Mixpanel SDKs: Ruby

Getting Started

The Mixpanel Ruby library is designed to be used for scripting, or in circumstances when a user isn’t directly interacting with your application on the web or a mobile device.

The Full API Reference, Library Source Code, and an Example Script is documented in our GitHub repo.

See our server quickstart for how to get started with the Ruby SDK.

Installing the Library

To intall the library, call the following in your command line to install the mixpanel-ruby gem:

# install mixpanel ruby sdk with gem
gem install mixpanel-ruby

After the installation, import the gem and create an instance of the Mixpanel::Tracker class to start using the library in your code:

# import the mixpanel gem
require 'mixpanel-ruby'
 
# create an instance of the Mixpanel class
tracker = Mixpanel::Tracker.new("YOUR_PROJECT_TOKEN")

Sending Events

Use track() to send an event by providing the distinct_id, event name, and any event properties. This will trigger a request to the /track API endpoint to ingest the event into your project.

The /track endpoint will only validate events with timestamps within the last 5 days of the request. Events with timestamps older than 5 days will not be ingested. See below on best practices for historical imports.

Example Usage

# create an instance of the Mixpanel class
require 'mixpanel-ruby'
tracker = Mixpanel::Tracker.new("YOUR_PROJECT_TOKEN")
 
# track "some_event" for distinct_id 12345
# with "plan" event prop
tracker.track('12345', 'some_event', {
    'plan' => 'Premium'
})

Mixpanel determines default geolocation data ($city, $region, mp_country_code) using the IP address on the incoming request. As all server-side calls will likely originate from the same IP (that is, the IP of your server), this can have the unintended effect of setting the location of all of your users to the location of your data center. Learn more about best practices for geolocation..

Importing Historical Events

The track() function is designed for real-time tracking in a server-side environment and will trigger request to the /track API endpoint, which will validate for events with a time stamp that is within the last 5 days of the request. Events older than 5 days will not be ingested.

Use the import() function to import events that occured more than 5 days in the past. The import() function is based on the /import API endpoint.

Example Usage

# create an instance of the Mixpanel class
require 'mixpanel-ruby'
tracker = Mixpanel::Tracker.new("YOUR_PROJECT_TOKEN")
 
# track "some_event" for distinct_id 12345
# with "plan" event prop
tracker.import("API_KEY", "12345", "Welcome Email Sent", {
    'Email Template' => 'Pretty Pink Welcome',
    'User Sign-up Cohort' => 'July 2013',
    'time' => 1369353600,
})

You can also use the mp-utils python module designed for scripting.

Managing User Identity

Since the Ruby SDK is a server-side library, IDs are not generated by the SDK. Instead, you will need to generate and manage the distinct_id yourself and include it in your events and profile data.

Learn more about server-side identity management.

Storing User Profiles

Once your users are identified, create user profiles by setting profile properties to describe them. Example profile properties include “name”, “email”, “company”, and any other demographic details about the user.

The Ruby SDK provides a few methods for setting profile properties, which will trigger requests to the /engage API endpoint.

Setting Profile Properties

Instances of Mixpanel::Tracker have a property called people that is an instance of Mixpanel::People, which contain methods for managing user profile properties.

Set profile properties on a user profile by calling people.set().

If a profile property already exist, if will be overwritten with the latest value provided in the method. If a profile property does not exist, it will be added to the profile.

Example Usage

# create an instance of the Mixpanel class
require 'mixpanel-ruby'
tracker = Mixpanel::Tracker.new("YOUR_PROJECT_TOKEN")
 
# create a user profile with name and email props
tracker.people.set('sample_distinct_id', {
    'name'       => 'Sam',
    '$email'     => 'sam@example.com'
}, ip = 0); # do not update geolocation
 
# update name property from "sam" to "samantha"
tracker.people.set('sample_distinct_id', {
    'name'       => 'Samantha'
}, ip = 0);

Other Types of Profile Updates

There are a few other methods for setting profile properties. See a complete reference of the available methods here.

A few commonly used people methods are highlighted below:

The set_once() method set profile properties only if they do not exist yet. If it is setting a profile property that already exists, it will be ignored.

Use this method if you want to set profile properties without the risk of overwriting existing data.

Example Usage

# create an instance of the Mixpanel class
require 'mixpanel-ruby'
tracker = Mixpanel::Tracker.new("YOUR_PROJECT_TOKEN")
 
# set profile properties for user "1234"
tracker.people.set('1234', {
'name'  => 'Sam'
}, ip = 0);
 
 
# will be ignored since "name" already exists
tracker.people.set_once('1234', {
'name'  => 'Samantha'
}, ip = 0);
 
# set "location" user prop since it does not exist
tracker.people.set_once('1234', {
'location'  => 'us'
}, ip = 0);

The append() method append values to a list profile property.

