Real-Time Audiences for Feature Experimentation segment qualification methods for the Android SDK

15 min

Prerequisites

You must enable the Real-Time Audiences for Feature Experimentation integration before fetching qualified audiences and checking if the user is qualified for the given audience.

fetchQualifiedSegments

Minimum SDK version

4.0.0

Description

You can use the fetchQualifiedSegments method to retrieve the external audience mapping for a specific user from the ODP server. The Optimizely Feature Experimentation Android SDK provides a synchronous and asynchronous version of the fetchQualifiedSegments method. The qualified segments are cached.

The synchronous fetch blocks the caller until it completes.

The asynchronous API does not block the caller.

fetchQualifiedSegments is a method of the UserContext object. See OptimizelyUserContext for details.

Parameters

The following table describes the parameters for the fetchQualifiedSegments method:

Parameter	Type	Description
options (optional)	String	A set of options for fetching qualified segments.
completion (for asynchronous calls)	Callback function	A completion handler to be called with the fetch result.

Returns – Synchronous call

The fetchQualifiedSegments synchronous method returns true if the qualified segments array in the user context was updated.

Returns – Asynchronous call

If the fetch completes, the Android SDK will update the qualified segments array in the OptimizelyUserContext and then call the completion handler with a success status.

If the fetch fails, the SDK will call the handler with a failure status.

Note You can read and write directly to the qualified segments array. This lets you bypass the remote fetching process from Optimizely Data Platform (ODP) or use your own fetching service. This can be helpful when testing or debugging.

Example fetchQualifiedSegments

The following is an example of calling the fetchQualifiedSegments method and accessing the returned completion object.

Kotlin example

val attributes: MutableMap<String, Any> = HashMap() 
       attributes.put("app_version", "1.3.2") 
       val user = optimizelyClient.createUserContext("fs-id-123", attributes) 
 
// Without segment option 
       user!!.fetchQualifiedSegments { isFetchSuccessful: Boolean? -> 
           println(isFetchSuccessful) 
           val decision = user.decide("flag1") 
           user.trackEvent("purchase_event") 
       } 
 
// With segment options 
       val odpSegmentOptions: MutableList<ODPSegmentOption> = ArrayList() 
       odpSegmentOptions.add(ODPSegmentOption.IGNORE_CACHE) 
       odpSegmentOptions.add(ODPSegmentOption.RESET_CACHE) 
       user.fetchQualifiedSegments( 
           { isFetchSuccessful: Boolean? -> 
               println(isFetchSuccessful) 
               val decision = user.decide("flag1") 
               user.trackEvent("purchase_event") 
           }, 
           odpSegmentOptions 
       )

val attributes: MutableMap<String, Any> = HashMap() 
       attributes.put("app_version", "1.3.2") 
 
// Method 1 create with user id 
       val userWithUserId = optimizelyClient.createUserContext("fs-id-123", attributes) 
 
// Without segment option 
       val response = userWithUserId!!.fetchQualifiedSegments() 

// With segment options 
       val odpSegmentOptions: MutableList<ODPSegmentOption> = ArrayList() 
       odpSegmentOptions.add(ODPSegmentOption.IGNORE_CACHE) 
       odpSegmentOptions.add(ODPSegmentOption.RESET_CACHE) 

       val response = userWithUserId!!.fetchQualifiedSegments(odpSegmentOptions) 
 
       val decision = userWithUserId!!.decide("flag1") 
       userWithUserId!!.trackEvent("myevent") 
 
// Method 2 create OptimizelyUserContext with auto-generated VUID instead of user id 
       val userWithVuid = optimizelyClient.createUserContext(attributes) 
 
// Without segment option 
       val response = userWithVuid!!.fetchQualifiedSegments() 
 
// With segment option 
val odpSegmentOptions: MutableList<ODPSegmentOption> = ArrayList() 
odpSegmentOptions.add(ODPSegmentOption.IGNORE_CACHE) 
odpSegmentOptions.add(ODPSegmentOption.RESET_CACHE) 
 
val response = userWithVuid.fetchQualifiedSegments(odpSegmentOptions) 
 
val decision = userWithVuid.decide("flag1") 
userWithVuid.trackEvent("myevent")

Android example

Map<String, Object> attributes = new HashMap<>();
attributes.put("app_version", "1.3.2");
OptimizelyUserContext user = optimizelyClient.createUserContext("fs-id-123", attributes);

// Without segment option 
Boolean response = user.fetchQualifiedSegments((Boolean isFetchSuccessful) -> {
            System.out.println(isFetchSuccessful);
            
            OptimizelyDecision decision = user.decide("flag1");
            user.trackEvent("purchase_event");
        });

