Android V3.0.X

Introduction

SDK overview

Welcome to the Flagship Android SDK documentation!

The following article will guide you through the steps to get Flagship up and running on your native Android app using our client library with preconfigured methods to implement the Decision API.

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding this documentation.

Release notes

See here

SDK features

This SDK version will help you:

• Set a visitor ID
• Update user context
• Assign campaigns via the Decision API or Bucketing
• Get flags
• Activate campaigns
• Send hits to our Universal Collect

Prerequisites

• Your app must be a native Android app written in Kotlin or Java

• Your app must at least be compatible with Android API version 21 (Android 5.0) OR version 16 (Android 4.1) if you use the compatibility version of our library. See dependencies

  The minSdkVersion value in your app module's build.gradle file must be greater than or equal to 21:

android {
    compileSdkVersion 28
    defaultConfig {
        minSdkVersion 21
        ...
    }
}

• Your app must have the necessary permissions to use the Internet

  Internet permission must be enabled in the <application> tag of your app's AndroidManifest.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest>
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
    <!-- [...] -->
</manifest>

• Your app must have AndroidX enabled

Good to know

• GitHub repository
• Weight: 112ko
• Kotlin and Java code supported
• Open source demo app

Getting Started

Installation

To install the library, start by adding the following repository in the main build.gradle file of your Android project so that Gradle can find and build with the library:

Our SDK is available on Maven central, be sure that you added it in your dependency manager.

allprojects {
    repositories {
        maven {
            mavenCentral()
        }
    }
}

Then add the following library dependency in the build.gradle file of your app module:

com.abtasty:flagship-android:x.x.x

📘

Replace x.x.x with the desired version of the Flagship SDK.

dependencies {
    implementation 'com.abtasty:flagship-android:3.0.0
}

🚧

If you need to target Android versions from Android 4.1+ API level 16+, use the following code, starting at version 1.2.1 of the Flagship Android SDK:

com.abtasty:flagship-android-compat:x.x.x

This version ensures TLS 1.2 compatibility between our servers and Android 4.1+, but we do not recommand using it due to lack of TLS 1.2 support by these platforms.

Initialization

To initialize and start the library, just call the start() function of the Flagship class in the most appropriate location for your application.

class MyActivity : Activity() {
    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        Flagship.start(getApplication(),"_ENV_ID_", "_API_KEY_", FlagshipConfig.DecisionApi()
    }
}

fun start(application : Application, envId: String, apiKey: String, config: FlagshipConfig<*>)

📘

You can find your apiKey and your environmentId on your Flagship account, in Parameters > Environment & Security.

Flagship configuration : FlagshipConfig.

This class aims to help you to configure the SDK via the following two available config implementations: DecisionApi and Bucketing. See Decision Mode section.

//Start the Flagship SDK in Api mode.
Flagship.start(getApplication(), "_ENV_ID_", "_API_KEY_", FlagshipConfig.DecisionApi()
            .withStatusListener { status -> }
            .withLogLevel(LogManager.Level.ALL)
            .withTimeout(500)
            .withCacheManager(customCacheManager)
            .withLogManager(customLogManager)
        )


//Start the Flagship SDK in Bucketing mode.
Flagship.start(getApplication(), "_ENV_ID_", "_API_KEY_", FlagshipConfig.Bucketing()
            .withStatusListener { status -> }
            .withLogLevel(LogManager.Level.ALL)
            .withTimeout(500)
            .withCacheManager(customCacheManager)
            .withLogManager(customLogManager)
            .withPollingIntervals(5, TimeUnit.MINUTES)
        )

• fun withStatusListener(listener: ((Flagship.Status) -> Unit)): T

  This method defines a new lambda in order to get a callback when the SDK status has changed.
  
  Parameter | Type    | Description
  --------- | ------- | -----------
  listener     | Flagship.Status -> Unit   |  lambda to invoke when SDK status have changed. **See [SDK status](./v3.0#status) section**.
  

  
  

• fun withLogLevel(level: LogManager.Level): T

  Specifies a log level to filter logs emitted by the SDK.

