.identify call

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Note that Sherlock does not support tracking anonymous users.

The .identify call allows you to identify the users navigating through and using your application. This is a required step before tracking any user activity.

Using the .identify call is simple. As an example, if the user is [email protected], you would call:

sherlock.identify("{userID}");

You can optionally assign user traits when identifying the user:

sherlock.identify("1234", {
  first_name: "John",
  paid_user: true,
  plan_type: "Enterprise",
  created_at: "2019-03-27T01:20:00Z"
});

When to make .identify call

You should make an .identify call upon every page load to ensure that your user actions will be assigned correctly. You should set up the Sherlock library in your top-level template - the same place you add the snippet:

<script type="text/javascript">
  // snippet goes here
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
  sherlock.load(apiKey);
  sherlock.identify(userID, {...traits...});
</script>

The library keeps track of the current user on the page. Once a user is identified, all subsequent .track calls will be scoped to that user.

You should also make separate .identify calls with any significant change in user status. For example:

• Conversion from trial to paid
• Upgrade/Downgrade
• Cancellation
• Change of location
• Etc.

Recommended User traits

User traits are descriptive pieces of information about a user that can be sent with an .identifycall. While the traits you send are up to you, there are some standard traits that we recommend using for each user.