// With segment options
List<ODPSegmentOption> odpSegmentOptions = new ArrayList<>();
odpSegmentOptions.add(ODPSegmentOption.IGNORE_CACHE);
odpSegmentOptions.add(ODPSegmentOption.RESET_CACHE);

user.fetchQualifiedSegments((Boolean isFetchSuccessful) -> {
            System.out.println(isFetchSuccessful);
            
            OptimizelyDecision decision = user.decide("flag1");
            user.trackEvent("purchase_event");
        },
        odpSegmentOptions);

Map<String, Object> attributes = new HashMap<>();
attributes.put("app_version", "1.3.2");

// Method 1 create with user id
OptimizelyUserContext userWithUserId = optimizelyClient.createUserContext("fs-id-123", attributes);

// Without segment option 
Boolean response = userWithUserId.fetchQualifiedSegments();

// With segment options
List<ODPSegmentOption> odpSegmentOptions = new ArrayList<>();
odpSegmentOptions.add(ODPSegmentOption.IGNORE_CACHE);
odpSegmentOptions.add(ODPSegmentOption.RESET_CACHE);

Boolean response = userWithUserId.fetchQualifiedSegments(odpSegmentOptions);


OptimizelyDecision decision = userWithUserId.decide("flag1");
userWithUserId.trackEvent("myevent");


// Method 2 create OptimizelyUserContext with auto-generated VUID instead of user id
OptimizelyUserContext userWithVuid = optimizelyClient.createUserContext(attributes);

// Without segment option 
Boolean response = userWithVuid.fetchQualifiedSegments();


// With segment options
List<ODPSegmentOption> odpSegmentOptions = new ArrayList<>();
odpSegmentOptions.add(ODPSegmentOption.IGNORE_CACHE);
odpSegmentOptions.add(ODPSegmentOption.RESET_CACHE);

Boolean response = userWithVuid.fetchQualifiedSegments(odpSegmentOptions);


OptimizelyDecision decision = userWithVuid.decide("flag1");
userWithVuid.trackEvent("myevent");

The following diagram shows the network calls between your application, the Feature Experimentation Android SDK, and ODP when calling fetchQualifiedSegments:

Your application calls the fetchQualifiedSegments method.

The Feature Experimentation Android SDK makes a GraphQL call to ODP to fetch audience segments the user ID qualifies for.

ODP responds with the qualified audience segments.

The Android SDK automatically caches the fetched segments mapping the user ID to the qualified segments. See the OdpSegmentManager section.

The fetchQualifiedSegments method returns a boolean if the qualified segments array was updated.

Call the decide method to get the flag decision for a given user, a decision object that contains the flag's status (enabled or disabled), and the assigned variation key.

OdpSegmentManager

When the segments are fetched, they are cached. This means that if you request the segments again (when new user contexts are created), the audience segment information can be retrieved from the cache instead of being fetched from the remote ODP server.

The cache is used for the fetchQualifiedSegment call. This method is called on the user context (the user context is fixed, including the real-time audiences the user qualifies for).

The cache only applies when calling the fetchQualifiedSegments call. If you set the cache timeout to 0, the cache is disabled. Optimizely uses a Least Recently Used (LRU) algorithm, so the oldest record is bumped out when the maximum size is reached. If there is a cache miss upon the method call, Optimizely makes a network request.

The Android SDK has an OdpSegmentManager module, which manages a segments cache that is shared for all user contexts. The cache is in memory (not persistent), so it is reset when the application is terminated or the device is rebooted.

Specifics about the cache include the following:

Stores a mapping of user IDs to segments.

The Android SDK calls the ODP server on cache miss or expiration.

Uses LRU.

Expires on timeout.

Both cache size and timeout are configurable (default values provided).

Is enabled by default and can be disabled.

If you want to bypass caching, you can add the following options to your odpSegmentOptions array:

ignoreCache – Bypass segments cache for lookup and save.

resetCache – Reset all segments cache.

See the Kotlin and Android code samples to see how to call fetchQualifiedSegments with caching options.

isQualifiedFor

Minimum SDK Version

4.0.0

Description

Check if the user is qualified for the given audience segment.

Parameters

The following table describes the parameters for the isQualifiedFor method:

Parameter	Type	Description
segment	String	The audience segment name to check if the user is qualified for.

Returns

true if the user is qualified.

Examples

The following is an example of whether the user is qualified for a segment:

val attributes: MutableMap<String, Any> = HashMap() 
attributes.put("mobile_os", "ios") 
val user: OptimizelyUserContext = optimizely.createUserContext("user123", attributes) 
 
val response = user.fetchQualifiedSegments() 
val isQualified = user.isQualifiedFor("segment1")

Map<String, Object> attributes = new HashMap<>();
attributes.put("mobile_os", "ios");
OptimizelyUserContext user = optimizely.createUserContext("user123", attributes);

Boolean response = user.fetchQualifiedSegments();
Boolean isQualified = user.isQualifiedFor("segment1");

Source files

The language and platform source files containing the implementation for Android are available on GitHub.