PHP v3.2.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 visitor 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");

Parameter	Type	Description
envId	String	Environment id provided by Flagship.
apiKey	String	Api authentication key provided by Flagship.
config	- \Flagship\Config\DecisionApiConfig - \Flagship\Config\BucketingConfig	(optional) Custom flagship configuration.

Flagship config

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

//Start sdk in Decision api mode.

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

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

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;
use Flagship\Enum\CacheStrategy;

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

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

Parameter	Type	Description
bucketingUrl	string	flagship-sync-agent endpoint URL

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

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

Parameter	Type	Description
logManager	Psr\Log\LoggerInterface	Custom implementation of LogManager.

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

This accessor specifies the SDK log filtering level.

Parameter	Type	Description
level	int	Value from 0 to 9 check \Flagship\Enum\LogLevel

Here are the logs informations you'll have for each levels

Key	Value	Type	Description
NONE	0	int	Logging will be disabled.
EMERGENCY	1	int	Only emergencies will be logged
ALERT	2	int	Only alerts and above will be logged.
CRITICAL	3	int	Only critical and above will be logged.
ERROR	4	int	Only errors and above will be logged.
WARNING	5	int	Only warnings and above will be logged.
NOTICE	6	int	Only notices and above will be logged.
INFO	7	int	Only info logs and above will be logged.
DEBUG	8	int	Only debug logs and above will be logged.
ALL	9	int	Everything will be logged.

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

  Specify timeout for api request.

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

• public function setFetchThirdPartyData(bool $fetchThirdPartyData): \Flagship\Config\FlagshipConfig

📘 3rd party integration

If you use our 3rd party integrations on Flagship, this feature will help you manage your segments in bucketing mode

If you set true, it will fetch the visitor's segment from universal data connector each time fetchFlags is called and append those segments in the visitor context.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
fetchThirdPartyData	bool	false	value

OnVisitorExposed

In some cases, you'll need to send information about the exposure (When a flag has been seen by your visitor), like sending visitor and flag data to third parties.

To centralize it, we provide a callback in the configuration option of the SDK.

• public function setOnVisitorExposed(callable $onVisitorExposed) \Flagship\Config\FlagshipConfig

Define a callable to get callback each time a Flag has been exposed to a visitor (When a flag has been seen by your visitor) and succeeded.

Parameter	Type	Description
onVisitorExposed	callable	Callback to trigger when a Flag has been exposed to a visitor and succeed

<?php

use Flagship\Flagship;
use Flagship\Enum\CacheStrategy;
use Flagship\Config\DecisionApiConfig;
use Flagship\Model\ExposedFlagInterface;
use Flagship\Model\ExposedVisitorInterface;


function onVisitorExposed(ExposedVisitorInterface $visitorExposed, ExposedFlagInterface $fromFlag)
{
    //send to a third party or do your stuff
}

Flagship::start("your_env_id", "your_api_key", DecisionApiConfig::decisionApi()
        ->setCacheStrategy(CacheStrategy::BATCHING_AND_CACHING_ON_FAILURE)
        ->setOnVisitorExposed('onVisitorExposed'));

When a callback is triggered, 2 arguments are injected into it:

• ExposedVisitorInterface

• ExposedFlagInterface

ExposedVisitorInterface

It's an interface to get information about the visitor to whom the flag has been exposed

<?php

namespace Flagship\Model;

interface ExposedVisitorInterface
{
    /**
     * Visitor id
     * @return string
     */
    public function getId();

    /**
     * visitor anonymous id
     * @return string
     */
    public function getAnonymousId();

    /**
     * visitor context
     * @return array
     */
    public function getContext();
}

ExposedFlagInterface

It's an interface to get information about the flag that has been exposed.

<?php

namespace Flagship\Model;

use Flagship\Flag\FlagMetadataInterface;

interface ExposedFlagInterface
{
    /**
     * Return the key of flag
     * @return string
     */
    public function getKey();

    /**
     * Return the value of flag
     * @return bool|numeric|string|array
     */
    public function getValue();

    /**
     * Return the metadata of flag
     * @return FlagMetadataInterface
     */
    public function getMetadata();

    /**
     * Return the default value of flag
     * @return bool|numeric|string|array
     */
    public function getDefaultValue();
}

Here is an example on how to use this callback:

Example with Mixpanel integration Example with Segment integration

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

  Define a callable function to get callback when the SDK status has changed. SeeSDK status section.

