Ruby

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

The RudderStack Ruby SDK lets you track your customer event data from your Ruby code 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 Ruby SDK, the following prerequisites must be met:

• You will need to set up a RudderStack account.

• Once signed up, set up a Ruby 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 Ruby SDK

To install the RudderStack Ruby SDK, add this line to your application's Gem file:

gem 'rudder_analytics_sync'

You can also install it yourself, as shown:

gem install rudder_analytics_sync

Using the SDK

To use the SDK, create a client instance as shown in the following snippet:

require 'rudder_analytics_sync'

Analytics = RudderAnalyticsSync::Client.new(
  write_key: WRITE_KEY, # required
  data_plane_url: DATA_PLANE_URL
  on_error: proc { |error_code, error_body, exception, response|
    # defaults to an empty proc
  }
)

You can then use this client to send event requests, as shown:

Analytics.track(
  user_id: user.id,
  event: 'Created Account'
)

Manually batching events

You can manually batch events with Analytics.batch as shown:

Analytics.batch do |batch|
  batch.context = {...}       # shared context for all events
  batch.integrations = {...}  # shared integrations hash for all events
  batch.identify(...)
  batch.track(...)
  batch.track(...)
  ...
end

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:

Analytics.identify(
  user_id: '12345',
  traits: { email: "#{ username.email }", friends: 1 },
  context: {ip: '10.81.20.10'}
)

The identify method parameters are as shown:

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:

Analytics.track(
  user_id: '12345',
  event: 'Item Sold',
  properties: { revenue: 9.95, shipping: 'Free' }
)

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:

Analytics.page(
  user_id: userid,
  category: 'Food',
  name: 'Pizza',
  properties: { url: 'https://dominos.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.

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:

Analytics.group(
  user_id: '12345',
  group_id: '12',
  traits: { name: 'Company', description: 'Software'}
)

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:

Analytics.alias(previous_id: '12345', user_id: '123')

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.

Contact us

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