Optimizely React SDK

This repository houses the React SDK for use with Optimizely Feature Experimentation and Optimizely Full Stack (legacy).

Optimizely Feature Experimentation is an A/B testing and feature management tool for product development teams that enables you to experiment at every step. Using Optimizely Feature Experimentation allows for every feature on your roadmap to be an opportunity to discover hidden insights. Learn more at Optimizely.com, or see the developer documentation.

Optimizely Rollouts is free feature flags for development teams. You can easily roll out and roll back features in any application without code deploys, mitigating risk for every feature on your roadmap.

Get Started

Refer to the React SDK's developer documentation for detailed instructions on getting started with using the SDK.

For React Native, review the React Native developer documentation.

Features

• Automatic datafile downloading
• User ID + attributes memoization
• Render blocking until datafile is ready via a React API
• Optimizely timeout (only block rendering up to the number of milliseconds you specify)
• Library of React components and hooks to use with feature flags

Compatibility

The React SDK is compatible with React 16.8.0 +

Example

1import {
2  createInstance,
3  OptimizelyProvider,
4  useDecision,
5} from '@optimizely/react-sdk';
6
7const optimizelyClient = createInstance({
8  sdkKey: 'your-optimizely-sdk-key',
9});
10
11function MyComponent() {
12  const [decision] = useDecision('sort-algorithm');
13  return (
14    <React.Fragment>
15      <SearchComponent algorithm={decision.variables.algorithm} />
16      { decision.variationKey === 'relevant_first' && <RelevantFirstList /> }
17      { decision.variationKey === 'recent_first' && <RecentFirstList /> }
18    </React.Fragment>
19  );
20}
21
22class App extends React.Component {
23  render() {
24    return (
25      <OptimizelyProvider
26        optimizely={optimizelyClient}
27        timeout={500}
28        user={{ id: window.userId, attributes: { plan_type: 'bronze' } }}
29      >
30        <MyComponent />
31      </OptimizelyProvider>
32    );
33  }
34}

Install the SDK

npm install @optimizely/react-sdk

For React Native, installation instruction is bit different. Check out the

• Official Installation guide
• Expo React Native Sample App

Use the React SDK

Initialization

createInstance

The ReactSDKClient client created via createInstance is the programmatic API to evaluating features and experiments and tracking events. The ReactSDKClient is what powers the rest of the ReactSDK internally.

arguments

• config : object Object with SDK configuration parameters. This has the same format as the object passed to the createInstance method of the core @optimizely/javascript-sdk module. For details on this object, see the following pages from the developer docs:
  • Instantiate
  • JavaScript: Client-side Datafile Management

returns

• A ReactSDKClient instance.

1import { OptimizelyProvider, createInstance } from '@optimizely/react-sdk';
2
3const optimizely = createInstance({
4  datafile: window.optimizelyDatafile,
5});

<OptimizelyProvider>

Required at the root level. Leverages React’s Context API to allow access to the ReactSDKClient to the useDecision hook.

props

• optimizely : ReactSDKClient created from createInstance
• user: { id: string; attributes?: { [key: string]: any } } | Promise User info object - id and attributes will be passed to the SDK for every feature flag, A/B test, or track call, or a Promise for the same kind of object
• timeout : Number (optional) The amount of time for useDecision to return null flag Decision while waiting for the SDK instance to become ready, before resolving.
• isServerSide : Boolean (optional) must pass true here for server side rendering
• userId : String (optional) Deprecated, prefer using user instead. Another way to provide user id. The user object prop takes precedence when both are provided.
• userAttributes : Object : (optional) Deprecated, prefer using user instead. Another way to provide user attributes. The user object prop takes precedence when both are provided.

Readiness

Before rendering real content, both the datafile and the user must be available to the SDK.

Load the datafile synchronously

Synchronous loading is the preferred method to ensure that Optimizely is always ready and doesn't add any delay or asynchronous complexity to your application. When initializing with both the SDK key and datafile, the SDK will use the given datafile to start, then download the latest version of the datafile in the background.

