PostHog
This page describes how to use Census with PostHog.
Getting Started
In this guide, we will show you how to connect PostHog to Census and create your first sync.
Prerequisites
Have your Census account ready. If you need one, create a Free Trial Census account now.
Have the proper credentials to access your data source. See our docs for each supported data source for further information.
1. Grab your PostHog Project API Key
PostHog provides a write-only key.
In PostHog's left navigation bar, click Project Settings.
Then, scroll down to Project Variables > Project API Key.
Copy your Project API Key. We'll use that in a minute
2. Connect Census to PostHog
Great! Now let's pull it all together.
In the Destinations page, click on New Destination, and select "PostHog"
You can provide whatever name you like for the connection
Paste your PostHog Project API Key
Enter your PostHog custom domain if you're using one, otherwise leave it blank.
Click Connect
3. Connect to your Data Warehouse
See our docs for each supported data source and follow the appropriate short guide depending on your data warehouse technology.
4. Create your first Model
Now navigate to the Model page in Census
Here you will have to write SQL queries to select the data you want to see in PostHog. Here are some ideas of data you should select:
Event data like event id, event name, contact id, contact name
Once you have created your model, click Save Model.
5. Create your first Sync
Now head to the Sync page and click the Create a Sync button
In the "What data do you want to sync?" section
For the Connection, select the data warehouse you connected in step 3
For the Source, select the model you created in step 4
Next up is the "Where do you want to sync data to?" section
Pick PostHog as the Connection
For Object, Event will automatically be chosen
For the " How do you want to update the destination?" section
Send will automatically be chosen
Choose the Unique ID Column
Decide if you'd like to turn on Use timestamp column to identify new data.
This can be more efficient for large or frequently changing data sets. More info can be found in this doc.
Finally, select the properties you want to update in the Mapper in the "Which properties should be updated?" section
Choose to update Specific Properties or Sync All Properties.
Map the required fields Person's Distinct ID and Event Name fields
Map the rest of the fields from PostHog to the columns from your model
In the "Should existing data be synced?" section
Chooses whether you want to backfill records or only sync new records going forward
The end result should look something like this
Click the Next button to see the final preview which will have a recap of what will happen when you start the sync
6. Confirm the data is in PostHog
Now go back to your PostHog account and view the event data that should have been created. If everything went well, you should see your data in PostHog.
That's it! In 6 steps, you connected Census to PostHog and started syncing event data from your warehouse to PostHog 🎉
Supported Objects and Sync Behaviors
Census currently supports syncing to the following PostHog objects.
Object Name
Supported?
Sync Keys
Behaviors
Event
✅
Event ID
Send
Person
✅
ID, Email
Update or Create, Update Only
Page
✅
Distinct ID
Send
Learn more about all of our sync behaviors in our Syncs documentation.
Contact us if you want Census to support more Posthog objects and/or behaviors
Need help connecting to PostHog?
Contact us via support@getcensus.com or start a conversation with us via the in-app chat.
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