Snowplow JavaScript Tracker 2.16.0 and 2.16.1 released

Update: Version 2.16.3 is now available with additional bug fixes

We are pleased to announce a new release of the Snowplow JavaScript Tracker.

Version 2.16.x comes with a 30% file size reduction as we improve our build tooling in preparation for the upcoming major release v3.0.0. Specifically, v2.15.0 was 111KB (34KB when gzipped). The new v2.16.x is a much improved 77KB (27KB when gzipped) while maintaining exactly the same functionality.

Read on below for:

1. Switching build tooling
2. Update Snowplow Micro to v1
3. Other features and bug fixes
4. Upgrading
5. Documentation and help

1. Switching build tooling

As originally suggested by bernardosrulzon, we have switched to using the Closure Compiler (GitHub issue #583). We have also switched to using rollup.js and gulp (GitHub issue #752). Together, these two updates reduce the sp.js filesize by 30%.

2. Update Snowplow Micro to v1

We have recently released v1.0.0 of Snowplow Micro, a very small version of a full Snowplow data collection pipeline that it can be launched by a test suite to include tracking in automated tests. You can read more about it in the release post.

While we built Snowplow Micro to enable our users to better test their Snowplow tracking, we also use it to test our tracker releases. Version 2.16.x of the JavaScript tracker switches to using Snowplow Micro v1.0.0 for testing (GitHub issue #837).

3. Other features and bug fixes

This tracker also comes with a few other under the hood improvements:

• Switch to Github Actions (GitHub issue #844)
• Add license banner to rollup builds (GitHub issue #845)
• Bump snowplow-tracker-core to 0.9.2 (GitHub issue #841)

4. Upgrading

The tracker is available as a published asset in the 2.16.3 Github release. To upgrade, Snowplow BDP and Open Source users should host the 2.16.3 version of sp.js asset on a CDN, and load the tracker from there.

To quickly test new releases, the Snowplow JavaScript Tracker is now available on the jsDelivr CDN. We continue to recommend hosting sp.js yourself, however if you wish to test this release you can do so by using the assets on jsDelivr.

5. Documentation and help

Check out the JavaScript Tracker’s documentation:

• The setup guide
• The quickstart guide
• The full API documentation
• The documentation on the Google Tag Manager custom template
• The documentation on the Analytics npm package

The releases page on GitHub has the full list of changes made in these versions.

Finally, if you run into any issues or have any questions, please raise an issue or get in touch with us via our Discourse forums.