1import { OptimizelyProvider, createInstance } from '@optimizely/react-sdk';
2
3const optimizelyClient = createInstance({
4  datafile: window.optimizelyDatafile,
5  sdkKey: 'your-optimizely-sdk-key', // Optimizely environment key
6});
7
8class AppWrapper extends React.Component {
9  render() {
10    return (
11      <OptimizelyProvider optimizely={optimizelyClient} user={{ id: window.userId }}>
12        <App />
13      </OptimizelyProvider>
14    );
15  }
16}

Load the datafile asynchronously

If you don't have the datafile downloaded, the ReactSDKClient can fetch the datafile for you. However, instead of waiting for the datafile to fetch before you render your app, you can immediately render your app and provide a timeout option to <OptimizelyProvider optimizely={optimizely} timeout={200}>. The useDecision hook returns isClientReady and didTimeout. You can use these to block rendering of component until the datafile loads or the timeout is over.

1import { OptimizelyProvider, createInstance, useDecision } from '@optimizely/react-sdk';
2
3const optimizelyClient = createInstance({
4  sdkKey: 'your-optimizely-sdk-key', // Optimizely environment key
5});
6
7function MyComponent() {
8  const [decision, isClientReady, didTimeout] = useDecision('the-flag');
9  return (
10    <React.Fragment>
11      { isClientReady && <div>The Component</div> }
12      { didTimeout && <div>Default Component</div>}
13      { /* If client is not ready and time out has not occured yet, do not render anything */ }
14    </React.Fragment>
15  );
16}
17
18class App extends React.Component {
19  render() {
20    return (
21      <OptimizelyProvider
22        optimizely={optimizelyClient}
23        timeout={500}
24        user={{ id: window.userId, attributes: { plan_type: 'bronze' } }}
25      >
26        <MyComponent />
27      </OptimizelyProvider>
28    );
29  }
30}

Set user asynchronously

If user information is synchronously available, it can be provided as the user object prop, as in prior examples. But, if user information must be fetched asynchronously, the user prop can be a Promise for a user object with the same properties (id and attributes):

1import { OptimizelyProvider, createInstance } from '@optimizely/react-sdk';
2import { fetchUser } from './user';
3
4const optimizely = createInstance({
5  datafile: window.optimizelyDatafile,
6});
7
8const userPromise = fetchUser(); // fetchUser returns a Promise for an object with { id, attributes }
9
10class AppWrapper extends React.Component {
11  render() {
12    return (
13      <OptimizelyProvider optimizely={optimizely} user={userPromise}>
14        <App />
15      </OptimizelyProvider>
16    );
17  }
18}

useDecision Hook

A React Hook to retrieve the decision result for a flag key, optionally auto updating that decision based on underlying user or datafile changes.

arguments

• flagKey : string The key of the feature flag.
• options : Object
  • autoUpdate : boolean (optional) If true, this hook will update the flag decision in response to datafile or user changes. Default: false.
  • timeout : number (optional) Client timeout as described in the OptimizelyProvider section. Overrides any timeout set on the ancestor OptimizelyProvider.
  • decideOption: OptimizelyDecideOption[] (optional) Array of OptimizelyDecideOption enums.
• overrides : Object
  • overrideUserId : string (optional) Override the userId to be used to obtain the decision result for this hook.
  • overrideAttributes : optimizely.UserAttributes (optional) Override the user attributes to be used to obtain the decision result for this hook.

returns

• Array of:

  • decision : OptimizelyDecision - Decision result for the flag key.
  • clientReady : boolean - Whether or not the underlying ReactSDKClient instance is ready or not.
  • didTimeout : boolean - Whether or not the underlying ReactSDKClient became ready within the allowed timeout range.

  Note: clientReady can be true even if didTimeout is also true. This indicates that the client became ready after the timeout period.

Render something if flag is enabled

1import { useEffect } from 'react';
2import { useDecision } from '@optimizely/react-sdk';
3
4function LoginComponent() {
5  const [decision, clientReady] = useDecision(
6    'login-flag',
7    { autoUpdate: true },
8    {
9      /* (Optional) User overrides */
10    }
11  );
12  useEffect(() => {
13    document.title = decision.enabled ? 'login-new' : 'login-default';
14  }, [decision.enabled]);
15
16  return (
17    <p>
18      <a href={decision.enabled ? '/login-new' : '/login-default'}>Click to login</a>
19    </p>
20  );
21}

withOptimizely

Any component under the <OptimizelyProvider> can access the Optimizely ReactSDKClient via the higher-order component (HoC) withOptimizely.

