Java V2.0.X

Introduction

SDK overview

Welcome to the Flagship Java SDK documentation!

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

Release notes

See here

SDK features

That SDK version helps you :

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

Prerequisites

• Java: version 1.8 or later
• Your server/device must have access to the internet.

Good to know

• Github repository: https://github.com/flagship-io/flagship-java
• Weight: 103.0 ko
• Support Java 8
• Open-source app: https://github.com/flagship-io/flagship-java

Getting Started

Installation

First, add the following repository in your dependency manager:

maven { url 'https://abtasty.jfrog.io/artifactory/flagship-java' }

<repositories>
    	<repository>
      		<id>com.abtasty</id>
      		<url>https://abtasty.jfrog.io/artifactory/flagship-java</url>
    	</repository>
  </repositories>

Then import the Java SDK using either Maven or Gradle dependency management:

implementation 'com.abtasty:flagship-java:2.0.0'

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.abtasty</groupId>
    <artifactId>flagship-java</artifactId>
    <version>2.0.0</version>
</dependency>

Manual installion

For manual installation, jar files are available at :

https://abtasty.jfrog.io/artifactory/flagship-java/com/abtasty/flagship-java/

Add the needed dependency :

implementation 'org.json:json:20201115'

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.json</groupId>
    <artifactId>json</artifactId>
    <version>20201115</version>
</dependency>

Initialization

To initialize and start the SDK, simply call the start function of the Flagship class, in the most appropriate location for your application.

Flagship.start("your_env_id", "your_api_key");

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.

Flagship.start("your_env_id", "your_api_key", new FlagshipConfig.DecisionApi() // Will start the SDK with Api mode.
              .withLogManager(new CustomLogManager())
              .withLogLevel(LogManager.Level.ALL)
              .withStatusListener(newStatus -> {
                  if (newStatus == Flagship.Status.READY)
                      System.out.println("SDK is ready to use.");
              })
              .withTimeout(200));

// Start SDK in Bucketing mode.
Flagship.start("your_env_id", "your_api_key", new FlagshipConfig.Bucketing() // Will start the SDK with Bucketing mode.
              .withLogManager(new CustomLogManager())
              .withLogLevel(LogManager.Level.ALL)
              .withStatusListener(newStatus -> {
                  if (newStatus == Flagship.Status.READY)
                      System.out.println("SDK is ready to use.");
              })
              .withPollingIntervals(20, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
              .withTimeout(200));

• public FlagshipConfig<T> withLogLevel(LogManager.Level level)

  This method specifies the mode which filters SDK logs.

  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).

• public FlagshipConfig<T> withLogManager(LogManager logManager)

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

  Parameter	Type	Description
  logManager	LogManager	Custom implementation of LogManager.

• public FlagshipConfig<T> withTimeout(int timeout)

  Specify timeout for api request.

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

• public FlagshipConfig<T> withStatusListener(Flagship.StatusListener listener)

  Define a new listener in order to get a callback when the SDK status has changed. See SDK status section.

  Parameter	Type	Description
  listener	Flagship.StatusListener	Callback to trigger when SDK status has changed.

Only available for Bucketing:

• public FlagshipConfig<T> withPollingIntervals(long time, TimeUnit timeUnit)

  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 synchronizeModifications method to refresh the modifications 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.

• public Status getStatus()

  Return the current SDK status

Status status = Flagship.getStatus()

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.

Visitor visitor1 = Flagship.visitorBuilder("visitor_unique_id")
                .context(new HashMap<String, Object>() {{
                    put("age", 32);
                    put("isVip", true);
                }})
                .hasConsented(true)
                .isAuthenticated(true)
                .build();

• public static Visitor.Builder visitorBuilder(String visitorId)

  Visitor builder class that creates a new visitor.

  Parameter	Type	Description
  visitorId	String	Unique visitor identifier.

Visitor Builder methods :

• public Builder isAuthenticated(boolean isAuthenticated)

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

  Parameter	Type	Description
  isAuthenticated	Boolean	True for authenticated user, false for anonymous. (false by default)

• public Builder hasConsented(boolean hasConsented)

  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.

  Parameter	Type	Description
  hasConsented	Boolean	True when user has given consent, false otherwise. (true by default)

• public Builder context(HashMap<String, Object> context)

  Specify 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, Object>	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.

Visitor visitor1 = Flagship.visitorBuilder("visitor_unique_id")
                .context(new HashMap<String, Object>() {{
                    put("age", 32);
                    put("isVip", true);
                }})
                .build();

visitor.updateContext("lastPurchaseDate", 1615384464);

public <T> void updateContext(String key, T value)

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

public void updateContext(HashMap<String, Object> context)

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.

public <T> void updateContext(FlagshipContext<T> flagshipContext, T value)

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

public <T> void clearContext()

Clear all the visitor context values used for targeting.

