Quick Start Guide

Step-by-step guide on installing and using the RudderStack JavaScript SDK on your website.

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Last updated 3 years ago

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Quick Start Guide

Step-by-step guide on installing and using the RudderStack JavaScript SDK on your website.

This guide is aimed at helping you quickly get up and running with the JavaScript SDK.

The following sections cover the SDK installation steps and details on using the SDK to identify your website users and track their actions.

Step 1: Install RudderStack JavaScript SDK

To integrate the SDK with your website, place the following version of the code in the <head> section of your website.

<script type="text/javascript">
!function(){var e=window.rudderanalytics=window.rudderanalytics||[];e.methods=["load","page","track","identify","alias","group","ready","reset","getAnonymousId","setAnonymousId"],e.factory=function(t){return function(){var r=Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments);return r.unshift(t),e.push(r),e}};for(var t=0;t<e.methods.length;t++){var r=e.methods[t];e[r]=e.factory(r)}e.loadJS=function(e,t){var r=document.createElement("script");r.type="text/javascript",r.async=!0,r.src="https://cdn.rudderlabs.com/v1.1/rudder-analytics.min.js";var a=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];a.parentNode.insertBefore(r,a)},e.loadJS(),
e.load(<WRITE_KEY>,<DATA_PLANE_URL>),
e.page()}();
</script>

The above snippet lets you integrate the SDK with your website and load it asynchronously to keep your page load time unaffected.

To load rudder-analytics.js on to your page synchronously, refer to the or versions of the snippet below.

The above code snippet does the following:

Creates an array to store the events until the analytics object is ready.
Stores a list of methods to replay them when the analytics object is ready. These methods are:

Method

Description

load()

Loads rudder-analytics.js with your write key.

page()

Records page views whenever a user visits a page.

track()

Tracks user actions and important events.

identify()

Associates users and their traits or actions.

reset()

Resets the userid and the associated traits.

Loads the analytics object with your write key.

Minified code

<script>
rudderanalytics=window.rudderanalytics=[];for(var methods=["load","page","track","identify","alias","group","ready","reset","getAnonymousId","setAnonymousId"],i=0;i<methods.length;i++){var method=methods[i];rudderanalytics[method]=function(a){return function(){rudderanalytics.push([a].concat(Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments)))}}(method)}rudderanalytics.load(<WRITE_KEY>,<DATA_PLANE_URL>),rudderanalytics.page();
</script>

<script src="https://cdn.rudderlabs.com/v1.1/rudder-analytics.min.js"></script>

Non-minified code

<script>
  rudderanalytics = window.rudderanalytics = [];
  var methods = [
    "load",
    "page",
    "track",
    "identify",
    "alias",
    "group",
    "ready",
    "reset",
    "getAnonymousId",
    "setAnonymousId",
  ];
  for (var i = 0; i < methods.length; i++) {
    var method = methods[i];
    rudderanalytics[method] = (function (methodName) {
      return function () {
        rudderanalytics.push(
          [methodName].concat(Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments))
        );
      };
    })(method);
  }

  rudderanalytics.load(<WRITE_KEY>, <DATA_PLANE_URL>);
  rudderanalytics.page();
</script>

<script src="https://cdn.rudderlabs.com/v1.1/rudder-analytics.min.js"></script>

In all the above versions, there is an explicit page call at the end. This is added to ensure that whenever the SDK loads in a page, a page call is sent. You can remove this call completely or modify it with the extra page properties to suit your requirement. You can also add page calls in your application in places not tied directly to page load, e.g., virtual page views, page renders on route change such as in SPAs.

Write key and data plane URL

To integrate and initialize the JavaScript SDK, you need the source write key and the data plane URL.

Alternative installation using NPM

To install the SDK via npm, run the following command:

npm install rudder-sdk-js --save

Using the exported object

Since the module exports the related APIs on an already-defined object combined with the Node.js module caching, you should run the following code snippet only once and use the exported object throughout your project:

import * as rudderanalytics from "rudder-sdk-js";
rudderanalytics.load(<WRITE_KEY>, <DATA_PLANE_URL>);
rudderanalytics.ready(() => {
  console.log("We are all set!!!");
});
export { rudderanalytics };

You can also do this with ES5 using the require method, as shown in the following snippet:

var rudderanalytics = require("rudder-sdk-js");
rudderanalytics.load(<WRITE_KEY>, <DATA_PLANE_URL>);
exports.rudderanalytics = rudderanalytics;

The related APIs exported by the module are:

load
ready
identify
alias
page
track
group
reset
getAnonymousId
setAnonymousId

Sample implementations

Refer to the following projects for a detailed walk-through of the above steps:

Supported browser versions

Browser

Supported Versions

Safari

v7 or later

v10 or later

Edge

v80 or later

Mozilla Firefox

v47 or later

Chrome

v54 or later

Opera

v43 or later

If the SDK does not work on the browser versions that you are targeting, verify if adding the browser polyfills to your application solves the issue.

Step 2: Identify your users with the `identify()` method

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

A sample identify call is shown below:

rudderanalytics.identify(
  "12345",
  {
    email: "name@domain.com"
  },
  {
    page: {
      path: "",
      referrer: "",
      search: "",
      title: "",
      url: ""
    }
  },
  () => {
    console.log("in identify call");
  }
);

There is no need to call identify() for anonymous visitors to your website. Such visitors are automatically assigned an anonymousId.

Step 3: Track your users' actions with `track()`

The track call lets you record the customer events, i.e. the actions that they perform, along with any properties associated with them.

A sample track call is shown below:

rudderanalytics.track(
  "test track event GA3", {
    revenue: 30,
    currency: "USD",
    user_actual_id: 12345,
  },
  () => {
    console.log("in track call");
  }
);

In the above example, the track method tracks the user event test track event GA3 and information such as the revenue, currency, anonymousId.

You can use the track() method to track various success metrics for your website like user signups, item purchases, article bookmarks, and more.

Step 4: Check ready state

There are cases when you may want to tap into the features provided by the end-destination SDKs to enhance tracking and other functionalities. The JavaScript SDK exposes a ready API with a callback parameter that fires when the SDK is done initializing itself and the other third-party native SDK destinations.

An example is shown below:

rudderanalytics.ready(() => {
  console.log("We are all set!");
});

Contact us

PreviousQuerystring API NextVersion Migration Guide

Last updated 3 years ago

Was this helpful?

Step 1: Install RudderStack JavaScript SDK

Minified code

Non-minified code

Write key and data plane URL

Alternative installation using NPM

Using the exported object

Sample implementations

Supported browser versions

Step 2: Identify your users with the identify() method

Step 3: Track your users' actions with track()

Step 4: Check ready state

Contact us

Step 1: Install RudderStack JavaScript SDK

Minified code

Non-minified code

Write key and data plane URL

Alternative installation using NPM

Using the exported object

Sample implementations

Supported browser versions

Step 2: Identify your users with the identify() method

Step 3: Track your users' actions with track()

Step 4: Check ready state

Contact us

Step 2: Identify your users with the `identify()` method

Step 3: Track your users' actions with `track()`

Step 2: Identify your users with the `identify()` method

Step 3: Track your users' actions with `track()`