arguments

• Component : React.Component Component which will be enhanced with the following props:
  • optimizely : ReactSDKClient The client object which was passed to the OptimizelyProvider
  • optimizelyReadyTimeout : number | undefined The timeout which was passed to the OptimizelyProvider
  • isServerSide : boolean Value that was passed to the OptimizelyProvider

returns

• A wrapped component with additional props as described above

Example

1import { withOptimizely } from '@optimizely/react-sdk';
2
3class MyComp extends React.Component {
4  constructor(props) {
5    super(props);
6    const { optimizely } = this.props;
7    const decision = optimizely.decide('feat1');    
8
9    this.state = {
10      decision.enabled,
11      decision.variables,
12    };
13  }
14
15  render() {}
16}
17
18const WrappedMyComponent = withOptimizely(MyComp);

Note: The optimizely client object provided via withOptimizely is automatically associated with the user prop passed to the ancestor OptimizelyProvider - the id and attributes from that user object will be automatically forwarded to all appropriate SDK method calls. So, there is no need to pass the userId or attributes arguments when calling methods of the optimizely client object, unless you wish to use different userId or attributes than those given to OptimizelyProvider.

useContext

Any component under the <OptimizelyProvider> can access the Optimizely ReactSDKClient via the OptimizelyContext with useContext.

arguments

• OptimizelyContext : React.Context<OptimizelyContextInterface> The Optimizely context initialized in a parent component (or App).

returns

• Wrapped object:
  • optimizely : ReactSDKClient The client object which was passed to the OptimizelyProvider
  • isServerSide : boolean Value that was passed to the OptimizelyProvider
  • timeout : number | undefined The timeout which was passed to the OptimizelyProvider

Example

1import React, { useContext } from 'react';
2import { OptimizelyContext } from '@optimizely/react-sdk';
3
4function MyComponent() {
5  const { optimizely, isServerSide, timeout } = useContext(OptimizelyContext);
6  const decision = optimizely.decide('my-feature');
7  const onClick = () => {
8    optimizely.track('signup-clicked');
9    // rest of your click handling code
10  };
11  return (
12    <>
13      { decision.enabled && <p>My feature is enabled</p> }
14      { !decision.enabled && <p>My feature is disabled</p> }
15      { decision.variationKey === 'control-variation' && <p>Current Variation</p> }
16      { decision.variationKey === 'experimental-variation' && <p>Better Variation</p> }
17      <button onClick={onClick}>Sign Up!</button>
18    </>
19  );
20}

Tracking

Use the built-in useTrackEvent hook to access the track method of optimizely instance

1import { useTrackEvent } from '@optimizely/react-sdk';
2
3function SignupButton() {
4  const [track, clientReady, didTimeout] = useTrackEvent()
5
6  const handleClick = () => {
7    if(clientReady) {
8      track('signup-clicked')
9    }
10  }
11
12  return (
13    <button onClick={handleClick}>Signup</button>
14  )
15}

Or you can use the withOptimizely HoC.

1import { withOptimizely } from '@optimizely/react-sdk';
2
3class SignupButton extends React.Component {
4  onClick = () => {
5    const { optimizely } = this.props;
6    optimizely.track('signup-clicked');
7    // rest of click handler
8  };
9
10  render() {
11    <button onClick={this.onClick}>Signup</button>;
12  }
13}
14
15const WrappedSignupButton = withOptimizely(SignupButton);

Note: As mentioned above, the optimizely client object provided via withOptimizely is automatically associated with the user prop passed to the ancestor OptimizelyProvider. There is no need to pass userId or attributes arguments when calling track, unless you wish to use different userId or attributes than those given to OptimizelyProvider.

ReactSDKClient

The following type definitions are used in the ReactSDKClient interface:

• UserAttributes : { [name: string]: any }
• User : { id: string | null, attributes: userAttributes }
• VariableValuesObject : { [key: string]: any }
• EventTags : { [key: string]: string | number | boolean; }

ReactSDKClient instances have the methods/properties listed below. Note that in general, the API largely matches that of the core @optimizely/optimizely-sdk client instance, which is documented on the Optimizely Feature Experimentation developer docs site. The major exception is that, for most methods, user id & attributes are optional arguments. ReactSDKClient has a current user. This user's id & attributes are automatically applied to all method calls, and overrides can be provided as arguments to these method calls if desired.

