Decide methods for the C# SDK

Use the Decide methods to return a flag decision for a user. The flag decision includes flag enabled/disabled status and flag variation.

This page describes the following Decide methods:

• Decide
• Decide All
• Decide For Keys

Decide

Version

SDK 3.8 and higher

Description

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.

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

See the OptimizelyDecision for details of the returned decision object.

Parameters

The following table describes parameters for the Decide method:

OptimizelyDecideOption

The following example shows how you can set options individually on any Decide method, or as global defaults when you instantiate the Optimizely client.

using OptimizelySDK;
using OptimizelySDK.OptimizelyDecisions;

namespace ConsoleApp;

public static class Program
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        var optimizely = OptimizelyFactory.NewDefaultInstance(sdkKey: "YOUR_SDK_KEY");

        var user = optimizely.CreateUserContext("user123");

        // set additional options in a decide call
        var decisionResultsMap = user.DecideAll(new OptimizelyDecideOption[] {
            OptimizelyDecideOption.ENABLED_FLAGS_ONLY,
            OptimizelyDecideOption.IGNORE_USER_PROFILE_SERVICE,
            OptimizelyDecideOption.DISABLE_DECISION_EVENT
        });

        Console.ReadKey();
    }
}

The following table shows details for the Optimizely client. See Initialize SDK.

Options you can set on Decide methods.

Returns

The Decide method returns an OptimizelyDecision object. For more information, see OptimizelyDecision.

If the method encounters a critical error (SDK not ready, invalid flag key, etc), then it returns a decision with a null Variation Key field and populates the Reasons field with error messages (regardless of the Include Reasons option).

Example decision

The following is an example of calling the Decide method and accessing the returned OptimizelyDecision object:

var optimizely = OptimizelyFactory.NewDefaultInstance("YOUR_SDK_KEY");

// Create the user and decide which flag rule & variation they bucket into 
var attributes = new UserAttributes
{
    { "logged_in", true }
};

var user = optimizely.CreateUserContext("user123", attributes);

var decision = user.Decide("product_sort");

// Variation. If null, decision fail with a critical error
var variationKey = decision.VariationKey;

// Flag enabled state
var enabled = decision.Enabled;

// All variable values
var variables = decision.Variables;

// String variable value
var sortMethod = variables.GetValue<string>("sort_method");

// Boolean variable value
var kBoolean = (bool)variables.ToDictionary()["k_boolean"];

// Flag key for which the decision was made
var flagKey = decision.FlagKey;

// User for which the decision was made
var userContext = decision.UserContext;

// Reasons for the decision
var reasons = decision.Reasons;

Side Effects

Invokes the DECISION notification listener if this listener is enabled.

Decide All

Returns decisions for all active (unarchived) flags for a user.

See OptimizelyDecision for details.

Version

SDK v3.7 and higher

Description

Use the Decide All method to return a dictionary of flag decisions for a user.

Parameters

The following table describes parameters for the Decide All method:

Returns

The Decide All method returns a map of OptimizelyDecisions. For more information, see OptimizelyDecision.

If the method fails for all flags (for example, the SDK is not ready or the user context is invalid), then it returns an empty map. If the method detects an error for a specific flag, it returns error messages in the Reasons field of the decision for that flag.

Examples

The following is an example of getting flags for the user with the Decide All call:

var options = new[] { OptimizelyDecideOption.ENABLED_FLAGS_ONLY };
var decisions = user.DecideAll(options);

var allKeys = decisions.Keys;
var decisionForFlag1 = decisions["flag_1"];

Side effects

Invokes the DECISION notification listener for each decision, if this listener is enabled.

Decide For Keys

The Decide For Keys method returns a map of flag decisions for specified flag keys.

Version

SDK v3.7 and higher

Description

Get a map of flag decisions for an array of flag keys.

Parameters

The following table describes parameters for the Decide for Keys method:

Returns

Returns a map of OptimizelyDecisions. For more information, see OptimizelyDecision.

If the method fails for all flags (for example, the SDK is not ready or the user context is invalid), then it returns an empty map. If the method detects an error for a specific flag, it returns error messages in the Reasons field of the decision for that flag.

Example

The following is an example of getting specified flags for the user:

// make decisions for specific flags
var keys = new[] { "flag-1", "flag-2" };
var decisions = user.DecideForKeys(keys);
        
var decision1 = decisions["flag-1"];
var decision2 = decisions["flag-2"];

Side effects

Invokes the DECISION notification listener for each decision, if this listener is enabled.

Source files

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