LaunchDarkly Shopify Pixel

Overview

This topic explains how to create a Shopify Custom Pixel that reports checkout events to LaunchDarkly. It uses the JavaScript SDK’s track and Shopify’s analytics.subscribe methods to capture checkout_started and checkout_completed events and report them to LaunchDarkly.

To learn more about the LaunchDarkly JavaScript SDK before you get started, read JavaScript SDK reference guide.

To learn how to configure a Shopify Custom Pixel, read Shopify’s documentation.

Example configuration code

Here is an example of code to configure a Shopify Custom Pixel that reports checkout events to LaunchDarkly. Depending on your specific implementation, you may need to modify the code to better fit your needs.

This code:

• loads the LaunchDarkly SDK asynchronously
• instructs waitForLD(fn) to poll until ldClient.track exists
• subscribes to checkout_started and checkout_completed
• uses the event’s client ID as the LaunchDarkly context key, and falls back to an anonymous context if this is not available
• initializes or re-identifies the LaunchDarkly client inside the handler, then calls track()

Here’s how:

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// 1. Load LaunchDarkly
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const ldScript = document.createElement('script');
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ldScript.src   = 'https://unpkg.com/launchdarkly-js-client-sdk@3/dist/ldclient.min.js';
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// As a best practice, we recommend not using unpkg in production environments. We use it here only because this is a demo environment.
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ldScript.async = true;
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document.head.appendChild(ldScript);
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// 2. Polling helper
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function waitForLD(fn) {
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  if (window.ldClient && window.ldClient.track) {
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    fn();
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  } else {
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    setTimeout(() => waitForLD(fn), 50);
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  }
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}
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// 3. Subscribe to checkout_started
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analytics.subscribe("checkout_started", (event) => {
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  const chk      = event.data?.checkout || {};
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  const userKey  = event.clientId || ('anon-' + event.clientId);
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  const ctx      = { kind: 'user', key: userKey, email: chk.email };
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  const value    = chk.totalPrice?.amount || 0;
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  window.ldClient = LDClient.initialize('YOUR_CLIENT_SIDE_ID', ctx);
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  waitForLD(() => {
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    window.ldClient.track('checkout_started', null, value);
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  });
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});
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// 4. Subscribe to checkout_completed
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analytics.subscribe('checkout_completed', (event) => {
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  const chk   = event.data?.checkout || {};
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  const value = chk.totalPrice?.amount || 0;
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  waitForLD(() => {
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    window.ldClient.track('checkout_completed', null, value);
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  });
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});

Best practices and considerations

If you decide to modify the code above, we recommend the following best practices:

• Load the SDK before calling LDClient.initialize(). Using <script async> tags may result in errors.
• Do not use modified JavaScript. Shopify’s Pixel environment can be restrictive, so for best results, do not rely on global Liquid variables.
• Poll, do not buffer. Buffering events until the SDK is read can add unnecessary complexity. Polling for readiness is simpler.

If you have unexpected results, remember that Shopify’s analytics.subscribe fires as soon as the Pixel sandbox starts, which can be before the LaunchDarklySDK script has parsed.