• onReady(opts?: { timeout?: number }): Promise<onReadyResult> Returns a Promise that fulfills with an onReadyResult object representing the initialization process. The instance is ready when it has fetched a datafile and a user is available (via setUser being called with an object, or a Promise passed to setUser becoming fulfilled). If the timeout period happens before the client instance is ready, the onReadyResult object will contain an additional key, dataReadyPromise, which can be used to determine when, if ever, the instance does become ready.
• user: User The current user associated with this client instance
• setUser(userInfo: User | Promise<User>): void Call this to update the current user
• onUserUpdate(handler: (userInfo: User) => void): () => void Subscribe a callback to be called when this instance's current user changes. Returns a function that will unsubscribe the callback.
• decide(key: string, options?: optimizely.OptimizelyDecideOption[], overrideUserId?: string, overrideAttributes?: optimizely.UserAttributes): OptimizelyDecision Returns a decision result for a flag key for a user. The decision result is returned in an OptimizelyDecision object, and contains all data required to deliver the flag rule.
• decideAll(options?: optimizely.OptimizelyDecideOption[], overrideUserId?: string, overrideAttributes?: optimizely.UserAttributes): { [key: string]: OptimizelyDecision } Returns decisions for all active (unarchived) flags for a user.
• decideForKeys(keys: string[], options?: optimizely.OptimizelyDecideOption[], overrideUserId?: string, overrideAttributes?: optimizely.UserAttributes): { [key: string]: OptimizelyDecision } Returns an object of decision results mapped by flag keys.
• activate(experimentKey: string, overrideUserId?: string, overrideAttributes?: UserAttributes): string | null Activate an experiment, and return the variation for the given user.
• getVariation(experimentKey: string, overrideUserId?: string, overrideAttributes?: UserAttributes): string | null Return the variation for the given experiment and user.
• getFeatureVariables(featureKey: string, overrideUserId?: string, overrideAttributes?: UserAttributes): VariableValuesObject: Decide and return variable values for the given feature and user
  Warning: Deprecated since 2.1.0
  getAllFeatureVariables is added in JavaScript SDK which is similarly returning all the feature variables, but it sends only single notification of type all-feature-variables instead of sending for each variable. As getFeatureVariables was added when this functionality wasn't provided by JavaScript SDK, so there is no need of it now and it would be removed in next major release
• getFeatureVariableString(featureKey: string, variableKey: string, overrideUserId?: string, overrideAttributes?: optimizely.UserAttributes): string | null: Decide and return the variable value for the given feature, variable, and user
• getFeatureVariableInteger(featureKey: string, variableKey: string, overrideUserId?: string, overrideAttributes?: UserAttributes): number | null Decide and return the variable value for the given feature, variable, and user
• getFeatureVariableBoolean(featureKey: string, variableKey: string, overrideUserId?: string, overrideAttributes?: UserAttributes): boolean | null Decide and return the variable value for the given feature, variable, and user
• getFeatureVariableDouble(featureKey: string, variableKey: string, overrideUserId?: string, overrideAttributes?: UserAttributes): number | null Decide and return the variable value for the given feature, variable, and user
• isFeatureEnabled(featureKey: string, overrideUserId?: string, overrideAttributes?: UserAttributes): boolean Return the enabled status for the given feature and user
• getEnabledFeatures(overrideUserId?: string, overrideAttributes?: UserAttributes): Array<string>: Return the keys of all features enabled for the given user
• track(eventKey: string, overrideUserId?: string | EventTags, overrideAttributes?: UserAttributes, eventTags?: EventTags): void Track an event to the Optimizely results backend
• setForcedVariation(experiment: string, overrideUserIdOrVariationKey: string, variationKey?: string | null): boolean Set a forced variation for the given experiment, variation, and user. Note: calling setForcedVariation on a given client will trigger a re-render of all useExperiment hooks and OptimizelyExperiment components that are using that client.
• getForcedVariation(experiment: string, overrideUserId?: string): string | null Get the forced variation for the given experiment, variation, and user

Rollout or experiment a feature user-by-user

To rollout or experiment on a feature by user rather than by random percentage, you will use Attributes and Audiences. To do this, follow the documentation on how to run a beta using the React code samples.

Server Side Rendering

Right now server side rendering is possible with a few caveats.

Caveats

1. You must download the datafile manually and pass in via the datafile option. Can not use sdkKey to automatically download.