Parameter	Type	Description
statusChangedCallback	callable	Callback to trigger when SDK status has changed.

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

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

Parameter	Type	Description
visitorCacheImplementation	Flagship\Cache\IVisitorCacheImplementation	implementation of IVisitorCacheImplementation interface

• public function setHitCacheImplementation(IHitCacheImplementation $hitCacheImplementation) : \Flagship\Config\FlagshipConfig

Define an object that implement the interface IHitCacheImplementation to handle hits cache. see cache-manager

Parameter	Type	Description
hitCacheImplementation	Flagship\Cache\IHitCacheImplementation	implementation of IHitCacheImplementation interface

• public function setCacheStrategy(int $cacheStrategy):\Flagship\Config\FlagshipConfig

Define the strategy that will be used for hit caching with tracking manager. see Tracking manager

• public function setDisableDeveloperUsageTracking(bool $disableDeveloperUsageTracking ): \Flagship\Config\FlagshipConfig

The SDK will collect usage data to help us improve our product

Parameter	Type	Default value	Description
disableDeveloperUsageTracking	bool	false	if set true no usage data will be collected

Tracking Manger

The SDK allows you to send hits with a batching system, there is 1 option to configure it : setCacheStrategy

The advantage of batch processing with the TrackingManager is to use less network traffic, avoid loss of hits with cache, and catch all hits that would failed and resend them.

All hits will first be added into an internal pool as they are emitted by a visitor. And the pool is going to be emptied by batching all hits and then sending the batch when the static method Flagship::close() is called.

If a batch fails, all of the hits inside the failed batch will be cached depending on the cache strategy used and can be resent later.

Note: At any time, when your app (script) is about to terminate or crash, you must call Flagship::close() to batch and send all hits that are in the pool.

options:

CacheStrategy

  <th style={{ textAlign: "left" }}>
    Type
  </th>

  <th style={{ textAlign: "left" }}>
    Default value
  </th>

  <th style={{ textAlign: "left" }}>
    Description
  </th>
</tr>

  <td style={{ textAlign: "left" }}>
    number
  </td>

  <td style={{ textAlign: "left" }}>
    1
  </td>

  <td style={{ textAlign: "left" }}>
    [**Recommended**] When a hit is emitted, it will first be added into the pool, then batched and sent when the method `Flagship::close()` is called. If the batch send failed all hits inside will be cached in database using [IHitCacheImplementation](#hit-cache).  

    [see example using redis](#continuous_strategy)
  </td>
</tr>

<tr>
  <td style={{ textAlign: "left" }}>
    NO\_BATCHING\_AND\_CACHING\_ON\_FAILURE
  </td>

  <td style={{ textAlign: "left" }}>
    number
  </td>

  <td style={{ textAlign: "left" }}>
    2
  </td>

  <td style={{ textAlign: "left" }}>
    [**Default value**] When a hit is emitted, it will be sent directly. If the hit sending failed all hits inside will be cached in database using [IHitCacheImplementation](#hit-cache).  

    Hits are sent as they are emitted.  

    * \*Note\*\*: This strategy uses a little more network traffic than the first because each hit emitted will send an http request.
  </td>
</tr>

Key
BATCHING\_AND\_CACHING\_ON\_FAILURE

Example

use Flagship\Config\FlagshipConfig;
use Flagship\Enum\CacheStrategy;

$config = FlagshipConfig::decisionApi()
    ->setCacheStrategy(CacheStrategy::BATCHING_AND_CACHING_ON_FAILURE);

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

//Create visitor
//Get your flag 
//Send your hits
//Do your stuff 

//Call before terminating 
Flagship::close();

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

Parameter	Type	Description
bucketingUrl	string	flagship-sync-agent endpoint URL

Decision Mode

DecisionApiMode

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.

BucketingMode

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. SeeBucketing polling section.

SDK Status

List of possible SDK status :

class Flagship\Enum\FlagshipStatus

Status	type	Description
FlagshipStatus::NOT_INITIALIZED	int	Flagship SDK has not been started or initialized successfully.
FlagshipStatus::STARTING	int	Flagship SDK is starting.
FlagshipStatus::READY_PANIC_ON	int	Flagship SDK is ready but is running in Panic mode: All visitors features are disabled except 'synchronization' which refresh this status.
FlagshipStatus::READY	int	Flagship SDK is ready to use.

