Cordova SDK

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

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

SDK setup requirements

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

• You need to set up a RudderStack account.
• Once signed up, set up an Cordova source in the dashboard. You should be able to see a Write Key for this source, as shown below:

• You will also need a data plane URL. Refer to the Glossary for more information on the data plane URL and where to find it.

The Setup tab in the RudderStack dashboard (seen above) has an SDK installation snippet containing both the write key and the data plane URL. You can use it to integrate the Cordova SDK into your project.

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 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:

• 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:

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 allir latest traits are captured in all 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: "john@rudderstack.com",
  firstName: "john",
});

The identify method has the following signatures:

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:

RudderStack automatically tracks the following application lifecycle events:

• Application Installed
• Application Opened
• Application Updated
• Application Backgrounded

You can disable tracking these events by setting trackLifecycleEvents to false while initializing the SDK. However, it is highly recommended to keep it 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:

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:

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:

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

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 above-mentioned API calls. It has the following signature:

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": "alex@example.com",
  "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:

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 device mode, you can explicitly specify which events should be discarded or allowed to flow through - by allowlisting or denylisting 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 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:

RudderClient.putAnonymousId("CustomAnonymousId");

Setting the advertisement ID

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

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
})

FAQ

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 Setup tab:

Where can I find the data plane URL?

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

Do I need to add anything to my Android ProGuard rules?

If you are facing any event delivery issues in your production environment, verify if you have added the following line in your ProGuard rules:

-keep class com.rudderstack.android.** { *; }

Questions? Contact us by email or on Slack