Trackers Overview

Trackers are the client libraries and APIs that send events from your applications to the DataBridge for validation, transformation and delivery to your data destinations.

How Event Ingestion Works

Your Application (Source) → DataBridge → Validation → Buffer → Pipeline → Destination

1. Your application sends events to the Gateway's /capture endpoint
2. DataBridge authenticates the request using the source's API secret
3. Events are validated against schemas registered in the Schema Registry
4. Validated events are buffered and delivered to destinations via pipelines

Available Trackers

HTTP API

DataBridge exposes a single POST /capture endpoint that accepts JSON payloads. This works from any language or platform - no SDK required.

• HTTP API Reference →

JavaScript Tracker

A lightweight client library for browser and Node.js applications that wraps the HTTP API with automatic batching.

• JavaScript Tracker →

More SDKs Coming Soon

Native SDKs for Python, Go, iOS and Android are planned. In the meantime, use the HTTP API from any language.

Event Structure

Every request to /track contains a header and an array of events:

{
  "header": {
    "client_timestamp_utc": 1705320600000,
    "client_tracker_name": "my-app",
    "client_tracker_version": "1.0.0"
  },
  "events": [
    {
      "$id": "https://registry.databridge.tech/acme/page_view/1-0-0",
      "$eid": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
      "url": "/products",
      "referrer": "https://google.com"
    }
  ]
}

Special Fields

Field	Description
$id	Schema reference URL from the registry. Used for validation and table routing.
$eid	Unique event ID (UUID). Used for deduplication.

All other fields are your event payload, placed at the top level of each event object.

Authentication

Each Data Source in DataBridge has an API secret. Include it in the api-secret header:

api-secret: YOUR_SOURCE_API_SECRET

Create a Data Source in Ingestion Sources to get your API secret.

Schema Validation

Events are validated against JSON Schemas registered in the Schema Registry. The $id field in each event references which schema to validate against.

• If the schema exists, the event is validated and delivered with typed columns
• If no schema is registered, the event is stored in a generic payload column
• Validation results are visible in the source's quality report on the dashboard

See Create Event Models to define schemas.

Next Steps

1. Create a Data Source to get an API secret
2. Define Event Schemas for validation
3. Send events via HTTP API or the JavaScript Tracker
4. Configure a Pipeline to deliver events to a destination