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:

argument	type	description
envId	string	Environment id provided by Flagship.
pollingInterval	int	Define time interval between two bucketing updates. Default is 2000ms.
Port	int	Endpoint listen port. Default is 8080
address	string	Address where the endpoint is served. Default is 0.0.0.0

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:

argument	type	description
FS_ENV_ID	string	Environment id provided by Flagship.
FS_POLLING_INTERVAL	int	Define time interval between two bucketing updates. Default is 2000ms.
FS_PORT	int	Endpoint listen port. Default is 8080
FS_ADDRESS	string	Address where the endpoint is served. Default is 0.0.0.0

API docs

route	Description
/bucketing	Get the Json bucketing file
/health_check	Return http code 200 to check if the sync agent is up

Other Flagship class methods

close function

Every time your application (script) is about to terminate or to crash, you must call the static close method of the Flagship class to batch and send all hits that are in the pool.

• public static function Flagship::close(): void

getConfig function

Return the current config used by the SDK. see configuration

• public static function Flagship::getConfig(): FlagshipConfig

getStatus function

Return current status of Flagship SDK. seeFlagshipStatus

• public static function Flagship::getStatus(): int

Create a new visitor

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

The visitor context is a property dataset which defines the current visitor 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 visitor context so that the Decision API can enable or disable the corresponding feature flag for the visitor.

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

  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 = true) : \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"].

🚧

• Visitor context keys must have a type of string

• Visitor context values must have a type of string, bool, numeric

• Visitor 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 visitor context is a property dataset that defines the current visitor 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. If the key doesn't exist in the visitor's context, it will be added.

Parameter	Type	Description
key	String	Context key.
value	bool or numeric or string	Context value.

public function updateContextCollection(array $Context) : void

Update the visitor context values matching the given keys. If a key doesn't exist in the visitor's context, it will be added.

Parameter	Type	Description
context	array (associative array)	collection of keys, values.

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

🚧

• Visitor context keys must have a type of string

• Visitor context values must have a type of string, bool, numeric

• Visitor 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 visitor context and retrieve applicable flags; or check the bucketing file, validate campaigns targeting the visitor, assign a variation and retrieve applicable flags

These flags 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 visitor context and retrieve applicable flags. In bucketing Mode, it checks the bucketing file, validates campaigns targeting the visitor, assigns a variation, and retrieves applicable flags.

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

Argument	Type	Description
key	string	Key associated to the flag
defaultValue	bool|numeric|string|array	Flag default value

🚧

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

Getting flags current value

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 $visitorExposed) : 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.

  <th style={{ textAlign: "left" }}>
    Type
  </th>

  <th style={{ textAlign: "left" }}>
    Default Value
  </th>

  <th style={{ textAlign: "left" }}>
    Description
  </th>
</tr>

  <td style={{ textAlign: "left" }}>
    Boolean
  </td>

  <td style={{ textAlign: "left" }}>
    true
  </td>

  <td style={{ textAlign: "left" }}>
    Tells Flagship the visitor have been exposed and have seen this flag. This will increment the visits for the current variation on your campaign reporting.\
    If needed it is possible to set this param to false and call `visitorExposed()` afterward when the visitor sees it.
  </td>
</tr>

Parameter
visitorExposed

Getting flags campaigns metadata

getMetadata function

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:

getters	Type	Description
getCampaignId	string	Campaign ID
getCampaignName	string	Campaign name
getVariationGroupId	string	Variation group ID
getVariationGroupName	string	Variation group name
getVariationId	string	The variation ID assigned to the visitor
getVariationName	string	Variation name
getIsReference	boolean	Specify if its the reference variation
getCampaignType	string	campaign type
getSlug	string	campaign slug

Report a Flag exposure

🚧 Deprecated

The userExposed method is deprecated since the version 3.1.1. please use visitorExposed instead.

visitorExposed function

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

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

1. Pass an visitorExposed = true parameter to the getValue() method.

2. Use the following visitorExposed() 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);

//Later

$visitor->visitorExposed()

• public function visitorExposed() : void

Tells Flagship the visitor have been exposed and have seen this flag. This will increment the visits for the current variation on your campaign reporting. No visitor exposure 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

Parameter	Type	Description
hasConsented	bool	Set visitor consent for private data usage. When false some features will be deactivated.

public function hasConsented() : bool

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

📘

When a visitor sets consent to false, the data collection features (visitorExposed and sendHit) will be deactivated for them and all hits related to the visitor will be flushed from the pool and the cache.

