Last modified September 18, 2018 by Shelly Wolfe

Web

Swrve is a multi-channel customer engagement platform that provides hyper-targeting and hyper-personalization in real-time to automate relevant moments of interaction that acquire, retain and monetize customers.
The Swrve Web SDK for web browsers enables your web app to use all of these features. This guide contains all the information you need to integrate the SDK for your web app.

Requirements

The Swrve Web SDK is intended and tested for use with web browsers—mainly Chrome, Firefox and Safari.
To use the Swrve Web SDK, you must generate a web-sdk API key in Swrve on the app’s Integration Settings screen.
The Swrve Web SDK is intended for tracking and targeting identified users across multiple channels and platforms, for example, web, mobile app, TV. Therefore, you must have your own means of generating and storing unique identifiers for the visitors of your site.
If you download the SwrveSDK production bundle and include it via script tag, there are no additional dependencies.
If you want to compile the SDK bundle from source, you will need Node.js 8+ and Yarn 1.5+.

Installing the SDK

Swrve has an open source SDK repository. There are two options for downloading the latest public Swrve Web SDK:

Install the SDK using npm (node package manager).
Run the following command: npm install @swrve/web-sdk.
Download the SDK from the GitHub public repository.

Basic integration

After you have installed the SDK, complete the following for a basic integration.

Depending on your data requirements, Swrve stores all customer data and content in either our US or EU data centers. If you require EU data storage, include the EU stack information in the examples below to configure the SDK to point to Swrve’s EU-based URL endpoints. If you have any questions or need assistance configuring the SDK for EU data storage, please contact support@swrve.com.

To integrate the SDK, create an instance before your application starts. Replace <app_id>, <web_api_key> and <external_user_id> with your app ID, web-sdk API key and unique external user ID.

The <external_user_id> is a non-discoverable key that identifies your user across multiple channels and platforms. Emails or other personally identifiable information (PIIs) are not accepted as external user IDs, they will be rejected on the server side.

Using the SDK bundle with a script tag

<script src="SwrveSDK.js"></script>
<script>
    SwrveSDK.default.createInstance({
        appId: <app_id>,
        apiKey: "<web_api_key>",
        externalUserId: "<external_user_id>",
        //stack: "eu", **To use the EU stack, include this in your config **//
    });
</script>

SwrveSDK.default.createInstance({

appId: <app_id>,

apiKey: "<web_api_key>",

externalUserId: "<external_user_id>",

//stack: "eu", **To use the EU stack, include this in your config **//

});

</script>

Using the SDK when installed from npm

When using ES5 modules, require the SDK as follows:

var SwrveSDK = require("swrvesdk");
SwrveSDK.default.createInstance({
    appId: <app_id>,
    apiKey: "<web_api_key>",
    externalUserId: "<external_user_id>",
    //stack: "eu", **To use the EU stack, include this in your config **//
});

var SwrveSDK = require("swrvesdk");

SwrveSDK.default.createInstance({

appId: <app_id>,

apiKey: "<web_api_key>",

externalUserId: "<external_user_id>",

//stack: "eu", **To use the EU stack, include this in your config **//

});

Or you can import it it as an ES6 module:

import SwrveSDK from "swrvesdk";
SwrveSDK.default.createInstance({
    appId: <app_id>,
    apiKey: "<web_api_key>",
    externalUserId: "<external_user_id>",
    //** stack: "eu", **To use the EU stack, include this in your config **//
});

import SwrveSDK from "swrvesdk";

SwrveSDK.default.createInstance({

appId: <app_id>,

apiKey: "<web_api_key>",

externalUserId: "<external_user_id>",

//** stack: "eu", **To use the EU stack, include this in your config **//

});

Sending events

The Swrve SDK automatically sends certain events and also enables you to track user behavior by sending custom events. (For a list of default Swrve events, see About Audience Filters, Events.) In turn, you can use app-generated events to trigger in-app messages on other platforms, while both app- and server-generated events help you define segments and perform in-depth analysis.

Custom events

To send a custom event, include the below example in a method where you want to send an event to Swrve.

