Amplitude Cloud Mode Integration

After you have successfully set up Amplitude as a destination in RudderStack, follow this guide to correctly send your events to Amplitude in cloud mode.

Identify

You can use the identify call to associate a user with their actions and capture all relevant traits about them. This includes a unique userId and other optional information like name, email address, etc.

When sending events from your Reverse ETL sources using Visual Data Mapper, you can also pass a custom user ID in your identify calls.

RudderStack adds this ID under context.externalId.0.identifierType before sending it to Amplitude.

A sample identify call is shown:

rudderanalytics.identify(
  "userId", {
    email: "name@surname.com",
    name: "John Doe",
    profession: "Student",
  })

Opt out identify calls

You can opt out of an identify call in a current session by passing a optOutOfSession trait and setting it to true. If there is no active session, passing optOutOfSession: true does not start a new session.

Unset user properties

To unset the user traits in the traits/context.traits object or userProperties in Amplitude, specify them in the integrations.Amplitude.fieldsToUnset object.

When you unset fields using fieldsToUnset, RudderStack notifies Amplitude to delete the fields along with their schema (if they exist).

See the Amplitude documentation for more information on this feature.

Example

To unset the firstName and lastName fields in the following payload:

{
  "channel": "web",
  "type": "identify",
  "context": {
    "traits": {
      "firstName": "Alex",
      "lastName": "Keener",
    },
  },
}

Set the integrations object in your identify event as shown:

{
  "integrations": {
    "Amplitude": {
      "fieldsToUnset": ["firstName", "lastName"]
    },
    "All": true,
  }
}

If the fields to unset are nested within some object (for example, someField), then specify the full path to the field in the integrations object, as shown:

{
  "integrations": {
    "Amplitude": {
      "fieldsToUnset": ["someField.firstName", "someField.lastName"]
    },
    "All": true,
  }
}

Page

The page call allows you to record your website’s page views, with the additional relevant information about the viewed page. RudderStack recommends calling this method at least once per page load.

A sample page call looks like the following:

rudderanalytics.page({
  category: "Category",
  name: "Sample",
})

In the above example, RudderStack captures information related to the page being viewed such as the category of the page (Category) and the page name (Sample).

Set custom page event names

You can set custom event names for your page calls. To use this feature, enable the Use Custom Page Event Name dashboard setting and specify the event name format in the Page Event Name Format field.

For example, if you set the event name format as Viewed a {{ name }} and pass the following event:

rudderanalytics.page("Home")

Then, RudderStack sets the event name as Viewed a Home before sending it to Amplitude.

Screen

The screen call lets you record screen views with any additional information about the viewed screen.

A sample screen call looks like the following code snippet:

[[RSClient sharedInstance] screen:@"Main"
                properties:@{@"prop_key" : @"prop_value"}];

Set custom screen event names

You can set custom event names for your screen calls. To use this feature, enable the Use Custom Screen Event Name dashboard setting and specify the event name format in the Screen Event Name Format field.

For example, if you set the event name format as Viewed a {{ name }} and pass the following event:

[[RSClient sharedInstance] screen:@"Main"
                properties:@{
                  @"title" : "Home | RudderStack",
                  @"url" : @"http://www.rudderstack.com"}
                ];

Then, RudderStack sets the event name as Viewed a Main before sending it to Amplitude.

Group

You can use the group event to link an identified user with a group, like a company, organization, or an account.

Note that RudderStack does not support associating a user to more than one group per group call sent to Amplitude.

To send more than one group per user, you must call the group API multiple times with the relevant group information specified in the group settings.

Use Amplitude Groups

Groups are an enterprise-only feature in Amplitude. You need to purchase the Accounts add-on to use this feature.

To use the Amplitude Groups feature with RudderStack:

1. Configure the Group name trait and Group value trait fields in the Group trait settings.
2. Pass the above fields as traits in your group events.

Even if you don’t have an enterprise account or the Groups add-on, RudderStack adds groups as a user property in the user’s profile with Group Name Trait as its type and Group Value Trait as its value.

For example, if you define the Group Name Trait as RS and Group Value Trait as RudderStack and make the group call, the user would then be associated with the group name as RS and the group value as RudderStack.

Track

The track call lets you record the user’s actions along with any properties associated with them.

A sample track call looks like the following:

rudderanalytics.track("Track me")

Track revenue events

In cloud mode, RudderStack automatically recognizes a revenue event if a track event has both revenue and revenue_type properties.

You can also mark a revenue event manually by setting the isRevenue property to true in the integrations object.

A sample track call categorized as a revenue event is shown below:

rudderanalytics.track("Item Purchased", {
  revenue: 30,
  revenue_type: "add-on purchase",
})

RudderStack processes revenue events in the following ways:

• If you include price and quantity fields in your event, then RudderStack calculates the revenue as price * quantity.
• If the revenue field is present in your event but price is not, then RudderStack uses revenue as the price with quantity set to 1.

The revenue field does not override the price * quantity calculation, if both are present.

Track revenue at event or product level

For events with a products array, you can track revenue at event level or product level based on your dashboard configuration:

Note that the revenueType field is set from either the revenueType or revenue_type property in your event. If not specified, RudderStack defaults its value to Purchased.