  Parameter	Type	Description
  level	LogManager.Level level	The levels in ascending order are : NONE(0), EXCEPTIONS(1), ERROR(2), WARNING(3), DEBUG(4), INFO(5), ALL(6).

• fun withTimeout(timeout: Int): T

  Specifies timeout for api requests.

  Parameter	Type	Description
  timeout	int	Milliseconds for connect and read timeouts. Default is 2000 ms.

• fun withCacheManager(customCacheManager: CacheManager): T

  Specifies a custom cache manager implementation. See Cache management section
  Parameter | Type | Description
  --------- | ------- | -----------
  customCacheManager | CacheManager | Custom implementation.

• fun withLogManager(customLogManager: LogManager): T

  Specifies a custom implementation of LogManager in order to receive logs from the SDK.

  Parameter	Type	Description
  customLogManager	LogManager	Custom implementation of LogManager.

Only available for Bucketing Mode:

• fun withPollingIntervals(time: Long, timeUnit: TimeUnit): Bucketing

  Define time interval between two bucketing updates. Default is 60 seconds. MICROSECONDS and NANOSECONDS Unit are ignored.

  Parameter	Type	Description
  time	Long	time value.
  timeUnit	TimeUnit	time unit. Must be greater or equal to MILLISECONDS

Decision Mode

DecisionApi Mode

When the SDK is running in DecisionApi mode, the campaign assignments and targeting validation take place server-side. In this mode, each call to the fetchFlags method to refresh the flags will create an HTTP request.

Bucketing Mode

When the SDK is running in Bucketing mode, the SDK downloads all the campaigns configurations at once in a single bucketing file so that variation assignment can be computed client-side by the SDK. This bucketing file is stored in cache and will only be downloaded again when campaign configurations are modified in the Flagship interface. Learn more

SDK Status

List of the possible SDK status :

It is possible to get the current status via the method getStatus() from the Flagship class.

• fun getStatus(): Status

  Return the current SDK status

Create a new visitor

The visitor instance is a helper object that lets you manage the context and campaigns for a user identified by a unique ID.

The user context is a property dataset that defines the current user of your app. This dataset is sent and used by the Flagship Decision API as targeting criteria for campaign assignment.

For example, if you want to enable or disable a specific feature based on VIP status, you would pass this attribute as a key-value pair in the user context so that the Decision API can enable or disable the corresponding feature flag for the user.

val visitor1 = Flagship.newVisitor("visitor_1")
            .context(hashMapOf("age" to "32", "isVIP" to true))
            .hasConsented(true)
            .isAuthenticated(true)
            .build()

• fun newVisitor(visitorId: String, instanceType: Visitor.Instance = Visitor.Instance.SINGLE_INSTANCE): Visitor.Builder

  Return a Visitor Builder class which aims to help creating new visitors.

  Parameter	Type	Description
  visitorId	String	Unique visitor identifier.
  instanceType	Visitor.Instance	How Flagship SDK should handle the newly created visitor instance. (Default is SINGLE_INSTANCE) SINGLE_INSTANCE : The newly created visitor instance will be returned and saved into the Flagship singleton. Call Flagship.getVisitor() to retrieve the instance. This option should be adopted on applications that handle only one visitor at the same time. NEW_INSTANCE: The newly created visitor instance wont be saved and will simply be returned. Any previous visitor instance will have to be recreated. This option should be adopted on applications that handle multiple visitors at the same time.

Visitor Builder methods :

• fun isAuthenticated(isAuthenticated: Boolean): Builder

  Specify if the visitor is authenticated or anonymous. Default value is false.

• fun hasConsented(hasConsented: Boolean): Builder

  Specify if the visitor has consented to personal data usage. When false some features will be deactivated, cache will be deactivated and cleared. Default value is True.

• fun context(context: HashMap<String, Any>): Builder

  Specifies visitor initial context key / values used for targeting.
  Context keys must be String, and values types must be one of the following: Number, Boolean, String.

