Decide methods for the JavaScript (Node) SDK

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
• Decide All
• Decide For Keys

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:

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.

const { createInstance, OptimizelyDecideOption } = require('@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.

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:

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 the 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 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 the JavaScript (Node) SDK are available on GitHub.