Track completed orders

While tracking completed orders with multiple products, RudderStack generates events as follows:

When Track products as a single event setting is toggled off:

• One main Order Completed event with the overall order details
• Separate Product Purchased events for each product in the products array
• Revenue tracking based on your revenue tracking configuration:

When Track products as a single event setting is toggled on:

• One single event with the original event name (Order Completed)

• All products are included as properties in this single event

• Revenue tracking based on your revenue tracking configuration:

  • If Track revenue per product setting is enabled: Each product is tracked individually with its own revenue calculation, regardless of the total order revenue.
  • If Track revenue per product setting is disabled: The total revenue specified at the order level is used.

In both the cases, any discrepancy between the sum of product revenues and the order-level revenue is ignored.

A sample Order Completed event is shown below:

rudderanalytics.track("Order Completed", {
  checkoutId: "ABCD1234",
  orderId: "order1234",
  revenue: 50,
  products: [
    {
      productId: "product1",
      sku: "45790-32",
      name: "Monopoly: 3rd Edition",
      price: 20,
      quantity: 1,
      category: "Games",
    },
    {
      productId: "product2",
      sku: "46493-32",
      name: "Uno Card Game",
      price: 15,
      quantity: 2,
      category: "Games",
    },
  ],
})

Alias

Note that:

• This feature is currently only available when sending events through the JavaScript SDK in cloud mode.
• You will need to enable the Amplitude Portfolio add-on to use the alias call.

The alias call lets you merge different identities of a known user. For more information on how the alias call works for Amplitude, see the Amplitude support page.

A sample alias call is shown below:

rudderanalytics.alias("new_id", "old_id");

See the JavaScript SDK documentation for more information on the alias API.

Map a user ID

Amplitude’s alias call creates a mapping or link between the user_id specified in the from parameter to the global_user_id specified in the to parameter of the alias call, as shown:

rudderanalytics.alias("user_id", "global_user_id", options, callback)

Unmap a user ID

You can also unmap an already established link or a connection in Amplitude using the following format:

rudderanalytics.alias("user_id_to_unmapped", {
  integrations: {
    Amplitude: {
      unmap: true,
    },
  },
})

In the snippet above, user_to_be_unmapped, will be unmapped or unlinked from the global_user_id that it is currently linked to.

For the unmapping user ID, do not provide global_user_id in the to parameter of the alias call, otherwise RudderStack will dismiss this field.

Advanced features

This section covers some advanced features that you can use to enhance your Amplitude cloud mode integration with RudderStack.

Send event_id

RudderStack supports sending event_id to Amplitude. You can include it under the integrations object and it is supported for all API calls (identify, track, page, screen, and group).

A sample identify call with event_id is shown below:

rudderanalytics.identify(
  "1hKOmRA4GRlm", {
    name: "Alex Keener"
  }, {
    integrations: {
      Amplitude: {
        event_id: 1234
      }
    }
  }
);

Skip user properties sync

When you send an event to Amplitude via RudderStack, Amplitude updates the existing user properties and appends any new ones. You can change this behavior by setting the skip_user_properties_sync property to true in the integrations object.

This ensures that the event in Amplitude:

• Includes only the user properties sent with it
• Does not modify the user properties table
• Does not include any pre-existing user properties

See Amplitude documentation for more information on this feature.

A sample integrations object with the skip_user_properties_sync property is shown below:

"integrations": {
        ...
        ...
        "Amplitude": {
            "skipUserPropertiesSync": true
        }
        ...
        ...
    }

GDPR and user suppression

You can delete a user in Amplitude using Suppression with Delete regulation in the RudderStack User Suppression API.

To delete a user, specify their userId in the event. Optionally, you can specify a custom identifier.

A sample regulation request body for deleting a user in Amplitude is shown below:

{
  "regulationType": "suppress_with_delete",
  "destinationIds": [
    "2FIKkByqn37FhzczP23eZmURciA"
  ],
  "users": [{
    "userId": "1hKOmRA4GRlm",
    "<customKey>": "<customValue>"
  }]
}

FAQ

Why are all my session IDs -1 in Amplitude?

You will see the session IDs as -1 in Amplitude if you are sending events in cloud mode and:

• You are not including the session ID in your event’s context.sessionId.
• The sessionId is not an integer (ideally, a Unix timestamp).

See Amplitude’s documentation for more information on how Amplitude tracks user sessions.

Can I send more than one group per user to Amplitude?

RudderStack does not support associating a user to more than one group per group API call sent to Amplitude.

To send more than one group per user, you need to call the group API multiple times with the relevant group information specified in the group settings.

How does RudderStack send the operating system information to Amplitude?

RudderStack sends the following contextual fields that capture the operating system details:

Note that:

• To send the OS-related information differently, you can write a transformation according to your requirements.
• Amplitude combines the above fields to set the OS property as follows:

OS = os_name + os_version

Why am I getting 429 errors in Amplitude?

Amplitude has a limit of 10 events per second per user. You might get this error if you are sending too many requests at a time for a given user.

RudderStack recommends stopping event sending for at least 30 seconds before retrying.

See the Amplitude support page for more information on the common API error codes.

What are the batch processing limits in cloud mode?

When sending events in batches to Amplitude in cloud mode, there are two important limits to consider:

• Maximum batch size: 20MB
• Maximum number of events per batch: 500 events

If your events exceed these limits, RudderStack will automatically split them into multiple batches.

How does RudderStack handle user IDs with less than 5 characters?

When sending events with user IDs less than 5 characters in cloud mode:

• For single event processing: RudderStack processes the event normally.
• For batch processing: RudderStack removes the user ID from the event to prevent batch processing errors. However, the event is still sent with other identifiers (like device ID).

RudderStack recommends using user IDs that are at least 5 characters long to ensure consistent processing across all event types.

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