  Parameter	Type	Description
  context	HashMap<String, Any>	Initial context.

🚧

• User context keys must have a type of String
• User context values must have a type of String, Boolean, Number.

• public Visitor build()

  Return the newly created visitor.

Updating the visitor context

The user context is a property dataset that defines the current user of your app. This dataset is sent and used by the Flagship Decision API as targeting criteria for campaign assignment.

The following method from the Visitor instance allows you to set new context values matching the given keys.

val visitor1 = Flagship.newVisitor("visitor_1")
            .context(hashMapOf("age" to "32", "isVIP" to true))
            .hasConsented(true)
            .isAuthenticated(true)
            .build()

visitor1.updateContext("lastPurchaseDate", 1615384464)

fun <T> updateContext(key: String, value: T)

Upsert the visitor context values, matching the given keys, used for targeting. Only String, Boolean, Number typed values are accepted.

fun updateContext(context: HashMap<String, Any>)

Upsert the visitor context values, matching the given keys, used for targeting. Only String, Boolean, Number typed values are accepted.

🚧

• User context keys must have a type of String
• User context values must have a type of String, Boolean, Number.

fun <T> updateContext(flagshipContext: FlagshipContext<T>, value: T)

Upsert the visitor context values with Flagship predefined context key. **See FlagshipContext

fun clearContext()

Clear all the visitor context values used for targeting.

val visitor1 = Flagship.newVisitor("visitor_1")
            .context(hashMapOf("age" to "32", "isVIP" to true))
            .hasConsented(true)
            .isAuthenticated(true)
            .build()

visitor1.clearContext()

getContext(): HashMap<String, Any>

Get visitor current context key / values.

val visitor1 = Flagship.newVisitor("visitor_1")
            .context(hashMapOf("age" to "32", "isVIP" to true))
            .hasConsented(true)
            .isAuthenticated(true)
            .build()

val context = visitor1.getContext()

Managing visitor campaigns and their flags

Fetching Flags

The fetchFlags() method of the visitor instance automatically updates the campaign assignments according to the current user context and retrieves applicable flags.

These flags are then stored in the SDK and updated asynchronously when fetchFlags() is called.

val visitor1 = Flagship.newVisitor("visitor_1").build()

visitor1.updateContext("postcode", "31200");

visitor1.fetchFlags().await()

fun fetchFlags(): Deferred<Unit>

This function will call the decision api and update all the campaigns flags from the server according to the visitor context.

Getting flags

Once the campaign has been assigned and fetched, all the flags are stored in the SDK. You can retrieve these flags using the following functions from the Visitor instance:

val visitor1 = Flagship.newVisitor("visitor_1").build()
visitor1.updateContext("isVip", true)
visitor1.fetchFlags().invokeOnCompletion { 
	val displayVipFeatureFlag = visitor1.getFlag("displayVipFeature", false)
}

fun <T> getFlag(key: String, defaultValue: T?): Flag

Retrieve a Flag object by its key. If no flag match the given key an empty flag will be returned. Call exists() to check if the flag has been found.

🚧

• Default value must be one of the following type : String, Boolean, Number, JSONArray, 'JSONObject'.

Getting flags current values

To retrieve flag current value, simply call value() method of the Flag object.

val visitor1 = Flagship.newVisitor("visitor_1").build()
visitor1.updateContext("isVip", true)
visitor1.fetchFlags().invokeOnCompletion { 
	val displayVipFeatureFlag = visitor1.getFlag("displayVipFeature", false).value()
        // display or not the vip feature
}

fun value(userExposed: Boolean = true): T?

Returns the value from the assigned campaign variation or the Flag default value if the Flag does not exist, or if types are different.

Getting flags campaigns metadata

You may need to send campaign IDs or variation IDs to a third party for reporting and/or analytics purposes. It is possible to retrieve campaigns metadata for a specific Flag.

val visitor1 = Flagship.newVisitor("visitor_1").build()
visitor1.updateContext("isVip", true)
visitor1.fetchFlags().invokeOnCompletion { 
  val campaignMetadata = visitor1.getFlag("displayVipFeature", false).metadata()
}

fun metadata() : FlagMetadata

Return the campaign information metadata or an empty object if the Flag doesn't exist or if the default value type does not correspond to the Flag type in Flagship.

