Authoring Schemas

What are Schemas

Snowplow schemas are self-describing JSONs used to add additional context to events. Think of Google Analytics custom dimensions or Adobe Traffic Variables but nicely grouped under a logical name.

The grouping is essential as it provides a layer of governance, unlike sending Adhoc JSON payloads like other vendors.

Snowplow also enforces that the payload matches the schema specifications; otherwise, the event will be considered invalid.

There are several advantages:

You will never run out of space for context
Schemas are versioned and can expand/contract with business needs
Schemas are reusable
Schema variables are easy to read and understand
Easier data modeling

WARNING

Schemas are immutable. Once schemas are in production, they can't be edited or deleted. To alter a schema, you need to increment its version. This ensures compatibility with existing properties that might be sending events with existing schemas.