on the parameters you can send in the options object.

Alias

The alias call lets you merge different identities of a known user.

alias is an advanced method that lets you change the tracked user's ID explicitly. This method is useful when managing identities for some of the downstream destinations.

A sample alias call is shown below:

RudderClient.alias("userId")

The alias method has the following signature:

Name	Data Type	Presence	Description
newId	String	Required	The new userId that you want to assign to the user.
options	JSON Object	Optional	Event level options.

Check the Configuring the options object section below for detailed information on the parameters you can send in the options object.

For a detailed explanation of the alias call, refer to the RudderStack API Specification guide.

Reset

You can use the reset method to clear the persisted traits from the identify call. We recommend calling it during the Logout operation.

A sample reset call is as shown:

RudderClient.reset()

Configuring the options object

The options object can be sent along with all the above-mentioned API calls. It has the following signature:

Name	Data Type	Presence	Description
externalIds	JSON Object	Optional	Each key within externalIds object should define the type of external ID, and its value should be a String or Integer.
integrations	JSON Object	Optional	Each key within the integrations object should hold the display name of your desired destination. Its value should be a boolean indicating whether you want to send that event or not. For more details check the Enabling/disabling events for specific destinations section below.

A sample options object for an identify event is as shown:

RudderClient.identify("1hKOmRA4el9Ztm", {
  "address": {
    "city": "New Orleans",
    "country": "USA",
    "state": "Louisiana",
  },
  "birthday": "01/24/1984",
  "company": {
    "name": "Apple Inc.",
    "id": "1hKOmRA4el9Ztm",
    "industry": "IT"
  },
  "email": "[e-mail]",
  "firstName": "Alex",
}, {
  "externalIds": {
    "brazeExternalId": "externalId1"
  },
  "integrations": {
    "MixPanel": false,
    "Amplitude": true
  }
})

In the above snippet, the options object is as follows:

{
  "externalIds": {
    "brazeExternalId": "externalId1"
  },
  "integrations": {
    "MixPanel": false,
    "Amplitude": true
  }
}

Enabling/disabling user tracking via the optOut API (GDPR support)

RudderStack gives the users (e.g., an EU user) the ability to opt out of tracking any user activity until the user gives their consent. You can do this by leveraging RudderStack's optOut API.

The optOut API takes true or false as a Boolean value to enable or disable tracking user activities. This flag persists across the device reboots.

The following snippet highlights the use of the optOut API to disable user tracking:

RudderClient.optOut(true);

Once the user grants their consent, you can enable user tracking once again by using the optOut API with false as a parameter sent to it, as shown:

RudderClient.optOut(false);

The optOut API is available in the Cordova SDK starting from version 1.0.1.

Filtering events

When sending events to a destination via the device mode, you can explicitly specify which events should be discarded or allowed to flow through - by whitelisting or blacklisting them.

Refer to the Client-side Event Filtering guide for more information on this feature.

Enabling/disabling events for specific destinations

RudderStack lets you send your event data only to the explicitly specified destinations and filtering out the rest. You can do this in one of the following two ways:

• While initializing the Cordova SDK

• While making the event calls

Passing destinations during SDK initialization

This approach is useful when you want to send the events to specific destinations across all the event calls made using the SDK.

A sample SDK initialization is shown below:

RudderClient.initialize("1n0JdVPZTRUIkLXYccrWzZwdGSx", {
  dataPlaneUrl: "https://0ff6-175-101-36-4.ngrok.io",
  flushQueueSize: 30,
  dbCountThreshold: 10000,
  configRefreshInterval: 2,
  logLevel: 0,
  sleepTimeOut: 10,
  trackLifecycleEvents: true,
  recordScreenViews: true,
}, {
  integrations: {
    MixPanel: true,
    Amplitude: true
  }
})

Passing destinations during event calls

This approach is useful when you want to send particular events to specific destinations, or if you want to override the destinations specified during the SDK initialization for a particular event.

An example is shown below:

RudderClient.screen("Home Screen", {
  mobile: "pixel"
}, {
  integrations: {
    All: false,
    Salesforce: true
  }
})

In the above example, the values of the screen call are passed only to the Salesforce destination.

Anonymous ID

RudderStack uses the deviceId as anonymousId by default. You can use the putAnonymousId method to override the default anonymousId, as shown:

RudderClient.putAnonymousId("CustomAnonymousId");

Setting the advertisement ID

RudderStack collects the advertisement ID only if autoCollectAdvertId is set to true during the SDK initialization, as shown:

RudderClient.initialize(WRITE_KEY , {
  dataPlaneUrl: DATA_PLANE_URL,
  loglevel: RudderClient.LogLevel.VERBOSE,
  autoCollectAdvertId: true,
})

To set the advertisement ID yourself, you can use the putAdvertisingId method as shown:

RudderClient.putAdvertisingId("SampleAdvertisingId")

In iOS, you need to call the putAdvertisingId method before calling initialize.

Setting the device token

You can pass your device-token for push notifications to be passed to the destinations which support the Push Notifications feature. RudderStack sets the token under context.device.token.

An example of setting the device-token is as shown:

RudderClient.putDeviceToken("sampleDeviceToken");

Debugging

If you face any unexpected behavior while using the SDK, you can turn on the VERBOSE or DEBUG logging feature to determine out the issue.

You configure logging behavior of your SDK by sending the value of the logLevel property of the configuration object and pass it over to the initialize call as shown below:

RudderClient.initialize( WRITE_KEY , {
  dataPlaneUrl: DATA_PLANE_URL ,
  logLevel: RudderClient.LogLevel.VERBOSE,
  trackLifecycleEvents: true
})

FAQs

Where can I find the source write key?

Once you set up a Cordova source in the RudderStack dashboard, you will be able to view the source Write Key, under the Overview section, as shown:

Where can I find the data plane URL?

Refer to this section for more information on the data plane and how to get it.

Contact us

For queries on any of the sections covered in this guide, you can contact us or start a conversation in our Slack community.

If you come across any issues while using the Cordova SDK, you can open a new issue on our GitHub Issues page.