Use this method to add additional values to an existing list property instead of redefining the entire list.

Example Usage

# create an instance of the Mixpanel class
require 'mixpanel-ruby'
tracker = Mixpanel::Tracker.new("YOUR_PROJECT_TOKEN");
 
# set profile properties for user "1234"
tracker.people.set('1234', {
'name'  => 'Sam',
'roles' => ['sales','engineer']
}, ip = 0);
 
 
# add "legal" to "roles"  
# new role values are ['sales','engineer','legal']
tracker.people.append("1234", {
'roles' => 'legal'
}, ip = 0);
 
# .append() allows duplicates
# new "roles" values are ['sales','engineer','legal', 'legal']
tracker.people.append("1234", {
'roles' => 'legal'
}, ip = 0);

The union() method append new values to a list property, excluding duplicates.

Use this method to create a list profile property that only contains unique values without duplicates.

Example Usage

# create an instance of the Mixpanel class
require 'mixpanel-ruby'
tracker = Mixpanel::Tracker.new("YOUR_PROJECT_TOKEN")
 
# set profile properties for user "1234"
tracker.people.set('1234', {
'name'  => 'Sam',
'roles' => ['sales','engineer']
}, ip = 0);
 
# "engineer" ignored since it already exists
# append "legal" to "roles"
tracker.people.union("1234", {
'roles' => ['engineer','legal']
}, ip = 0);

The increment() method increments a numeric property by a whole number.

Use this method to add to or subtract from your numeric property based on its current value.

Example Usage

# create an instance of the Mixpanel class
require 'mixpanel-ruby'
tracker = Mixpanel::Tracker.new("YOUR_PROJECT_TOKEN")
 
# set profile properties for user "1234"
tracker.people.set('1234', {
'name'  => 'Sam',
'age' => 25
}, ip = 0);
 
# increment "age" by 2
tracker.people.increment('1234', {
'age'  => 2,
}, ip = 0);
 
# use negative number to decrement
# decrement "age" by 5
tracker.people.increment('1234', {
'age'  => -5,
}, ip = 0);

Group Analytics

Read more about Group Analytics before proceeding. You will need to have the group key defined in your project settings first.

Mixpanel Group Analytics is a paid add-on that allows behavioral data analysis by selected groups, as opposed to individual users.

A group is identified by the group_key and group_id.

group_key is the event property that connects event data to a group. (e.g. company)
group_id is the identifier for a specific group. (e.g. mixpanel,company_a,company_b, etc.)

Sending Group Identifiers With Events

All events must have the group key as an event property in order to be attributed to a group. Without the group key, an event cannot be attributed to a group.

To send group identifiers with your events, set the group_key as an event property with the group_id as the value.

Example Usage

# track "some_event" with "sample_distinct_id"
# event is attributed to the "mixpanel" company group
Tracker = Mixpanel::Tracker.new("YOUR_PROJECT_TOKEN")
tracker.track("sample_distinct_id", “some_event”, {
  "company" => "mixpanel"
})

Multiple Groups

An event can be attributed to multiple groups by passing in the group_key value as a list of multiple group_id values.

Example Usage

# track "some_event" with a "distinct_id"
# event is attributed to 2 comapny groups: "mp-us" and "mp-eu"
Tracker = Mixpanel::Tracker.new("YOUR_PROJECT_TOKEN")
tracker.track("sample_distinct_id", “some_event”, {
  "company" => ["mp-us","mp-eu"]
})

Adding Group Identifiers to User Profiles

To connect group information to a user profile, include the group_key and group_id as a user profile property using the .people.set() call.

Example Usage

# create an instance of the Mixpanel class
require 'mixpanel-ruby'
tracker = Mixpanel::Tracker.new("YOUR_PROJECT_TOKEN")
 
# set group key "company" as a user prop
# with group id "mixpanel" as value
tracker.people.set('sample_distinct_id', {
    'name'       => 'Sam',
    'company'     => 'mixpanel'
}, ip = 0);

Setting Group Profile Properties

Create a group profile by setting group properties, similar to a user profile. For example, you may want to describe a company group with properties such as “ARR”, “employee_count”, and “subscription”.

Instances of Mixpanel::Tracker have a property called groups that is an instance of Mixpanel::Groups, which contain methods for managing group profile properties.

To set group profile properties, use the groups.set() method, which will trigger a request to the /groups API endpoint.

Example Usage

# create group profile for the "mixpanel" company group
# set "Company Type" and "$name" group profile properties
tracker = Mixpanel::Tracker.new(YOUR_MIXPANEL_TOKEN)
tracker.groups.set('company', 'mixpanel', {
  '$name' => 'Mixpanel',
  'Company Type' => 'Analytics',
})

Other Group Profile Methods

See all of the methods under the Groups class here.

