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SourcesTracking SDKQuickstart

Quickstart

Get event tracking running on your site in three steps. The CDN snippet is the recommended approach — it loads the SDK from Vendo’s CDN and buffers all calls before the SDK loads, so no events are lost.

Step 1: Add the Snippet

Paste this into your site’s <head>. Replace YOUR_WRITE_KEY with your write key and YOUR_TRACKING_ENDPOINT with your Cloud Run ingestion API URL.

<script>
(function(w,d,s,e,l,k){w['VendoObject']=e;w[e]=w[e]||function(){
(w[e].q=w[e].q||[]).push(arguments)};w[e].l=1*new Date();
l=d.createElement(s);k=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
l.async=1;l.src='https://cdn.vendodata.com/sdk/v1/vendo.js';k.parentNode.insertBefore(l,k);
})(window,document,'script','vendo');
 
vendo('init', 'YOUR_WRITE_KEY', {
  host: 'https://YOUR_TRACKING_ENDPOINT',
  trackPageViews: true
});
</script>

What this does:

  1. Creates a lightweight stub on window.vendo that buffers all method calls
  2. Loads the full SDK asynchronously from Vendo’s CDN (cdn.vendodata.com)
  3. Once the SDK loads, it replays all buffered calls in order
  4. Sends an automatic page view (via trackPageViews: true)

The host option tells the SDK where to send events — this is your Cloud Run ingestion API URL (e.g., https://tracking-abc123.run.app). The SDK itself loads from the CDN; only event data goes to your endpoint.

You can call vendo('track', ...), vendo('identify', ...), etc. immediately — even before the SDK finishes loading. All calls are queued and replayed.

Step 2: Track Events

Now you can track events anywhere on your page:

<script>
  // Track a custom event
  vendo('track', 'Product Viewed', {
    sku: 'SKU-1',
    price: 29.99,
    category: 'shoes'
  });
 
  // Identify a user (after login or signup)
  vendo('identify', 'user-123', {
    email: 'person@example.com',
    name: 'Jane Smith',
    plan: 'pro'
  });
</script>

That’s it. Events flow from the browser to your ingestion API to BigQuery.

Step 3: Verify Setup

  1. Open your browser’s Network tab and look for requests to /collect
  2. Confirm the response is { "ok": true, "received": 1, ... }
  3. Check BigQuery for new rows in the events table

Alternative: Self-Hosted Snippet

If you prefer serving the SDK from your own domain (for maximum first-party control), use the self-hosted async snippet. This loads the SDK from your ingestion API instead of the CDN.

See the Self-Hosting guide for full deployment instructions.

<script>
!function(){
  var v=window.vendo=window.vendo||[];
  if(!v._loaded){
    v._loaded=!1;
    v.methods=["track","identify","page","group","alias","reset","optOut","optIn","flush"];
    v.factory=function(m){return function(){
      v.push([m].concat(Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments,0)));return v
    }};
    for(var i=0;i<v.methods.length;i++){v[v.methods[i]]=v.factory(v.methods[i])}
    v.load=function(k,o){
      v._writeKey=k;v._options=o||{};
      var s=document.createElement("script");s.async=!0;
      s.src=(o&&o.host||"")+"/v1/sdk.js";
      var f=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];
      f.parentNode.insertBefore(s,f)
    };
    v.SNIPPET_VERSION="1.0.0"
  }
}();
vendo.load("YOUR_WRITE_KEY", { host: "https://track.yourdomain.com" });
vendo.page();
</script>

Both the CDN and self-hosted snippets use the same SDK and the same tracking API. The only difference is where the JavaScript file loads from.

Alternative: Direct Script Tag

If you prefer loading the SDK synchronously (no buffering):

<script src="https://cdn.vendodata.com/sdk/v1/vendo.js"></script>
<script>
  const tracker = VendoTracker.init("YOUR_WRITE_KEY", {
    endpoint: "https://YOUR_TRACKING_ENDPOINT/collect"
  });
 
  tracker.track("Product Viewed", { sku: "SKU-1" });
  tracker.identify("user-123", { email: "person@example.com" });
</script>

With this approach, VendoTracker.init() returns a tracker instance directly. Note that any calls before the script loads will fail — use the async snippet if you need to call tracking methods before the SDK is ready.

npm Module

Coming soon — The npm package @vendo/tracking is not yet published. For now, use the CDN snippet or self-hosted snippet above.

Once available, SPAs (React, Vue, Next.js) will be able to install the SDK as a dependency:

npm install @vendo/tracking
import vendo from '@vendo/tracking';
 
vendo('init', 'YOUR_WRITE_KEY', {
  host: 'https://YOUR_TRACKING_ENDPOINT',
  trackPageViews: true
});

What’s Next?

  • JavaScript SDK — Full method reference, configuration options, and advanced features
  • API Reference — The /collect endpoint, event schema, and error codes
  • Self-Hosting — Deploy the ingestion API to Cloud Run
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