RudderStack Go SDK

RudderStack’s Go SDK lets you track and send the events from your Go applications to the specified destinations.

See the Go SDK GitHub codebase for implementation-specific details.

SDK setup requirements

• Sign up for RudderStack.
• Set up a Go source in your dashboard. Note the write keyThe write key (or source write key) is a unique identifier for your source. RudderStack uses this key to send events from a source to the specified destination. for this source.
• You will also need the data plane URL associated with your RudderStack workspace.

The Setup tab in the RudderStack dashboard has the SDK installation snippet containing both the write key and the data plane URL. Use it to integrate the Go SDK into your application.

Install Go SDK

To install the Go SDK in the GOPATH, run the following command:

go get github.com/rudderlabs/analytics-go

Initialize the SDK

Run the following code snippet to initialize the Go SDK:

package main

import (
    "github.com/rudderlabs/analytics-go/v4"
)

func main() {
    // Instantiates a client to use send messages to the RudderStack API.
    
    // Use your write key in the below placeholder:
    
    client := analytics.New(<WRITE_KEY>, <DATA_PLANE_URL>)

    // Enqueues a track event that will be sent asynchronously.
    client.Enqueue(analytics.Track{
        UserId: "1hKOmRA4GRlm",
        Event:  "Test Event",
    })

    // Flushes any queued messages and closes the client.
    client.Close()
}

Alternatively, you can run the following snippet:

package main

import (
    "github.com/rudderlabs/analytics-go/v4"
)

func main() {
    // Instantiates a client to use send messages to the RudderStack API.
    
    // Enter your write key in the below placeholder:
    
    client, _ := analytics.NewWithConfig(WRITE_KEY,
		analytics.Config{
			DataPlaneUrl: DATA_PLANE_URL,
			Interval:     30 * time.Second,
			BatchSize:    100,
			Verbose:      true,
			DisableGzip:  false,  // Set to true to disable Gzip compression.
		})

    // Enqueues a track event that will be sent asynchronously.
    
    client.Enqueue(analytics.Track{
        UserId: "1hKOmRA4GRlm",
        Event:  "Test Event",
    })

    // Flushes any queued messages and closes the client.
    
    client.Close()
}

Migrate to SDK v4

To migrate to the Go SDK v4.1.0, set the data plane URL in Config (as seen in the above section) instead of passing it as an argument.

SDK initialization options

The RudderStack Go SDK provides the following parameters which you can pass during the SDK’s initialization:

Gzip event requests

The Go SDK supports the Gzip compression feature from v4.1.0 and above.

The Go SDK automatically gzips requests. However, you can disable this by setting the DisableGzip parameter to true while initializing the SDK:

client, _ := analytics.NewWithConfig(WRITE_KEY,
		analytics.Config{
			DataPlaneUrl: DATA_PLANE_URL,
			Interval:     30 * time.Second,
			BatchSize:    100,
			Verbose:      true,
			DisableGzip: true
		})

The DisableGzip parameter requires rudder-server version 1.4 or higher. Otherwise, your events might fail.

Send events

RudderStack does not store or persist 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 simultaneously. Therefore, you must specify either the userId or anonymousId every time while making any API calls supported by the Go SDK.

Identify

The identify call lets you identify a visiting user and associate them to their actions. It also lets you record the traits about them like their name, email address, etc.

A sample identify call is shown:

client.Enqueue(analytics.Identify{
  UserId: "1hKOmRA4GRlm",
  Traits: analytics.NewTraits().
    SetName("Alex Keener").
    SetEmail("alex@example.com").
    Set("plan", "Free").
    Set("manager", 12),
})

The identify method parameters are as described below:

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:

client.Enqueue(analytics.Track{
  UserId: "1hKOmRA4GRlm",
  Event:  "Signed Up",
  Properties: analytics.NewProperties().
    Set("plan", "Free"),
})

The track method parameters are as described below:

Page

The page call lets you record the page views on your application along with the other relevant information about the page.

A sample page call is as shown:

client.Enqueue(analytics.Page{
  UserId: "12345",
  Name:   "Pizza",
  Properties: analytics.NewProperties().
    SetURL("https://dominos.com"),
})

The page method parameters are as described below:

Screen

The screen call is the mobile equivalent of the page call. It lets you record the screen views on your mobile app along with other relevant information about the screen.

A sample screen call is as shown:

client.Enqueue(analytics.Screen{
  UserId: "1hKOmRA4GRlm",
  Name:   "Pizza",
  Properties: analytics.NewProperties().
    SetURL("https://dominos.com"),
})

The screen method parameters are as described below:

Group

The group call lets you link an identified user with a group, such as a company, organization, or an account. It also lets you record any custom traits or properties associated with that group.

A sample group call made using the Go SDK is shown below:

client.Enqueue(analytics.Group{
  UserId:  "1hKOmRA4GRlm",
  GroupId: "1",
  Traits: map[string]interface{}{
    "name": "Company",
    "description": "Facebook",
  },
})

The group method parameters are as follows:

Alias

The alias call lets you merge different identities of a known user. It is an advanced method that lets you change the tracked user’s ID explicitly. You can use alias for managing the user’s identity in some of the downstream destinations.

RudderStack supports sending alias events only to select downstream destinations. See the destination-specific documentation for more details.

A sample alias call is as shown:

client.Enqueue(analytics.Alias{
  PreviousId: "12345",
  UserId:     "1hKOmRA4GRlm",
})

The alias method parameters are as mentioned below:

FAQ

How does the Go SDK handle events larger than 32KB?

The Go SDK drops any events greater than 32KB. To avoid data loss, ensure your events are within this size limit.

Does the Go SDK support event ordering?

The Go SDK does not support event ordering by default. Events are processed asynchronously in batches for better performance.

What happens if the data plane URL is unreachable?

If the data plane URL is unreachable, the SDK will:

1. Retry sending the events based on the RetryAfter configuration.
2. Buffer events up to the configured BatchSize.
3. Drop events if the buffer is full.

Questions? Contact us by email or on Slack