Visitor visitor1 = Flagship.visitorBuilder("visitor_unique_id")
              .context(new HashMap<String, Object>() {{
                  put("age", 32);
                  put("isVip", true);
              }})
              .build();
visitor.clearContext();

public HashMap<String, Object> getContext()

Get visitor current context key / values.

Visitor visitor1 = Flagship.visitorBuilder("visitor_unique_id")
              .context(new HashMap<String, Object>() {{
                  put("age", 32);
                  put("isVip", true);
              }})
              .build();
HashMap<String, Object visitorContext = visitor.getContext();

Managing visitor campaigns

Synchronizing campaigns

The synchronize_modifications() method of the visitor instance automatically calls the Flagship Decision API to run campaign assignments according to the current user context and retrieve applicable modifications.

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

Visitor visitor1 = Flagship.visitorBuilder("visitor_unique_id").build();

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

visitor.synchronizeModifications();

visitor.synchronizeModifications().get(); // Synchronous Blocking call

visitor.synchronizeModifications().whenComplete((instance, error) -> { // Asynchronous non blocking call
    // Synchronization has been completed.
});

public CompletableFuture<Visitor> synchronizeModifications()

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

Getting modifications

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

Visitor visitor1 = Flagship.visitorBuilder("visitor_unique_id").build();
visitor.updateContext("isVip", true);
visitor.synchronizeModifications().whenComplete((instance, error) -> {
    Boolean displayVipFeature = visitor.getModification("displayVipFeature", false);

});

public <T> T getModification(String key, T defaultValue, boolean activate)

Retrieve a modification value by its key. If no modification match the given key or if the stored value type and default value type do not match, default value will be returned.

🚧

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

Getting campaign information

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

Visitor visitor1 = Flagship.visitorBuilder("visitor_unique_id").build();
visitor.updateContext("isVip", true);
visitor.synchronizeModifications().get();
JSONObject info = visitor.getModificationInfo("displayVipFeature")

public JSONObject getModificationInfo(String key)

It returns a JSONObject containing campaignId, variationGroupId, variationId and isReference keys & values or null if the modification is not found (the user is not affected to the campaign linked to the modification).

Activating modifications

Once a modification is displayed on the screen for a user, you must send an activate event to tell Flagship that the user has seen this specific variation.

There are two options for activating a modification:

1. Pass an activate=true parameter to the getModification() function
2. Use the following activateModification() method from the visitor instance.

Visitor visitor1 = Flagship.visitorBuilder("visitor_unique_id").build();
visitor.updateContext("isVip", true);
visitor.synchronizeModifications().whenComplete((instance, error) -> {

    Boolean displayVipFeature = visitor.getModification("displayVipFeature", false, true); //send an activation event.

    //or

    Boolean displayVipFeature = visitor.getModification("displayVipFeature", false);

    visitor.activateModification("displayVipFeature");

});

public void activateModification(String key)

Report this user has seen this modification.

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.

public void setConsent(Boolean hasConsented)

Visitor visitor1 = Flagship.visitorBuilder("visitor_unique_id").build();
  visitor.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.

Experience Continuity

In some situations, you may want experience consistency between an anonymous visitor and an authenticed visitor. Flagship provides the following two methods in order to help you to specify when a visitor is authenticated or not.

Authenticate

public void authenticate(visitorId: String)

Unauthenticate

public void unauthenticate()

Code example

Visitor visitor1 = Flagship.visitorBuilder("visitor_unique_id").build(); // anonymous visitor lands on your app.

  // Once the visitor log in and is authenticated on your app.
  visitor.authenticate("visitor_id");


  // Once the visitor log out and is unauthenticed on your app.
  visitor.unauthenticate();

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 four 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:

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

public void sendHit(Hit hit)

Report this user has seen this modification.

Hit common optional parameters

Screen screen = new 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 arrives on a new page on the server side.

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

visitor.sendHit(page);

public Page(String location)

Screen

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

Screen screen = new Screen("your_screen_name")

visitor.sendHit(screen);

public Screen(String location)

Transaction

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

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

Transaction(String transactionId, String affiliation)

Item

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

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

Item(String transactionId, String productName, String productSku)

📘

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).

Event event = new Event(Event.EventCategory.USER_ENGAGEMENT, "action")
                .withEventLabel("label")
                .withEventValue(100);
visitor.sendHit(event);

public Event(EventCategory category, String action)

Appendix

Predefined user context keys : FlagshipContext

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 customer.

📘

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