FlagMetadata

Report a Flag exposition

By default when the method value() is called, The SDK considers that the user have seen the effets of your Flag, unless you pass false to value(). In this case you will have to call userExposed().

There are two options for exposing a user to a flag:

1. Pass an userExposed=true parameter to the value() method.
2. Use the following userExposed() method from the Flag instance.

val visitor1 = Flagship.newVisitor("visitor_1").build()
visitor1.updateContext("isVip", true)
visitor1.fetchFlags().invokeOnCompletion { 
	val displayVipFeature = visitor1.getFlag("displayVipFeature", true).value() // userExposed true by default
  
    // or
 
	val displayVipFeature = visitor1.getFlag("displayVipFeature", false).value(false)
  visitor1.userExposed();
	
}

fun userExposed()

Tells Flagship the user have been exposed and have seen this flag. This will increment the visits for the current variation on your campaign reporting. No user exposition will be sent if the Flag doesn't exist or if the default value type do not correspond to the Flag type in Flagship.

Check if a Flag exists

fun exists()

This method will return true if a Flag exists in Flagship

val visitor1 = Flagship.newVisitor("visitor_1").build()
visitor1.updateContext("isVip", true)
visitor1.fetchFlags().invokeOnCompletion { 
  val isDisplayVipFeatureExists = visitor1.getFlag("do_not_exists", false).exists()
}

Managing visitor consent

The Visitor class provides a method to let you manage visitor consent for data privacy usage. When False, campaign activation and hits will be disabled and cache cleared.

fun setConsent(hasConsented: Boolean)

val visitor1 = Flagship.newVisitor("visitor_1").build()
  visitor1.setConsent(false);

🚧

When consent is not given: Hits, Activations will be deactivated and all the cached visitor data will be cleared until consent is given again.
Only consent tracking requests will enabled in order to clear server-side cached data.

Managing visitor cache

By default the Flagship Android SDK provide a default cache manager implementation. This helps to cache visitors data, to cache non sent hits due to internet failures or server errors, to cache campaign assignations for offline mode and to prevent reallocation in Bucketing mode. Indeed as the assignation is made on local device in bucketing mode, changing campaign allocation in the platform would make visitors to see different campaigns.

The default cache manager use a local database.

It is possible to provide a custom cache implementation using the following abstract class and the specific interfaces :

Flagship.start(getApplication(), "_ENV_ID_", "_API_KEY_", FlagshipConfig.DecisionApi()
            .withCacheManager(CacheManager.Builder()
                .withVisitorCacheLookupTimeout(200)
                .withHitCacheLookupTimeout(200)
                .withVisitorCacheImplementation(object : IVisitorCacheImplementation {
                    override fun cacheVisitor(visitorId: String, data: JSONObject) {
                        // Upsert in your database
                    }

                    override fun lookupVisitor(visitorId: String): JSONObject {
                        // Load & delete from your database
                        return JSONObject()
                    }

                    override fun flushVisitor(visitorId: String) {
                        // Clear from your database
                    }
                })
                .withHitCacheImplementation(object : IHitCacheImplementation {
                    override fun cacheHit(visitorId: String, data: JSONObject) {
                        // Insert in your database
                    }

                    override fun lookupHits(visitorId: String): JSONArray {
                        // Delete and load from your database
                        return JSONArray()
                    }

                    override fun flushHits(visitorId: String) {
                        // Clear from your database
                    }

                })
                .build())
        )

interface IVisitorCacheImplementation

This interface specifies the methods to implement in order to cache visitors information.

fun cacheVisitor(visitorId : String, data : JSONObject)

This method is called when the SDK needs to cache visitor information in your database.

fun lookupVisitor(visitorId: String) : JSONObject

This method is called when the SDK needs to get visitor information from your database. This method will block the current thread so it will be called with a configurable timeout. See Cache format section.

