Python

Detailed technical documentation on using RudderStack’s Python SDK to send events to various destinations.

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

Check out the GitHub codebase to get a more hands-on understanding of the SDK.

SDK setup requirements

To set up the RudderStack Python SDK, the following prerequisites must be met:

• You will need to set up a RudderStack account.

• Once signed up, set up a Python 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 Python SDK

To install the RudderStack Python SDK using pip, run the following command:

pip install rudder-sdk-python

Initializing the RudderStack client

To initialize the RudderStack client, run the following code snippet:

import rudder_analytics

rudder_analytics.write_key = WRITE_KEY
rudder_analytics.data_plane_url = DATA_PLANE_URL

Sending events from the RudderStack client

Once the RudderStack client is initialized, you can use it to send your customer events.

A sample track call is as shown :

rudder_analytics.track('developer_user_id', 'Simple Track Event', {
  'key1': 'val1'
})

Identify

The identify call lets you identify a visiting user and capture any related information such as their name, email address, etc.

RudderStack does not store the user state in any of the server-side SDKs. Unlike the client-side SDKs that deal with only a single user at a given time, the server-side SDKs deal with multiple users at the same time. Therefore, for any of the calls supported by the Node.js SDK, you need to specify either userId or anonymousId every time.

A sample identify call is as shown:

rudder_analytics.identify('123456', {
    'email': '[e-mail]',
    'name': 'John Doe',
    'friends': 16
})

The identify method parameters are as described below:

Field	Type	Presence	Description
anonymousId	String	Optional	Sets the user ID for cases where there is no unique identifier for the user. Either userId or anonymousId is required.
userId	String	Optional, if anonymousId is already set	Unique identifier for a particular user in your database.
context	Object	Optional	Dictionary of information that provides context about a message. However, it is not directly related to the API call.
integrations	Object	Optional	A dictionary containing the destinations to be either enabled or disabled.
timestamp	Date	Optional	The timestamp of the message's arrival.
traits	Object	Optional	Dictionary of the traits associated with the user, such as nameor email .

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 call is shown below:

rudder_analytics.track('123456', 'Article Read', {
    'title': 'The Independence',
    'subtitle': 'Story of the Weak',
    'author': 'John Doe'
})

The track method parameters are as described below:

Name	Type	Presence	Description
user_id	String	Required	The developer identification for your user
event	String	Required	Name of the event being performed by the user
properties	Object	Optional	Dictionary of the properties associated with a particular event.
context	Object	Optional	Dictionary of information that provides context about a message. However, it is not directly related to the API call.
timestamp	Date	Optional	The timestamp of the message's arrival.
anonymous_id	String	Optional	Sets the user ID for cases where there is no unique identifier for the user. Either userId or anonymousId is required.
integrations	Object	Optional	A dictionary containing the destinations to be either enabled or disabled.

Page

The page call allows you to record the page views on your website along with the other relevant information about the viewed page.

A sample page call is as shown:

rudder_analytics.page('userid', 'Documentation', 'Sample Doc', {
    'url': 'http://rudderstack.com'
})

The page method parameters are as described below:

Field	Type	Presence	Description
anonymousId	String	Optional	Sets the user ID for cases where there is no unique identifier for the user. Either userId or anonymousId is required.
userId	String	Optional, if anonymousId is already set	Unique identifier for a particular user in your database.
context	Object	Optional	Dictionary of information that provides context about a message. However, it is not directly related to the API call.
integrations	Object	Optional	A dictionary containing the destinations to be either enabled or disabled.
name	String	Required	Name of the page being viewed.
properties	Object	Optional	Dictionary of the properties associated with the page being viewed, such as url and referrer
timestamp	Date	Optional	The timestamp of the message's arrival.

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:

rudder_analytics.screen('userid', 'Settings', 'Brightness', {
    'from': 'Settings Screen'
})

The screen method parameters are as described below:

Field	Type	Presence	Description
anonymousId	String	Optional	Sets the user ID for cases where there is no unique identifier for the user. Either userId or anonymousId is required.
userId	String	Optional, if anonymousId is already set	Unique identifier for a particular user in your database.
context	Object	Optional	Dictionary of information that provides context about a message. However, it is not directly related to the API call.
integrations	Object	Optional	A dictionary containing the destinations to be either enabled or disabled.
name	String	Required	Name of the screen being viewed.
properties	Object	Optional	Dictionary of the properties associated with the page being viewed, such as url and referrer
timestamp	Date	Optional	The timestamp of the message's arrival.

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:

rudder_analytics.group('userid', 'groupid', {
    'name': 'Company',
    'domain': 'IT'
})

The group method parameters are as follows:

Field	Type	Presence	Description
anonymousId	String	Optional	Sets the user ID for cases where there is no unique identifier for the user. Either userId or anonymousId is required.
userId	String	Optional, if anonymousId is already set	Unique identifier for a particular user in your database.
context	Object	Optional	Dictionary of information that provides context about a message. However, it is not directly related to the API call.
integrations	Object	Optional	A dictionary containing the destinations to be either enabled or disabled.
groupId	String	Required	Unique identifier of the group, as present in your database.
traits	Object	Optional	Dictionary of the properties or traits associated with the group, such as email or name.
timestamp	Date	Optional	The timestamp of the message's arrival.

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 as shown:

rudder_analytics.alias('previousid', 'userid')

The alias method parameters are as mentioned below:

Field	Type	Presence	Description
userId	String	Optional, if anonymousId is already set	Unique identifier for a particular user in your database.
context	Object	Optional	Dictionary of information that provides context about a message. However, it is not directly related to the API call.
integrations	Object	Optional	A dictionary containing the destinations to be either enabled or disabled.
previousId	String	Required	The previous unique identifier of the user.
traits	Object	Optional	Dictionary of the properties or traits associated with the group, such as email or name.
timestamp	Date	Optional	The timestamp of the message's arrival.

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

Flushing events

The Python SDK batches the events and flushes them in the background, for faster and more efficient operation. By default, the SDK flushes a batch of 100 events every 0.5 seconds since the last flush.

You can control the event flushing by tweaking the following parameters:

Parameter	Description	Default value
max_queue_size	Defines the maximum queue size	100
flush_interval	Time interval between two flush activities	0.5s

You can also flush the events explicitly by using the SDK's flush() method to make sure no events are left in the queue.

A sample flush call is shown below:

rudder_analytics.flush()

The SDK blocks the calling thread until all the messages are flushed from the queue. Hence, you should avoid using it as a part of your request lifecycle.

Error handling

To handle errors that may occur when sending these events via rudder_analytics you can declare a callback called on_error.

def on_error(error, events):
    print("Error response:", error)

rudder_analytics.on_error = on_error

Note that this callback will only return the errors that may occur with the HTTP request to the gateway. It will not return any errors that occur downstream.

Some of the common request responses are listed in the following table:

Status	Code
OK	200
Request neither has anonymousId nor userId	400
Invalid write key	401
Invalid JSON	400

Contact us

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