SwrveSDK.default.namedEvent({name:"custom.event_name"});

Requirements for sending custom events:

Do not send the same named event with different case. For example, if you send tutorial.start, then ensure you never send Tutorial.Start.
Use a period (.) in your event names to organize their layout in the Swrve dashboard. Each ‘.’ creates a new branch in the Event name column of the Events report, and groups your events so they are easy to locate.
Do not send more than 1000 unique named events.
Do not add unique identifiers to event names. For example, Tutorial.Start.ServerID-ABDCEFG
Do not add timestamps to event names. For example, Tutorial.Start.1454458885
Do not use the swrve.* or Swrve.* namespace for your own events. This is reserved for Swrve use only. Custom event names beginning with Swrve. are restricted and cannot be sent.

Event payloads

You can add and send an event payload with every event. This allows for more detailed reporting around events and funnels.

Notes on associated payloads:

The associated payload should be a dictionary of key/value pairs; it is restricted to string and integer keys and values.
There is a maximum cardinality of 500 key-value pairs for this payload per event. This parameter is optional, but only the first 500 payloads are displayed in the dashboard. The data is still available in raw event logs.
If you want to use event payloads to target your campaign audiences, you can configure up to 10 custom events with a maximum of 10 payloads per event for audience filtering purposes. For more information, see Targeting your audience by event payloads.

SwrveSDK.default.namedEvent({
     name:"custom.event_name", 
     payload : {
        key1: "value1",
        key2: "value2",
     }
});

SwrveSDK.default.namedEvent({

name:"custom.event_name",

payload : {

key1: "value1",

key2: "value2",

}

});

For example, if you want to track when a user starts the registration experience, it might make sense to send an event named registration.start and add a payload time that captures how much time it took the user to complete the registration.

SwrveSDK.default.namedEvent({
      name: 'registration.start', 
            payload: {
                time: '100',
                step: '5',
            }
        });

SwrveSDK.default.namedEvent({

name: 'registration.start',

payload: {

time: '100',

step: '5',

}

});

Custom user properties

The Swrve SDK sends certain user properties by default and also enables you to assign custom properties to update the user’s status. (For a full list of the default user properties, see Assigning User Properties.)

For example, you could create a custom user property called premium, and then target non-premium users and premium users in your campaigns.

When configuring custom properties, the Swrve SDK only supports string values.

Example of group of user properties

SwrveSDK.default.userUpdate({
	premium: "true",
	level: "12",
	balance: "999",
});

SwrveSDK.default.userUpdate({

premium: "true",

level: "12",

balance: "999",

});

Example of date-typed user property

Use the Date object to send a DateTime user property; for example, the current date at the time of a user purchase:

SwrveSDK.default.userUpdateWithDate({
     name: "last_purchase",
     date: new Date()
});

SwrveSDK.default.userUpdateWithDate({

name: "last_purchase",

date: new Date()

});

Virtual Economy Events

To ensure virtual currency events are not ignored by the server, make sure the currency name configured in your app matches exactly the Currency Name you enter in the App Currencies section on the App Settings screen (including case-sensitive). If there is any difference, or if you haven’t added the currency in Swrve, the server will ignore the event and return an error event called Swrve.error.invalid_currency. Additionally, the ignored events are not included in your KPI reports. For more information, see Add Your App.

If your app has a virtual economy, send the purchase event when users purchase in-app items with virtual currency.

var item = "some.item";
var currency = "gold";
var cost = 99;
var quantity = 1;
SwrveSDK.default.purchaseEvent({
     cost,
     currency,
     item,
     quantity
})

var item = "some.item";

var currency = "gold";

var cost = 99;

var quantity = 1;

SwrveSDK.default.purchaseEvent({

cost,

currency,

item,

quantity

})

Testing your integration

After you’ve completed the above, the next step is to test the integration. For more information, see Testing Your Integration.

Developer

Developer Documentation

Web

Requirements

Installing the SDK

Basic integration

Using the SDK bundle with a script tag

Using the SDK when installed from npm

Sending events

Custom events

Event payloads

Custom user properties

Example of group of user properties

Example of date-typed user property

Virtual Economy Events

Testing your integration