Return : visitor information json respecting the expected format.

fun flushVisitor(visitorId: String)

This method is called when the SDK needs to flush visitor information in your database. For example when the user hasn't given his consent this method will be called.

interface IHitCacheImplementation

This interface specifies the methods to implement in order to cache visitors hits when they failed to be sent.

fun cacheHit(visitorId : String, data : JSONObject)

This method is called when the SDK needs to cache visitor hits in your database.

fun lookupHits(visitorId: String) : JSONObject

This method is called when the SDK needs to get visitor hits from your database in order to send them again. This method will block the current thread so it will be called with a configurable timeout. See Cache format section.

Return : visitor hits json array respecting the expected format.

🚧

Hits must be deleted

Cached hits must be deleted before being returned from lookupHits so it prevents hits cache duplication if they failed to be sent again.

fun flushHits(visitorId: String)

This method is called when the SDK needs to flush visitor hits in your database. For example when the user hasn't given his consent this method will be called.

Experience Continuity

Dealing with anonymous and logged-in users, experience continuity allows you to maintain consistency between sessions and devices.

🚧

Make sure that the experience continuity option is enabled on the flagship platform before using those methods.

Authenticate

There are 2 ways to authenticate a visitor:

1. Set key isAuthenticated to true when creating a new visitor
2. Use authenticate method of Visitor instance

Authenticate anonymous visitor

fun authenticate(visitorId: String)

🚧

Because we have changed the visitor data, we have to call the fetchFlags method after calling this one to update the decision from Flagship.

The targeting / Flags could be different for the visitor.

Unauthenticate

This function change authenticated Visitor to anonymous visitor

fun unauthenticate()

🚧

Because we have changed the visitor datas, we have to call the fetchFlags method after calling this one to update the decision from Flagship.

The targeting / Flags could be different for the visitor.

Code example

Let's assume basic scenario to understand how things work:

1. Your visitor arrives on your app for the first time.

We need to initialize the visitor but as we don't know anything about this visitor, we'll create a random visitor id or let the SDK do it for us. You can also specify some visitor context if necessary.

val visitor = Flagship.newVisitor("anonymous_001")
            .context(hashMapOf("key" to "value"))
            .build()

visitor.fetchFlags()

Here we set an anonymous visitorId property so the SDK or an empty string for auto-generated id for our visitor.

Regardless of how it has been set, the actual visitor id will be what we call the anonymous id.

2. Your visitor is signing in.

To tell the SDK about this status modification, you'll have to call the authenticate function which takes the required visitor id as argument.

// Once you fetch the visitorId from your DB

visitor.authenticate(visitorId)

// Since your visitor has changed (is now logged-in)
// You have to check if the proper targeting and flags are set

visitor.fetchFlags()

The visitor is updated as authenticated, keeping the previous variations from campaigns that are still matched and thus gives you same flags as before being logged in.

📘

Keep in mind that if the visitor also has its context changed, you might still have changes on flags as your visitor might target new campaigns.

3. Your visitor decides to sign out.

If you want to keep the same visitor experience, then you should do:

visitor.unauthenticate()

// Since your visitor has changed (is now logged-out)
// You have to check if the proper targeting and flags are set

visitor.fetchFlags()

Final implementation example

//The current visitor is anonymous

val visitor = Flagship.newVisitor("anonymous_001")
            .context(hashMapOf("key" to "value"))
            .build()

visitor.fetchFlags()


//Once the visitor logs in, and you can get his unique id:

visitor.authenticate(visitorId)
visitor.fetchFlags()

//And When he logs out:

visitor.unauthenticate()
visitor.fetchFlags()

Hit Tracking

This section helps you track your users in your application and learn how to build hits in order to feed campaign goals. For more information about our measurement protocol, read our Universal Collect documentation.