Experience Continuity

Dealing with anonymous and logged-in visitors, 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

Parameter	Type	Description
visitorId	string	id of the new authenticated visitor.

🚧

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 visitors 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 theFlagship\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

Send Hit to Flagship servers for reporting.

Parameter	Type	Description
hit	HitAbstract	Hit to send.

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")
          );

Builder Parameter	Type	Description
setUserIp	String	Visitor IP
setScreenResolution	string	Screen resolution.
setLocale	String	visitor language
setSessionNumber	string	Session number

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)

Builder Parameter	Type	Description
pageUrl	String	Valid url.

Transaction

This hit should be sent when a visitor 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)

Builder Parameter	Type	Description
transactionId	String	Unique identifier for your transaction.
affiliation	String	The name of the KPI that you will have inside your reporting. Learn more
setTotalRevenue	float	Specifies the total revenue associated with the transaction. This value should include any shipping and/or tax amounts.
setShippingCosts	float	The total shipping cost of your transaction.
setShippingMethod	String	The shipping method for your transaction.
setTaxes	float	Specifies the total amount of taxes in your transaction.
setCurrency	String	Specifies the currency of your transaction. NOTE: This value should be a valid ISO 4217 currency code.
setPaymentMethod	String	Specifies the payment method used for your transaction.
setItemCount	int	Specifies the number of items in your transaction.
setCouponCode	String	Specifies the coupon code used by the customer in your transaction.

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)

Builder Parameter	Type	Description
transactionId	String	Unique identifier for your transaction.
productName	String	Name of your item.
productSku	String	Specifies the SKU or item code.
setItemCategory	String	Specifies the category that the item belongs to.
setItemPrice	float	Specifies the price for a single item/unit.
setItemQuantity	int	Specifies the number of items purchased.

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)

Builder Parameter	Type	Description
category	EventCategory	Specifies the category of your event. NOTE: This value must be either Flagship\Enum\EventCategory::ACTION_TRACKING or Flagship\EnumEventCategory::USER_ENGAGEMENT.
action	String	Event name that will also serve as the KPI that you will have inside your reporting. Learn more
setLabel	String	(optional) Additional description of your event.
setValue	Integer	(optional) Can be used to evaluate visitor interactions with individual site objects or content items. NOTE: this value must be non-negative / non-float

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 :

Argument	Type	Description
visitorId	string	visitor ID
data	array	visitor data. The array has the follows shape see.

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 :

Argument	Type	Description
visitorId	string	visitor ID

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 :

Argument	Type	Description
visitorId	string	visitor ID

📘

• 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());

Hit Cache

The hit cache is used to store hits in your database depending on strategy used through the IHitCacheImplementation interface which defines the methods that an object must implement to handle it.

interface IHitCacheImplementation
{
    public function cacheHit(array $hits):void;

    public function lookupHits():array;

    public function flushHits(array $hitKeys):void;

    public function flushAllHits():void;
}

cacheHit function

This method will be called to cache hits depending on cache strategy used.

• public function cacheHit(array $hits):void

It has 1 argument :

  <td style={{ textAlign: "left" }}>
    array
  </td>

  <td style={{ textAlign: "left" }}>
    it's an associative array where the :  

    * key  is a unique ID for each hit  
    * value is an array that follows the shape of type [`HitCacheDTO`](#hitCachedto).
  </td>
</tr>

</th> <th style={{ textAlign: "left" }}> </th> <th style={{ textAlign: "left" }}> </th> </tr>
hits

lookupHits function

This method will be called to load all hits from your database and trying to send them again when Flagship::close().

It has to return an associative array where the key is a unique ID for each hit and the value is an array which follows this shape see.

• public function lookupHits():array

flushHits function

This method will be called to erase all hits matching the unique Hits ID from your database.

NOTE: It will be called every time setConsent get false to erase all hits from database for visitor who set consent to false.

• public function flushHits(array $hitKeys):void

It has one argument :

Argument	Type	Description
hitKeys	Array<string>	Unique ID of hits

flushAllHits function

This method will be called to erase all hits in your database without exception.

