To enhance the security of your applications using the ibm-appconfiguration-react-client-sdk, it is strongly recommended to use an encrypted APIKey instead of the plain APIKey in the AppConfigProvider. This change is vital to prevent exposure of sensitive credentials when users inspect your web application. If you are already using a plain APIKey, please update your application to generate and use the encrypted APIKey as per the steps mentioned here.

IBM Cloud App Configuration React Client SDK is used to perform feature flag and property evaluation in web applications and track custom metrics for Experimentation based on the configuration on IBM Cloud App Configuration service.

• Overview
• Installation
• Initialize SDK
• License

IBM Cloud App Configuration is a centralized feature management and configuration service on IBM Cloud for use with web and mobile applications, microservices, and distributed environments.

Instrument your web applications with App Configuration React Client SDK, and use the App Configuration dashboard, CLI or API to define feature flags or properties, organized into collections and targeted to segments. Toggle feature flag states in the cloud to activate or deactivate features in your application or environment, when required. Run experiments and measure the effect of feature flags on end users by tracking custom metrics. You can also manage the properties for distributed applications centrally.

The SDK is compatible with React version 16.8.0 and higher. This SDK builds on App Configuration JavaScript Client SDK to provide a better integration for use in React applications. As a result, much of the App Configuration JavaScript Client SDK functionality is also available for the React Client SDK to use. Read more about App Configuration JavaScript Client SDK from here.

Install the SDK.

npm install ibm-appconfiguration-react-client-sdk

Initialize the sdk to connect with your App Configuration service instance as shown below. Wrapping your app component with AppConfigProvider lets you access features & properties from any level of your component hierarchy.

import { withAppConfigProvider } from 'ibm-appconfiguration-react-client-sdk';

(async () => {
  const AppConfigProvider = await withAppConfigProvider({
    region: '<region>',
    guid: '<guid>',
    apikey: '<encrypted_apikey>',
    collectionId: 'airlines-webapp',
    environmentId: 'dev'
  })

  ReactDOM.render(
    <AppConfigProvider>
        <YourApp />
    </AppConfigProvider>,
    document.getElementById('root')
  );
})();

• region : Region name where the App Configuration service instance is created. See list of supported locations here. Eg:- us-south, au-syd etc.
• guid : Instance Id of the App Configuration service. Obtain it from the service credentials section of the App Configuration dashboard.
• apikey : The encrypted APIKey generated as described here.
• collectionId: Id of the collection created in App Configuration service instance under the Collections section.
• environmentId: Id of the environment created in App Configuration service instance under the Environments section.

🔴 Important 🔴

Always use the encrypted APIKey to avoid exposing sensitive information.
Ensure that you create the service credentials with the Client SDK role, as it has the minimal access permissions that are suitable to use in browser-based applications.

import { useFeature } from 'ibm-appconfiguration-react-client-sdk';

const feature = useFeature('featureId'); // returns undefined incase the featureId is invalid or doesn't exist

if (feature !== undefined) {
  console.log(`Feature Name ${feature.getFeatureName()} `);
  console.log(`Feature Id ${feature.getFeatureId()} `);
  console.log(`Feature Type ${feature.getFeatureDataType()} `);
  console.log(`Is feature enabled? ${feature.isEnabled()} `);
}

import { useFeatures } from 'ibm-appconfiguration-react-client-sdk';

const features = useFeatures();
const feature = features['featureId'];

if (feature !== undefined) {
  console.log(`Feature Name ${feature.getFeatureName()} `);
  console.log(`Feature Id ${feature.getFeatureId()} `);
  console.log(`Feature Type ${feature.getFeatureDataType()} `);
  console.log(`Is feature enabled? ${feature.isEnabled()} `);
}

Use the feature.getCurrentValue(entityId, entityAttributes) method to evaluate the value of the feature flag. This method returns one of the Enabled/Disabled/Overridden value based on the evaluation. The data type of returned value matches that of feature flag.

const entityId = 'john_doe';
const entityAttributes = {
  city: 'Bangalore',
  country: 'India',
};

const feature = useFeature('featureId');
const featureValue = feature.getCurrentValue(entityId, entityAttributes);

• entityId: Id of the Entity. This will be a string identifier related to the Entity against which the feature is evaluated. For example, an entity might be an instance of an app that runs on a mobile device, or a user accessing the web application. For any entity to interact with App Configuration, it must provide a unique entity ID.
• entityAttributes: A JSON object consisting of the attribute name and their values that defines the specified entity. This is an optional parameter if the feature flag is not configured with any targeting definition. If the targeting is configured, then entityAttributes should be provided for the rule evaluation. An attribute is a parameter that is used to define a segment. The SDK uses the attribute values to determine if the specified entity satisfies the targeting rules, and returns the appropriate feature flag value.

