PHP V3.0.X

Introduction

SDK overview

Welcome to the Flagship PHP SDK documentation!

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

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

SDK features

That SDK version helps you :

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

Prerequisites

• PHP : version 5.4 or later
• php_curl extension must be enabled
• json extension must be enabled
• Composer : version 1.0.0 or later
• Your server/device must have an access to the internet.

Good to know

• Github repository: https://github.com/flagship-io/flagship-php-sdk

Getting Started

Installation

The Flagship PHP SDK can be installed with Composer. Follow the installation instructions if the composer is not already installed.

Once composer is installed, in your project root run the following command to install this library:

composer require flagship-io/flagship-php-sdk

Initialization

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

require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

use Flagship\Flagship;

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

Flagship config

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

//Start sdk in Decision api mode.

use Flagship\Config\FlagshipConfig;
use Flagship\Enum\FlagshipStatus;
use Flagship\Enum\LogLevel;

$config = FlagshipConfig::decisionApi()
    ->setLogManager(new CustomLogManager())
    ->setLogLevel(LogLevel::ALL)
    ->setTimeout(2000)
    ->setStatusChangedCallback(function ($status) {
        if ($status === FlagshipStatus::READY) {
            echo "SDK is ready";
        }
    });

Flagship::start("your_env_id", "your_api_key", $config);

//Start sdk in Bucketing mode.

use Flagship\Config\FlagshipConfig;
use Flagship\Enum\FlagshipStatus;
use Flagship\Enum\LogLevel;

$config = FlagshipConfig::bucketing("http://127.0.0.1:8080/bucketing")
    ->setLogManager(new CustomLogManager())
    ->setLogLevel(LogLevel::ALL)
    ->setTimeout(2000)
    ->setStatusChangedCallback(function ($status) {
        if ($status === FlagshipStatus::READY) {
            echo "SDK is ready";
        }
    });

Flagship::start("your_env_id", "your_api_key", $config);

• public static function FlagshipConfig::decisionApi() : Flagship\Config\DecisionApiConfig

Initialize the SDK to start with Decision-Api mode

• public static function FlagshipConfig::bucketing(string $bucketingUrl) : Flagship\Config\BucketingConfig

Initialize the SDK to start with Bucketing-mode

• public function setLogManager(Psr\Log\LoggerInterface $logManager) : Flagship\Config\FlagshipConfig

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

• public function setLogLevel(int $logLevel) : \Flagship\Config\FlagshipConfig

  This method specify the mode which filter SDK logs.

• public function setTimeout(int $timeout) : \Flagship\Config\FlagshipConfig

  Specify timeout for api request.

• public function setStatusChangedCallback(callable $statusChangedCallback) \Flagship\Config\FlagshipConfig

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

• public function setVisitorCacheImplementation(IVisitorCacheImplementation $visitorCacheImplementation) : \Flagship\Config\FlagshipConfig

Define an object that implement the interface IVisitorCacheImplementation, to handle the visitor cache.
see cache-manager

Only available for Bucketing:

Bucketing file url

• public function setBucketingUrl(string $bucketingUrl): \Flagship\Config\BucketingConfig

  Define the flagship-sync-agent endpoint URL where the SDK will fetch the bucketing file from polling process

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 modifications will create an HTTP request.

Bucketing Mode

In Bucketing mode, when fetchFlags method is called. The SDK will check the bucketing file fetched through flagship-sync-agent endpoint URL . Then validates campaigns targeting the visitor and assigns a variation. Learn more

In order to feed bucketing file, you must run bucketing polling process. See Bucketing polling section.

SDK Status

List of possible SDK status :

class Flagship\Enum\FlagshipStatus

Bucketing polling

To start bucketing polling, you need to run in your infrastructure flagship-sync-agent. This binary is a local endpoint (API) that provides the bucketing file which is downloaded from flagship CDN by performing the bucketing polling process.

flagship-sync-agent downloads all the campaigns configurations at once in a single bucketing file and stored it in cache. It will only be downloaded again when campaign configurations are modified in the Flagship interface.

The gain of going through flagship-sync-agent is in terms of response time. once it has downloaded the bucketing file, it delivers it within a very short time to the script that requests it.

You can download it here

$ ./app --envId=YOUR_ENV_ID --pollingInterval=2000 --port=3000 --address=0.0.0.0

arguments:

Docker

docker pull flagshipio/sync-agent

env FS_ENV_ID="YOUR_ENV_ID" docker run -p 3000:8080 -e FS_ENV_ID flagshipio/sync-agent

Environment variables:

API docs

Create a new visitor

The \Flagship\Visitor\Visitor instance is an 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 which defines the current user of your app. This dataset is sent and used as targeting criteria for campaign assignment.