2. Rendering of components must be completely synchronous (this is true for all server side rendering), thus the Optimizely SDK assumes that the optimizely client has been instantiated and fired it's onReady event already.

Setting up <OptimizelyProvider>

Similar to browser side rendering you will need to wrap your app (or portion of the app using Optimizely) in the <OptimizelyProvider> component. A new prop isServerSide must be equal to true.

1<OptimizelyProvider optimizely={optimizely} user={{ id: 'user1' }} isServerSide={true}>
2  <App />
3</OptimizelyProvider>

All other Optimizely components, such as <OptimizelyFeature> and <OptimizelyExperiment> can remain the same.

Full example

1import * as React from 'react';
2import * as ReactDOMServer from 'react-dom/server';
3
4import {
5  createInstance,
6  OptimizelyProvider,
7  useDecision,
8} from '@optimizely/react-sdk';
9
10const fetch = require('node-fetch');
11
12function MyComponent() {
13  const [decision] = useDecision('flag1');
14  return (
15    <React.Fragment>
16      { decision.enabled && <p>The feature is enabled</p> }
17      { !decision.enabled && <p>The feature is not enabled</p> }
18      { decision.variationKey === 'variation1' && <p>Variation 1</p> }
19      { decision.variationKey === 'variation2' && <p>Variation 2</p> }
20    </React.Fragment>
21  );
22}
23
24async function main() {
25  const resp = await fetch('https://cdn.optimizely.com/datafiles/<Your-SDK-Key>.json');
26  const datafile = await resp.json();
27  const optimizelyClient = createInstance({
28    datafile,
29  });
30
31  const output = ReactDOMServer.renderToString(
32    <OptimizelyProvider optimizely={optimizelyClient} user={{ id: 'user1' }} isServerSide={true}>
33      <MyComponent />
34    </OptimizelyProvider>
35  );
36  console.log('output', output);
37}
38main();

Disabled event dispatcher

To disable sending all events to Optimizely's results backend, use the logOnlyEventDispatcher when creating a client:

1import { createInstance, logOnlyEventDispatcher } from '@optimizely/react-sdk';
2
3const optimizely = createInstance({
4  datafile: window.optimizelyDatafile,
5  eventDispatcher: logOnlyEventDispatcher,
6});

Additional code

This repository includes the following third party open source code:

hoist-non-react-statics Copyright © 2015 Yahoo!, Inc. License: BSD

js-tokens Copyright © 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 Simon Lydell License: MIT

json-schema Copyright © 2005-2015, The Dojo Foundation License: BSD

lodash Copyright © JS Foundation and other contributors License: MIT

loose-envify Copyright © 2015 Andres Suarez zertosh@gmail.com License: MIT

node-murmurhash Copyright © 2012 Gary Court, Derek Perez License: MIT

object-assign Copyright © Sindre Sorhus (sindresorhus.com) License: MIT

promise-polyfill Copyright © 2014 Taylor Hakes Copyright © 2014 Forbes Lindesay License: MIT

react-is Copyright © Facebook, Inc. and its affiliates. License: MIT

react Copyright © Facebook, Inc. and its affiliates. License: MIT

scheduler Copyright © Facebook, Inc. and its affiliates. License: MIT

utility-types Copyright © 2016 Piotr Witek piotrek.witek@gmail.com License: MIT

node-uuid Copyright © 2010-2016 Robert Kieffer and other contributors License: MIT

To regenerate the dependencies use by this package, run the following command:

1npx license-checker --production --json | jq 'map_values({ licenses, publisher, repository }) | del(.[][] | nulls)'

Contributing

Please see CONTRIBUTING for more information.

Credits

First-party code subject to copyrights held by Optimizely, Inc. and its contributors and licensed to you under the terms of the Apache 2.0 license.

Other Optimizely SDKs

• Agent - https://github.com/optimizely/agent

• Android - https://github.com/optimizely/android-sdk

• C# - https://github.com/optimizely/csharp-sdk

• Flutter - https://github.com/optimizely/optimizely-flutter-sdk

• Go - https://github.com/optimizely/go-sdk

• Java - https://github.com/optimizely/java-sdk

• JavaScript - https://github.com/optimizely/javascript-sdk

• PHP - https://github.com/optimizely/php-sdk

• Python - https://github.com/optimizely/python-sdk

• Ruby - https://github.com/optimizely/ruby-sdk

• Swift - https://github.com/optimizely/swift-sdk