Question

I don’t understand how to properly use distinct_id. I am trying to create a Mixpanel funnel using Rails. Currently I am doing this w/o using distinct_id and thus mixpanel trends are pretty accurate but funnel which depend upon unique user count doesn’t appear to be working. How should I use distinct_id property to solve this problem?

I’m using BOTH the Javascript library and the Ruby library.

The funnels steps are:

1.) User invited
2.) Invited user receives invitation email and clicks invitation link
3.) Page loaded
4.) Open signup module
5.) Creates account

Answer 1

It would probably be easiest to send data only from Ruby (by the way, which Ruby library are you using?) since the link and account creation must be sent server-side.

You will have to choose a distinct_id that will identify a user through this entire process. The easiest way is to just use the invitee’s e-mail address. This has the additional benefit of being able to track other events and “people” data with that e-mail and associate it with the right user.

The only tricky part is step 2. You will need to generate a link that looks like
http://api.mixpanel.com/track/?data=...&ip=1&redirect=http://www.your-site.com/invitation
to put inside the email as the invitation link.

See the docs for more info about the redirect parameter.