Hellotext.js

Track the events happening on your site to Hellotext in real-time with this library.

Installation

Using NPM

npm i @hellotext/hellotext

Using yarn

yarn add @hellotext/hellotext

Configure

Import the library into your app.

import Hellotext from "@hellotext/hellotext";

Initialize the library passing the public HELLOTEXT_BUSINESS_ID identifier that represents the business.

You can find it from the business's settings page.

Hellotext.initialize("HELLOTEXT_BUSINESS_ID");

Failing to initialize the class before calling any other method will throw a NotInitializedError.

Usage

Tracking events is straightforward and perhaps the simplest example is tracking a page view:

Hellotext.track("page.viewed");

In the example above only the name of the action is required.

Handling Responses

The track method returns a Promise that can be awaited using the async/await syntax. Or using .then on the returned Promise.

const response = await Hellotext.track("page.viewed");

The return of the Hellotext.track method is an instance of a Response object that ships with the package. You can check the status of the response via methods, like:

if(response.failed) {
  console.log("failed because", response.data)
}

if(response.succeeded) {
  console.log("success")
  console.log(response.data) // { status: "received" }
}

Parameters

The parameters passed to the action must be a valid set of parameters as described in Tracking Actions.

URL Parameter

The library takes care of handling the url parameter with the current URL automatically and is not required to specify it explicitly. If you want to provide another url, you can pass a url key in the params object when tracking an event.

Hellotext.track("page.viewed", {
  url: "www.example.org"
});

Errors

Failing to provide valid set of parameters will result in an error object being returned, describing the parameters that did not satisfy the rules.

const response = await Hellotext.track("app.installed", { app_parameters: { name: "My App" }})

console.log(response.data)

yields

{
  errors: [
    {
      type: 'parameter_not_unique',
      parameter: 'name',
      description: 'The value must be unique and it is already present in another object of the same type.'
    },
  ]
}

For a complete list of errors types. See Error Types

Associated objects

Generally, most actions also require an associated object. These can be of type app, coupon, form, order, product and refund. Aside from Custom Actions, which don't require the trackable to be present.

You can create the associated object directly by defining its parameters in a hash:

Hellotext.track("order.placed", {
    amount: 395.00, 
    currency: "USD",
    order_parameters: {
        "amount": "395.00",
        "reference": "654321",
    }
});

If you want to reuse existing objects, you must pass the identifier of an existing associated object. For example, to track a product purchase the identifier of a previously created product object as the product. For more information about identifiers, view the Tracking API

Hellotext.track("product.purchased", {
    amount: 395.00, 
    currency: "USD",
    product: "erA2RAXE"
});

List of actions

The following is a complete list of built-in actions and their required associated objects.

Action	Description	Required Parameter
app.installed	An app was installed.	app or app_parameters
app.removed	An app was removed.	app or app_parameters
app.spent	A customer spent on an app.	app or app_parameters
cart.abandoned	A cart was abandoned.	product or product_parameters
cart.added	Added an item to the cart.	product or product_parameters
cart.removed	Removed an item from the cart.	product or product_parameters
coupon.redeemed	A coupon was redeem by a customer.	coupon or coupon_parameters
form.completed	A form was completed by the customer.	form or form_parameters
order.placed	Order has been placed.	order or order_parameters
order.confirmed	Order has been confirmed by you.	order or order_parameters
order.cancelled	Order has been cancelled either by you or your customer.	order or order_parameters
order.shipped	Order has been shipped to your customer.	order or order_parameters
order.delivered	Order has been delivered to your customer.	order or order_parameters
page.viewed	A page was viewed by a customer.	url
product.purchased	A product has been purchased.	product or product_parameters
product.viewed	A product page has been viewed.	product or product_parameters
refund.requested	A customer requested a refund.	refund or refund_parameters
refund.received	A refund was issued by you to your customer.	refund or refund_parameters

You can also create your own defined actions.

Additional Properties

You can include additional attributes to the tracked event, additional properties must be included inside the metadata object:

Hellotext.track("product.purchased", {
    amount: 0.20, 
    currency: "USD",
    metadata: {
        myProperty: "custom"
    },
    tracked_at: 1665684173
});

List of additional attributes

Property	Description	Type	Default
amount	Monetary amount that represents the revenue associated to this tracked event.	float	0
currency	Currency for the amount given in ISO 4217 format.	currency	USD
metadata	Set of key-value pairs that you can attach to an event. This can be useful for storing additional information about the object in a structured format.	hash	{}
tracked_at	Original date when the event happened. This is useful if you want to record an event that happened in the past. If no value is provided its value will be the same from created_at.	epoch	null

Events

This library emits events that you can listen to and perform specific action when the event happens. Think of it like addEventListener for HTML elements. You can listen for events, and remove events as well.

To listen to an event, you can call the on method, like so

Hellotext.on(eventName, callback)

To remove an event listener, you can call removeEventListener

Hellotext.removeEventListener(eventName, callback)

List of events

• session-set: This event is fired when the session value for Hellotext.session is set. Either through an API request, or if the session was found in the cookie.

Understanding Sessions

The library looks for a session identifier present on the hellotext_session query parameter. If the session is not present as a cookie neither it will create a new random session identifier. The session is automatically sent to Hellotext any time the Hellotext.track method is called.

Short links redirections attaches a session identifier to the destination url as hellotext_session query parameter. This will identify all the events back to the customer who opened the link.

Get session

It is possible to obtain the current session by simply calling Hellotext.session.

await Hellotext.session
// Returns bBJn9vR15yPaYkWmR2QK0jopMeNxrA6l

If the session has not been set yet, the result returned will be undefined. You can check whether the session has been set or not by calling Hellotext.isInitialized.

if(Hellotext.isInitialized) {
  console.log("session is present")
} else {
  console.log("session has not been set")
}

Moreover, you can hook in and listen for the session being set, such that when it's set, you're notified about the change, like so

Hellotext.on("session-set", (session) => {
  console.log("session is: ", session)
})

You may want to store the session on your backend when customers are unidentified so you can later attach it to a profile when it becomes known.