Decide methods for the JavaScript (Browser) SDK
Overview of the decide methods for the JavaScript (Browser) SDK, which can be used to return a flag decision for a user in Optimizely Feature Experimentation.
Use the Decide methods to return flag decisions for a user. The flag decision includes flag enabled/disabled status and flag variation.
This page describes the following Decide methods:
Decide
Version
SDK 4.5 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:
Parameter | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
flagKey | String | The key of the feature flag |
options (optional) | Array | Array of OptimizelyDecideOption enums. See following table. |
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. See Initialize SDK.
import { createInstance, OptimizelyDecideOption } from '@optimizely/optimizely-sdk';
// set global default decide options when initializing the client
const optimizely = createInstance({
sdkKey: '<YOUR_SDK_KEy>',
defaultDecideOptions: [OptimizelyDecideOption.DISABLE_DECISION_EVENT],
});
if (optimizely) {
optimizely.onReady().then(({ success, reason }) => {
if (!success) {
throw new Error(reason);
}
const user = optimizely.createUserContext('user123');
if (!user) {
throw new Error('failed to create user context');
}
// set additional options in a decide call
const decisionResults = user.decideAll(
[
OptimizelyDecideOption.ENABLED_FLAGS_ONLY,
OptimizelyDecideOption.IGNORE_USER_PROFILE_SERVICE,
]
);
console.log(decisionResults);
}).catch((err) => {
// handle error
});
} else {
// handle instantiation error
}
The following table shows details for the OptimizelyDecideOption.
OptimizelyDecideOption enum | If set: |
---|---|
OptimizelyDecideOption.DISABLE_DECISION_EVENT | Prevents the visitor from firing an impression while still being served the variation, which disables displaying results of the Decide method on the Results page. This setting can be why the Decision Event Dispatched enum is false in the returned OptimizelyDecision object or the DECIDE notification listener payload. |
OptimizelyDecideOption.ENABLED_FLAGS_ONLY | Return decisions for enabled flags only. This is a valid option only for methods that decide multiple flags, like the Decide All method. This option is ignored if it is invalid. When this option is not set, the SDK returns all decisions regardless of whether the flag is enabled or not. |
OptimizelyDecideOption.IGNORE_USER_PROFILE_SERVICE | When set, the SDK bypasses user profile service (UPS) (both lookup and save) for the decision. When this option is not set, UPS overrides audience targeting, traffic allocation, and experiment mutual exclusion groups. |
OptimizelyDecideOption.INCLUDE_REASONS | Return log messages in the Reasons field of OptimizelyDecision object. Note that unlike info or debug messages, critical error messages are always returned, regardless of this setting. |
OptimizelyDecideOption.EXCLUDE_VARIABLES | Exclude flag variable values from the decision result. Use this option to minimize the returned decision by skipping large JSON variables. |
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:
// create the user and decide which flag rule & variation they bucket into
const attributes = {
logged_in: true
};
const user = optimizely.createUserContext('user123', attributes);
const decision = user.decide('product_sort');
// variation. if null, decision fail with a critical error
const variationKey = decision['variationKey'];
if (variationKey === null) {
console.log(' decision error: ', decision['reasons']);
}
// flag enabled state:
const enabled = decision['enabled'];
// String variable value:
const value = decision.variables['sort_method'];
// all variable values
const allVarValues = decision['variables'];
// flag decision reasons
const reasons = decision['reasons'];
// user for which the decision was made
const userContext = decision['userContext'];
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 4.5 and higher
Description
Use the Decide All method to return a map of flag decisions for a user.
Parameters
The following table describes parameters for the Decide All method:
Parameter | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
options (optional) | Array | Array of OptimizelyDecideOption enums. See OptimizelyDecideOption. |
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:
const attributes = {
logged_in: true
};
const user = optimizely.createUserContext('user123', attributes);
// make decisions for all active (unarchived) flags in the project for a user
let decisions = user.decideAll();
// or only for enabled flags
decisions = user.decideAll([OptimizelyDecideOption.ENABLED_FLAGS_ONLY]);
const flagKeys = Object.keys(decisions);
const 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 an object of decision results mapped by flag keys.
Version
SDK v4.5 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:
Parameter | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
keys | Array | Array of string flag keys. |
options (optional) | Array | Array of OptimizelyDecideOption enums. See OptimizelyDecideOption. |
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 a decisions for specific enabled flags
const keys = ['flag_1', 'flag_2'];
const decisions = user.decideForKeys(keys);
const decision1 = decisions['flag_1'];
const 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 JavaScript is available on GitHub.
Updated 9 months ago