For example, if you want to enable or disable a specific feature based on a 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.

use Flagship\Flagship;

$visitor = Flagship::newVisitor("your_visitor_id")
        ->hasConsented(true)
        ->withContext(["age" => 31, "isVip" => true])
        ->isAuthenticated(true)
        ->build();

• public static function newVisitor(string $visitorId) : \Flagship\Visitor\VisitorBuilder

  Initialize the builder and Return a \Flagship\Visitor\VisitorBuilder or null if the SDK hasn't started successfully.

  Parameter	Type	Description
  visitorId	string	Unique visitor identifier.

VisitorBuilder

\Flagship\Visitor\VisitorBuilder is a fluent interface builder api managing Visitor creation.

• public function isAuthenticated(bool $isAuthenticated) : \Flagship\Visitor\VisitorBuilder

  Specify if the Visitor is authenticated or anonymous.

  Parameter	Type	Description
  isAuthenticated	bool	true for an authenticated visitor, false for an anonymous visitor.

• public function hasConsented(bool $hasConsented) : \Flagship\Visitor\VisitorBuilder

  Specify if the Visitor has consented for personal data usage. When false some features will be deactivated, cache will be deactivated and cleared.

  Parameter	Type	Description
  hasConsented	bool	Set to true when the visitor has consented, false otherwise.

• public function withContext(array $context) : \Flagship\Visitor\VisitorBuilder

  Specify Visitor initial context key / values used for targeting.

  Parameter	Type	Description
  withContext	array (associative array)	visitor initial context. e.g: ["age"=>42, "IsVip"=>true, "country"=>"UK"].

🚧

• User context keys must have a type of string
• User context values must have a type of string, bool, numeric
• User context keys and values are case sensitive

• public function build() : \Flagship\Visitor\Visitor

  Complete the Visitor Creation process and return an instance of \Flagship\Visitor\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 as targeting criteria for campaign assignment.

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

use Flagship\Flagship;

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

  $visitor = Flagship::newVisitor("your_visitor_id")
              ->withContext(["age" => 31, "isVip" => true])
              ->build();

  $visitor->updateContext("lastPurchaseDate", 1615384464);

public function updateContext(string $key, bool|numeric|string $value) : void

Update the visitor context values, matching the given keys, used for targeting.

public function updateContextCollection(array $Context) : void

Update the visitor context values, matching the given keys, used for targeting.

public function getContext(): array

Get all the visitor's current context as a collection of keys, values

public function clearContext() : void

Clear the actual visitor context

🚧

• User context keys must have a type of string
• User context values must have a type of string, bool, numeric
• User context keys and values are case sensitive

update context with predefined keys of context

use Flagship\Flagship;
use Flagship\Enum\FlagshipContext;

Flagship::start("your_env_id", "your_api_key");
$visitor = Flagship::newVisitor("your_visitor_id")
              ->context(["age" => 31, "isVip" => true])
              ->build();

$visitor->updateContext(FlagshipContext::OS_NAME, "linux");
$visitor->updateContext(FlagshipContext::IP, "127.0.0.1");

Learn more about predefined keys of context

Managing visitor campaigns

Fetching Flags

The fetchFlags() method of the \Flagship\Visitor\Visitor instance, according to Decision Mode, will either automatically call the Flagship Decision API to run campaign assignments according to the current user context and retrieve applicable modifications; or check the bucketing file, validate campaigns targeting the visitor, assign a variation and retrieve applicable modifications.

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

use Flagship\Flagship;

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

$visitor = Flagship::newVisitor("your_visitor_id")->build();

$visitor->updateContext("postcode", "31200");

$visitor->fetchFlags();

public function fetchFlags() : void

In DecisionApi Mode this function calls the Flagship Decision API to run campaign assignments according to the current user context and retrieve applicable modifications.
In bucketing Mode, it checks the bucketing file, validates campaigns targeting the visitor, assigns a variation, and retrieves applicable modifications

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 \Flagship\Visitor instance:

use Flagship\Flagship;

Flagship::start("your_env_id", "your_api_key");
$visitor = Flagship::newVisitor("your_visitor_id")->build();
$visitor->updateContext("isVip", true);
$visitor->fetchFlags();

$flag = $visitor->getFlag("displayVipFeature", false);

getFlag function

Return 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.