Record custom metrics using the useTrack hook in experimentation.

import { useTrack } from 'ibm-appconfiguration-react-client-sdk';

export default MyComponent = function () {
    const trackEvent = useTrack();
    return (
        <button onClick={() => trackEvent('clicked', 'user123')}>Buy</button>
    )
}

With the useTrack hook you can get access to the regular track method of the client whose signature is track(eventKey, entityId) where

• eventKey: The event key for the metric associated with the running experiment. The event key in your metric and the event key in your code must match exactly.

import { useProperty } from 'ibm-appconfiguration-react-client-sdk';

const property = useProperty('propertyId'); // returns undefined incase the propertyId is invalid or doesn't exist

if (property !== undefined) {
  console.log(`Property Name ${property.getPropertyName()} `);
  console.log(`Property Id ${property.getPropertyId()} `);
  console.log(`Property Type ${property.getPropertyDataType()} `);
}

import { useProperties } from 'ibm-appconfiguration-react-client-sdk';

const properties = useProperties();
const property = properties['propertyId'];

if (property !== undefined) {
  console.log(`Property Name ${property.getPropertyName()} `);
  console.log(`Property Id ${property.getPropertyId()} `);
  console.log(`Property Type ${property.getPropertyDataType()} `);
}

Use the property.getCurrentValue(entityId, entityAttributes) method to evaluate the value of the property. This method returns the default property value or its overridden value based on the evaluation. The data type of returned value matches that of property.

const entityId = 'john_doe';
const entityAttributes = {
  city: 'Bangalore',
  country: 'India',
};

const property = useProperty('propertyId');
const propertyValue = property.getCurrentValue(entityId, entityAttributes);

• entityId: Id of the Entity. This will be a string identifier related to the Entity against which the property is evaluated. For example, an entity might be an instance of an app that runs on a mobile device, or a user accessing the web application. For any entity to interact with App Configuration, it must provide a unique entity ID.
• entityAttributes: A JSON object consisting of the attribute name and their values that defines the specified entity. This is an optional parameter if the property is not configured with any targeting definition. If the targeting is configured, then entityAttributes should be provided for the rule evaluation. An attribute is a parameter that is used to define a segment. The SDK uses the attribute values to determine if the specified entity satisfies the targeting rules, and returns the appropriate property value.

In case of a connection error with the App Configuration, the SDK relies on the most recently assessed flag values retained in memory. However, if no prior values exist in memory, it's advisable for users to establish fallback values within their code, ensuring smooth operation. An example showcasing this fallback approach is provided below.

import { useFeatures } from 'ibm-appconfiguration-react-client-sdk';

export default function App {
  const features = useFeatures();
  const defaultFlagValues = {
    'flight-booking': false
  }
  const entityId = 'john_doe';
  const entityAttributes = {
    city: 'Bangalore',
    country: 'India',
  };

  const getAppConfigurationFlags = (featureID, features) => {
    if (Object.keys(features).length === 0 && features.constructor === Object) {
      return defaultFlagValues[featureID];
    }
    
    return feature[featureID]
      ? feature[featureID].getCurrentValue(entityId, entityAttributes)
      : defaultFlagValues[featureID];
  };

  return getAppConfigurationFlags('flight-booking', features) ? <div>Flight Booking</div> : '';
}

App Configuration service allows to configure the feature flag and properties in the following data types : Boolean, Numeric, String. The String data type can be of the format of a text string , JSON or YAML. The SDK processes each format accordingly as shown in the below table.

{
  "firefox": {
    "name": "Firefox",
    "pref_url": "about:config"
  }
}

men:
  - John Smith
  - Bill Jones
women:
  - Mary Smith
  - Susan Williams

const feature = useFeature('json-feature');
feature.getFeatureDataType(); // STRING
feature.getFeatureDataFormat(); // JSON

// Example (traversing the returned JSON)
let result = feature.getCurrentValue(entityId, entityAttributes);
console.log(result.key) // prints the value of the key

const feature = useFeature('yaml-feature');
feature.getFeatureDataType(); // STRING
feature.getFeatureDataFormat(); // YAML
feature.getCurrentValue(entityId, entityAttributes); // returns the stringified yaml (check above table)

const property = useProperty('json-property');
property.getPropertyDataType(); // STRING
property.getPropertyDataFormat(); // JSON

// Example (traversing the returned JSON)
let result = property.getCurrentValue(entityId, entityAttributes);
console.log(result.key) // prints the value of the key

const property = useProperty('yaml-property');
property.getPropertyDataType(); // STRING
property.getPropertyDataFormat(); // YAML
property.getCurrentValue(entityId, entityAttributes); // returns the stringified yaml (check above table)

The SDK automatically subscribes to event-based mechanism and re-renders the enclosed components when feature flag's or property's configuration changes.

This project is released under the Apache 2.0 license. The license's full text can be found in LICENSE