A few commonly used group methods are highlighted below:

The set_once() method set group profile properties only if they do not exist yet. If it is setting a profile property that already exists, it will be ignored.

Use this method if you want to set group profile properties without the risk of overwriting existing data.

Example Usage

tracker = Mixpanel::Tracker.new(YOUR_MIXPANEL_TOKEN)
 
# set group profile for "mixpanel" company group
tracker.groups.set('company', 'mixpanel', {
  'name' => 'Mixpanel',
  'employee_count' => 100
})
 
# ignored since "name" is already exists
tracker.groups.set_once('company', 'mixpanel', {
  'name' => 'mp-us',
})
 
# set "location" group prop since it does not exist
tracker.groups.set_once('company', 'mixpanel', {
  'location' => 'us',
})

The unset() method removes a group property from a group profile.

Use this method to delete unwanted group profile properties from a specific group profile.

Example Usage

tracker = Mixpanel::Tracker.new(YOUR_MIXPANEL_TOKEN)
 
# set group profile for the "mixpanel" company group
tracker.groups.set('company', 'mixpanel', {
  'name' => 'Mixpanel',
  'employee_count' => 100
})
 
# delete "employee_count" from the group profile
tracker.groups.unset('company', 'mixpanel', 'employee_count')
 
# only "name" remains as a group prop

The union() method append new values to a list property, excluding duplicates.

Use this method to create a list group profile property that only contains unique values without duplicates.

Example Usage

tracker = Mixpanel::Tracker.new(YOUR_MIXPANEL_TOKEN)
 
# set group profile for the "mixpanel" company group
tracker.groups.set('company', 'mixpanel', {
  'name' => 'Mixpanel',
  'features' => ['alert','cohort','reports']
})
 
# add "data pipeline" to "features" prop
# ignore "alert" since it is a duplicate value
tracker.groups.union('company','mixpanel', {
    'features' => ['data pipeline','alert']
})

The remove() method removes a value from a list-valued group profile property.

Use this method to remove specific values from a list without affecting all of the other values in the list.

Example Usage

tracker = Mixpanel::Tracker.new(YOUR_MIXPANEL_TOKEN)
 
# set group profile for the "mixpanel" company group
mp.groups.set('company','mixpanel', {
    'name' => 'Mixpanel',
    'features' => ['reports','alerts','cohorts']
})
 
# remove "alerts" from "features"
# "features" now contain ["reports","cohorts"]
mixpanel.groups.remove('company','mixpanel', {
    'features' => ['alerts']
})

Privacy-Friendly Tracking

You have control over the data you send to Mixpanel. The Ruby SDK have a few configurations to help you protect user data.

Since this is a server-side tracking library where you have control of the servers, your server is responsible for determining whether to send data about a particular user or not.

EU Data Residency

Route data to Mixpanel’s EU servers by using a custom consumer:

Example Usage

require 'mixpanel-ruby'
 
eu_consumer = Mixpanel::Consumer.new(
    'https://api-eu.mixpanel.com/track', #set track request URL
    'https://api-eu.mixpanel.com/engage', #set profile request URL
    'https://api-eu.mixpanel.com/groups', #set group request URL
)
 
# initialize Mixpanel with your custom consumer
tracker = Mixpanel::Tracker.new(YOUR_PROJECT_TOKEN) do |type, message|
    eu_consumer.send!(type, message)
end

India Data Residency

Route data to Mixpanel’s India servers by using a custom consumer:

Example Usage

require 'mixpanel-ruby'
 
in_consumer = Mixpanel::Consumer.new(
    'https://api-in.mixpanel.com/track', #set track request URL
    'https://api-in.mixpanel.com/engage', #set profile request URL
    'https://api-in.mixpanel.com/groups', #set group request URL
)
 
# initialize Mixpanel with your custom consumer
tracker = Mixpanel::Tracker.new(YOUR_PROJECT_TOKEN) do |type, message|
    in_consumer.send!(type, message)
end

Disable Geolocation

The Ruby SDK parse the request IP address to generate geolocation properties for events and profiles. You may want to disable them to prevent the unintentional setting of your data’s geolocation to the location of your server that is sending the request, or to prevent geolocation data from being tracked entirely.

To disable geolocation, set the ip of your events and profile updates to 0.

Example Usage

require 'mixpanel-ruby'
tracker = Mixpanel::Tracker.new(YOUR_MIXPANEL_TOKEN)
 
# track "some_event" without geolocation parsing
tracker.track('sample_distinct_id', 'some_event', {
    'plan' => 'Premium'
}, ip=0)
 
# set age property without geolocation parsing
tracker.people.set('1234', {
    'age'  => -5,
    }, ip = 0);

Release History

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