• public function getFlag(string $key, bool|numeric|string|array $defaultValue) : \Flagship\Flag\FlagInterface

🚧

• Default value must be one of the following type : string, bool, numeric, array.

Getting flags current values

getValue function

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

use Flagship\Flagship;

Flagship::start("your_env_id", "your_api_key");
$visitor = Flagship::newVisitor("your_visitor_id")->build();
$visitor->updateContext("isVip", true);
$visitor->fetchFlags();

$flagValue = $visitor->getFlag("displayVipFeature", false)->getValue();

• public function getValue(bool $userExposed) : bool|numeric|string|array function

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

getMetadata function

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.

use Flagship\Flagship;

Flagship::start("your_env_id", "your_api_key");
$visitor = Flagship::newVisitor("your_visitor_id")->build();
$visitor->updateContext("isVip", true);
$visitor->fetchFlags();

$campaignMetada = $visitor->getFlag("displayVipFeature", false)->getMetadata();

• public function getMetadata() : 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.

The FlagMetadata class has the following shape:

Report a Flag exposition

userExposed function

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

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

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

use Flagship\Flagship;

Flagship::start("your_env_id", "your_api_key");
$visitor = Flagship::newVisitor("your_visitor_id")->build();
$visitor->updateContext("isVip", true);
$visitor->fetchFlags();

$visitor->getFlag("displayVipFeature", false)->userExposed();

• public function userExposed() : void

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

exists function

This method will return true if a Flag exists in Flagship

• public function exists() : bool

use Flagship\Flagship;

Flagship::start("your_env_id", "your_api_key");
$visitor = Flagship::newVisitor("your_visitor_id")->build();
$visitor->updateContext("isVip", true);
$visitor->fetchFlags();

$exists = $visitor->getFlag("displayVipFeature", false)->exist();

Managing visitor consent

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

use Flagship\Flagship;

Flagship::start("your_env_id", "your_api_key");
$visitor = Flagship::newVisitor("your_visitor_id")->build();
$visitor->setConsent(false);

public function setConsent(bool $hasConsented) : \Flagship\Visitor\Visitor

public function hasConsented() : bool

Return true if the visitor has consented for private data usage, otherwise, return false.

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

public function authenticate(string $visitorId) : void

🚧

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

public function unauthenticate() : void

🚧

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.

$visitor = Flagship::newVisitor()->withContext([ "key"=> "value"])->build();

Here we don't set visitorId property so the SDK has auto-created an 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.

// Example 
  // You fetch the visitor_id from your DB
  // $visitor_id = $db->getUserId();

  $visitor->authenticate("visitor_id");
  
  // 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();

Hit Tracking

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

There are four different types of Hits available:

• Page
• Transaction
• Item
• Event

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

use Flagship\Flagship;
use Flagship\Hit\Page;

$visitor = Flagship::newVisitor("your_visitor_id")->build();

$visitor->sendHit(new Page("https://www.my_domain_com/my_page"));

public function sendHit(HitAbstract $hit) : void

Report this user has seen this modification.

Hit common optional parameters

use Flagship\Flagship;
use Flagship\Hit\Page;

$visitor = Flagship::newVisitor("your_visitor_id")->build();

$visitor->sendHit(new Page("https://www.my_domain_com/my_page")
          ->setUserIp("127.0.0.1")
          ->setScreenResolution("800X600")
          ->setLocale("fr")
          ->setSessionNumber("12345")
          );

Page

This hit should be sent each time a visitor arrives on a new page.

use Flagship\Hit\Page;

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

$visitor->sendHit($page);

public Page(string $pageUrl)

Transaction

This hit should be sent when a user completes a transaction.

use Flagship\Hit\Transaction;

$transaction = (new Transaction("#12345", "affiliation"))
            ->setCouponCode("code")
            ->setCurrency("EUR")
            ->setItemCount(1)
            ->setPaymentMethod("creditCard")
            ->setShippingCosts(9.99)
            ->setTaxes(19.99)
            ->setTotalRevenue(199.99)
            ->setShippingMethod("1day");

$visitor->sendHit($transaction);

public 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.

use Flagship\Hit\Item;

$item = (new Item("#12345", "product", "sku123"))
            ->setItemCategory("test")
            ->setItemPrice(199.99)
            ->setItemQuantity(1);

$visitor->sendHit($item);

public Item(string $transactionId, string $productName, string $productSku)

Event

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

use Flagship\Hit\Event;

$event = (new Event(EventCategory::USER_ENGAGEMENT, "action"))
              ->setLabel("label")
              ->setValue(100);

$visitor->sendHit($event);

public Event(EventCategory category, String action)

Managing visitor cache

The purpose of the cache management is to answer the following needs:

• Re-allocation in bucketing mode :

In bucketing mode and with the cache enabled, the SDK will always keep visitor in the variation he was allocated first, in case the customer manually changed the traffic allocation or the dynamic allocation feature was enabled, to avoid user experience issues. Indeed in bucketing mode the assignation is made on local devices so changing traffic allocation in the platform could authorize the visitors to see different variations.