There are five different types of Hits available:

• Page
• Screen
• Transaction
• Item
• Event

They must all be built and sent with the following function from the Visitor instance:

visitor1.sendHit(Page("https://www.my_domain_com/my_page"))

fun <T> sendHit(hit: Hit<T>)

Send hits as objectives in your campaign reporting.

Hit common optional parameters

val screen = Screen("screen location")
                .withResolution(200, 100)
                .withLocale("fr_FR")
                .withIp("127.0.0.1")
                .withSessionNumber(2)
 visitor.sendHit(screen)

Page

This hit should be sent each time a visitor visits a new local or web page in an embedded web view.

val page = Page("https://www.my_domain_com/my_page")

visitor1.sendHit(page);

`class Page(location : String)

Screen

This hit should be sent each time a visitor arrives on an interface on the client side.

val screen = Screen("your_screen_name")

visitor1.sendHit(screen)

class Screen(location : String)

Transaction

This hit should be sent when a user complete a Transaction.

val transaction = Transaction("#12345", "affiliation")
                .withCouponCode("code")
                .withCurrency("EUR")
                .withItemCount(1)
                .withPaymentMethod("creditcard")
                .withShippingCosts(9.99f)
                .withTaxes(19.99f)
                .withTotalRevenue(199.99f)
                .withShippingMethod("1day")
visitor1.sendHit(transaction)

class Transaction(transactionId : String, affiliation : String)

Item

This hit is used to link an item with a transaction. It must be sent after the corresponding transaction hit.

val item = Item("#12345", "product", "sku123")
                .withItemCategory("test")
                .withItemPrice(199.99f)
                .withItemQuantity(1)
visitor1.sendHit(item)

class Item(transactionId : String, productName : String, productSku : String)

📘

The Item hit isn't available yet in the Flagship reporting view.

Event

This hit can be used for any event (e.g. Add To Cart click, newsletter subscription).

val event = Event(Event.EventCategory.USER_ENGAGEMENT, "action")
                .withEventLabel("label")
                .withEventValue(100)
visitor1.sendHit(event)

class Event(val category: EventCategory, val action : String)

Appendix

Predefined user context keys

The Flagship SDK contains predefined user context keys.

The keys marked as Yes in the Auto-set by SDK column will be automatically set, while the ones marked as No need to be set by the client.

📘

Check the values sent by the SDK by enabling the logs.

You can overwrite these keys at any time. The key-value pairs will be sent to the server in the user context and can be edited in the Persona section of the Flagship platform.

📘

To overwrite the keys, use the updateContext method

Cache data format

IVisitorCacheImplementation lookup format

{
  "version": 1,
  "data": {
    "visitorId": "visitor_1",
    "consent": true,
    "context": {
      "fs_users": "visitor_1",
      "sdk_osVersionCode": 31,
      "sdk_deviceModel": "Google Pixel 3",
      "fs_client": "android",
      "fs_version": "3.0.0",
      "sdk_carrierName": "Free",
      "sdk_osVersionName": "Android 12 S",
      "sdk_deviceType": "mobile",
      "plan": "enterprise",
      "sdk_deviceLanguage": "fra",
      "sdk_osName": "Android"
    },
    "assignmentsHistory": {
      "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
      "yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy": "yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy"
    },
    "campaigns": [
      {
        "campaignId": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
        "variationGroupId": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
        "variationId": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
        "isReference": false,
        "type": "",
        "activated": false,
        "flags": {
          "key": "value"
        }
      },
      {
        "campaignId": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
        "variationGroupId": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
        "variationId": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
        "isReference": false,
        "type": "",
        "activated": false,
        "flags": {
          "myAwesomeFeature": 20
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

IHitCacheImplementation lookup format

{
  "version": 1,
  "data": {
    "time": 1637606817507,
    "visitorId": "visitor_1",
    "anonymousId": "e436e87f-cc61-44c6-ab40-fba15aec0af5",
    "type": "ACTIVATION",
    "content": {
      "cid": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
      "caid": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
      "vaid": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
      "aid": "e436e87f-cc61-44c6-ab40-fba15aec0af5",
      "vid": "visitor_1"
    }
  }
}