BUG : Traits passed to `identify` are not correctly sent in the network call

[happypoulp]

Describe the bug When calling the identify method with:

const traits = {
  foo: 1
}
rudderanalytics.identify("someuserid", traits)

I expect to see the same traits object being transmitted in the payload of the identify network call made to Rudderstack.

However, the traits sent in the HTTP payload do not match the one I passed to identify method. Instead, it seems like the traits I pass to the identify method are being merged or added to the existing traits.

To Reproduce Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Run rudderanalytics.identify("e36b8bc6-0c1e-44fd-907c-f63e94315b30", {foo: 1})
2. Check the identify HTTP call and see that the traits contains more than {foo: 1} (if you already have existing traits)
3. Run rudderanalytics.identify("e36b8bc6-0c1e-44fd-907c-f63e94315b30", {bar: 1})
4. Check the identify HTTP call and see that the traits still contains foo even though we only passed bar
5. Run rudderanalytics.identify("e36b8bc6-0c1e-44fd-907c-f63e94315b30", {baz:[1,2]})
6. Check the identify HTTP call and see that the traits contains baz: [1,2] (and also foo and bar)
7. Run rudderanalytics.identify("e36b8bc6-0c1e-44fd-907c-f63e94315b30", {baz:[2]})
8. Check the identify HTTP call and see that the traits contains baz: [2,2] instead of {baz:[2]}

Expected behavior I expect the traits object passed to identify method to be the one sent in the payload of the identify HTTP request made to Rudderstack.

Screenshots

Additional Information (please complete the following information):

• SDK installation type: NPM
• SDK version: 3.7.15
• Node version: v18.18.0
• NPM version: 9.8.1
• TypeScript version: 5.4.5

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: MacOs 14.4
• Browser [e.g. chrome, safari] chrome
• Version [e.g. 22] 129.0.6668.60

Additional context Add any other context about the problem here.

[contributor-support[bot]]

Thanks for opening this issue! We'll get back to you shortly. If it is a bug, please make sure to add steps to reproduce the issue.

[MoumitaM]

Hi @happypoulp ,

This is the expected behavior of the SDK. Ref

If you want to reset traits, use reset API then make an identify call. Ref

[happypoulp]

Oh thanks, I did not understood it this way while reading the doc.

I am surprised about the behavior regarding arrays updating because it produces unexpected results where we could have duplicated entries in the array because of this merge behavior.

I guess it should then be safer to always call reset before calling identify ?

Also maybe that is could be worth emphasizing about what "append or modify" means in the documentation because it may not be obvious that it means that you cannot remove any information once it's in the traits (especially tricky when dealing with arrays).

[saikumarrs]

Hello @happypoulp, thanks for your feedback.

We've planned to improve the above doc page. So, it'll reflect very soon.