• Handle offline mode :

With the cache enabled, the SDK will try to retrieve the latest visitor data (campaign assignations) from the cache.

To use the cache manager the intefaces IVisitorCacheImplementation must be implemented through visitorCacheImplementation property accessor of configuration.

Visitor Cache

The visitor cache is used to store the visitor data in a database through the Flagship\Cache\IVisitorCacheImplementation interface.

interface IVisitorCacheImplementation
{
    public  function cacheVisitor($visitorId, array $data) : void;

    public function lookupVisitor($visitorId) : array;

    public function flushVisitor($visitorId) : void;
}

cacheVisitor function

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

• public function cacheVisitor($visitorId, array $data) : void

It has 2 arguments :

lookupVisitor function

This method is called when the SDK needs to get the visitor information corresponding to visitor ID from your database.

It has to return an array which follows this shape see.

• public function lookupVisitor($visitorId) : array

It has one argument :

flushVisitor function

This method is called when the SDK needs to erase the visitor information corresponding to visitor ID in your database.

It will be called every time setConsent get false.

• public function flushVisitor($visitorId) : void

It has one argument :

📘

• flushVisitor method will be called every time setConsent get false.

Visitor Cache format

[
  'Version' => 1,
  'Data' => [
    'VisitorId' => 'visitor_1',
    'AnonymousId' => NULL,
    'Consent' => true,
    'Context' => [
      'qa_getflag' => true,
      'fs_client' => '.NET',
      'fs_version' => 'V3',
    ],
    'AssignmentsHistory' => [
      'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' => 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx',
      'yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy' => 'yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy',
    ],
    'Campaigns' => [
      0 => [
        'CampaignId' => 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx',
        'VariationGroupId' => 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx',
        'VariationId' => 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx',
        'IsReference' => false,
        'Type' => 2,
        'Activated' => false,
        'Flags' => [
          'key' => 'value',
        ],
      ],
      1 => [
        'CampaignId' => 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx',
        'VariationGroupId' => 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx',
        'VariationId' => 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx',
        'IsReference' => false,
        'Type' => '',
        'Activated' => false,
        'Flags' => [
          'myAwesomeFeature' => 20,
        ],
      ],
    ],
  ],
]

Example

<?php

require_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';


use Flagship\Cache\IVisitorCacheImplementation;
use Flagship\Config\FlagshipConfig;
use Flagship\Flagship;


/**
 * Implementing visitor caches with redis
 */
class VisitorCacheRedis implements IVisitorCacheImplementation{

    private $redis;
    public function __construct($address, $port)
    {
        $this->redis = new Redis();
        $this->redis->connect($address, $port);
    }

    public function cacheVisitor($visitorId, array $data)
    {
        $this->redis->set($visitorId, json_encode($data, JSON_NUMERIC_CHECK));
    }

    public function lookupVisitor($visitorId)
    {
        $data = $this->redis->get($visitorId);
        if (!$data){
            return null;
        }
        return json_decode($data, true);
    }

    public function flushVisitor($visitorId)
    {
      $this->redis->del($visitorId);
    }
}

Flagship::start("your_env_id", "your_api_key",
    FlagshipConfig::bucketing("http://127.0.0.1:8080/bucketing") // set the sync-agent endpoint URL
    ->setVisitorCacheImplementation(new VisitorCacheRedis("127.0.0.1", 6379)) // set visitor cache implementation 
);

$visitor = Flagship::newVisitor("visitorID")
        ->withContext(["plan"=>"enterprise"])
        ->build();

$visitor->fetchFlags();

$flag = $visitor->getFlag("your_flag_key", "default_value") ;
echo "value: ". $flag->getValue()."\n";
echo "exists: ". $flag->exists()."\n";
echo "metadata: ". json_encode($flag->getMetadata());

API reference

Flagship class

• start
• newVisitor

Visitor class

• updateContext
• context
• clearContext
• fetchFlags
• getFlag
• setConsent
• hasConsented
• Authenticate
• Unauthenticate
• sendHit

Flag class

• getValue
• getMetadata
• userexposed
• exists

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 customer.

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