Python
Detailed technical documentation on using RudderStack’s Python SDK to send events to various destinations.
Last updated
Was this helpful?
Detailed technical documentation on using RudderStack’s Python SDK to send events to various destinations.
Last updated
Was this helpful?
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.
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.
To install the RudderStack Python SDK using pip, run the following command:
To initialize the RudderStack client, run the following code snippet:
Once the RudderStack client is initialized, you can use it to send your customer events.
A sample track
call is as shown :
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:
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 name
or email
.
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:
The track
method parameters are as described below:
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.
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:
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.
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:
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.
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:
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.
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:
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.
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:
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:
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.
To handle errors that may occur when sending these events via rudder_analytics
you can declare a callback called 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:
OK
200
Request neither has anonymousId
nor userId
400
Invalid write key
401
Invalid JSON
400
For any queries on any of the sections covered in this guide, you can contact us, or start a conversation in our Slack community.