• public function flushAllHits():void

HitCacheDTO

[
    'visitorId:Guid' => [
        'version' => 1,
        'data' => [
            'visitorId' => 'visitorId',
            'anonymousId' => NULL,
            'type' => 'ACTIVATE',
            'content' => [
                'variationGroupId' => 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx',
                'variationId' => 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx',
                'visitorId' => 'visitorId',
                'ds' => 'APP',
                'type' => 'ACTIVATE',
                'anonymousId' => NULL,
                'userIP' => NULL,
                'pageResolution' => NULL,
                'locale' => NULL,
                'sessionNumber' => NULL,
                'key' => 'visitorId:Guid',
                'createdAt' => 1676542078044,
            ],
            'time' => 1676542078045,
        ],
    ]
]

📘

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

• Hits older than 4H will be ignored during the resending process.

Sample implementation of IHitCacheImplementation interface using redis

use Flagship\Cache\IHitCacheImplementation;

class HitCacheRedis implements IHitCacheImplementation
{

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

    /**
     * @inheritDoc
     */
    public function cacheHit(array $hits)
    {
        $redis = $this->redis->multi();
        foreach ($hits as $key => $hit) {
            $redis->set($key, json_encode($hit));
        }
        $redis->exec();
    }

    /**
     * @inheritDoc
     */
    public function lookupHits()
    {
        $keys = $this->redis->keys('*');
        $hits = $this->redis->mGet($keys);
        if (!$hits) {
            return [];
        }
        $hitsOut = [];
        foreach ($hits as $key => $hit) {
            $hitsOut[$keys[$key]] = json_decode($hit, true);
        }
        return $hitsOut;
    }

    /**
     * @inheritDoc
     */
    public function flushHits(array $hitKeys)
    {
        $this->redis->del($hitKeys);
    }

    public function flushAllHits()
    {
        $this->redis->flushDB();
    }
}

API reference

Flagship class

• start

• newVisitor

• close

• getStatus

• getConfig

Visitor class

• updateContext

• context

• clearContext

• fetchFlags

• getFlag

• setConsent

• hasConsented

• Authenticate

• Unauthenticate

• sendHit

Flag class

• getValue

• getMetadata

• visitorExposed

• exists

Appendix

Predefined visitor context keys

The Flagship SDK contains predefined visitor 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 visitor context and can be edited in the Persona section of the Flagship platform.

📘

To overwrite the keys, use the updateContext method

SDK constant Name	Description	Context variable name	Type	Auto-set by SDK	Example
FlagshipContext::DEVICE_LOCALE	Language of the device	sdk_deviceLanguage	String	No	fra
FlagshipContext::DEVICE_TYPE	Type of the device	sdk_deviceType	DeviceType	No	Mobile
FlagshipContext::DEVICE_MODEL	Model of the device	sdk_deviceModel	String	No	samsung E1200
FlagshipContext::LOCATION_CITY	City geolocation	sdk_city	String	No	toulouse
FlagshipContext::LOCATION_REGION	Region geolocation	sdk_region	String	No	occitanie
FlagshipContext::LOCATION_COUNTRY	Country geolocation	sdk_country	String	No	France
FlagshipContext::LOCATION_LAT	Current Latitude	sdk_lat	Double	No	43.623647
FlagshipContext::LOCATION_LONG	Current Longitude	sdk_long	Double	No	1.445397
FlagshipContext::IP	IP of the device	sdk_ip	String	No	127.0.0.1
FlagshipContext::OS_NAME	Name of the OS	sdk_osName	String	YES	ubuntu / centos
FlagshipContext::OS_VERSION_NAME	Version name of the OS	sdk_osVersionName	String	No	9.0.0
FlagshipContext::OS_VERSION_CODE	Version code of the OS	sdk_osVersionCode	Number	No	24
FlagshipContext::CARRIER_NAME	Name of the carrier or mobile virtual network operator	sdk_carrierName	String	No	free
FlagshipContext::INTERNET_CONNECTION	What is the internet connection	sdk_internetConnection	String	No	5g
FlagshipContext::APP_VERSION_NAME	Version name of the app	sdk_versionName	String	No	1.1.2-beta
FlagshipContext::APP_VERSION_CODE	Version code of the app	sdk_versionCode	Number	No	40
FlagshipContext::INTERFACE_NAME	Name of the interface	sdk_interfaceName	String	No	ProductPage
FlagshipContext::FLAGSHIP_CLIENT	Flagship SDK client (Reserved)	fs_client	String	Yes	PHP
FlagshipContext::FLAGSHIP_VERSION	Version of the Flagship SDK (Reserved)	fs_version	String	Yes	2.0.0