Data

Tools

Indexes

Applications

Experiments

Awesome

An open API service indexing awesome lists of open source software.

https://github.com/unleash/unleash-client-java

Unleash client SDK for Java
https://github.com/unleash/unleash-client-java

activation-strategy client-sdk feature feature-flags feature-management feature-toggles hacktoberfest java java-client toggles unleash-server

Last synced: 9 months ago
JSON representation

Unleash client SDK for Java

Awesome Lists containing this project

README 

          
# Unleash Client SDK for Java



[![Build Status](https://github.com/Unleash/unleash-client-java/workflows/Build/badge.svg)](https://github.com/Unleash/unleash-client-java/actions)

[![Coverage Status](https://coveralls.io/repos/github/Unleash/unleash-client-java/badge.svg?branch=main)](https://coveralls.io/github/Unleash/unleash-client-java?branch=main)

[![Maven Central](https://img.shields.io/maven-central/v/io.getunleash/unleash-client-java)](https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/io.getunleash/unleash-client-java)



Unleash is a private, secure, and scalable [feature management platform](https://www.getunleash.io/) built to reduce the risk of releasing new features and accelerate software development. This server-side Java SDK is designed to help you integrate with Unleash and evaluate feature flags inside your application.



You can use this client with [Unleash Enterprise](https://www.getunleash.io/pricing?utm_source=readme&utm_medium=java) or [Unleash Open Source](https://github.com/Unleash/unleash).



>  **Migrating to v10**

>

> If you're using `MoreOperations`, custom or fallback strategies, subscribers or bootstrapping, please see the full [migration guide](v10_MIGRATION_GUIDE.md) for details. If you use GraalVM or Quarkus, please hold off on upgrading to v10, support is planned but not implemented.



## Getting started



This section shows you how to get started quickly and explains some common configuration scenarios. For a full overview of Unleash configuration options, check out [the _Configuration options_ section](#configuration-options).



### Step 1: Install the Unleash Java SDK



You need to add the Unleash SDK as a dependency for your project. Here's how you would add it to your `pom.xml` and `build.gradle` file:



**pom.xml**

```xml



    io.getunleash

    unleash-client-java

    Latest version here



```

**build.gradle**

```gradle

 implementation("io.getunleash:unleash-client-java:$unleashedVersion")

```



### Step 2: Create a new Unleash instance



---



**⚠️ Important:** In almost every case, you only want a **single, shared instance of the `Unleash`  class (a *singleton*)** in your application. You would typically use a dependency injection framework (such as Spring or Guice) to inject it where you need it. Having multiple instances of the client in your application could lead to inconsistencies and performance degradation.



To help you detect cases where you configure multiple instances by mistake, the SDK will print an error message if you create multiple instances with the same configuration values. You can also tell Unleash to fail when this happens by setting the constructor parameter `failOnMultipleInstantiations` to `true`.



---



When instantiating an Unleash client, you can choose to do it either **synchronously** or **asynchronously**:

The SDK will synchronize with the Unleash API on initialization, so it can take a few hundred milliseconds for the client to reach the correct state.

This is usually not an issue and Unleash will do this in the background as soon as you initialize it.

However, if it's important that you not continue execution until the SDK has synchronized, then you should use the `synchronousFetchOnInitialisation` option to block the client until it has successfully synchronized with the server.



### Example configurations



**💡 Tip:** Refer to the section on [configuration options](#configuration-options) for a more complete explanation of all the options.



Here's two examples of how you might initialize the Unleash SDK in your applications. The examples use dummy values and are almost identical. The only difference is that the first example is asynchronous, while the second example is synchronous.



**Asynchronous initialization example:**



```java

UnleashConfig config = UnleashConfig.builder()

        .appName("my.java-app")

        .instanceId("your-instance-1")

        .unleashAPI("")

        .apiKey("")

        .build();



Unleash unleash = new DefaultUnleash(config);

```



**Synchronous initialization example:**



```java

UnleashConfig config = UnleashConfig.builder()

        .appName("my.java-app")

        .instanceId("your-instance-1")

        .unleashAPI("")

        .apiKey("")

        .synchronousFetchOnInitialisation(true)

        .build();



Unleash unleash = new DefaultUnleash(config);

```



## Step 3: Use the feature toggle



With the SDK initialized, you can use the `isEnabled` method to check the state of your feature toggles. The method returns a boolean indicating whether a feature is enabled for the current request.



```java

if(unleash.isEnabled("AwesomeFeature")) {

  //do some magic

} else {

  //do old boring stuff

}

```



The `isEnabled` method also accepts a second boolean argument. The SDK uses this as a fallback value if it can't find the feature you're trying to check. For example, if `unleash.isEnabled("non-existing-toggle")` returns `false` when `"non-existing-toggle"` doesn't exist, calling `unleash.isEnabled("non-existing-toggle", true)`, will return `true`.



You can also **provide an [Unleash context](https://docs.getunleash.io/reference/unleash-context)** to the `isEnabled` method. Refer to the [Unleash context](#unleash-context) section for more information about using the Unleash context in the Java SDK.



### Activation strategies



The Java client comes with implementations for the built-in activation strategies provided by Unleash:



- DefaultStrategy

- UserWithIdStrategy

- GradualRolloutRandomStrategy

- GradualRolloutUserWithIdStrategy

- GradualRolloutSessionIdStrategy

- RemoteAddressStrategy

- ApplicationHostnameStrategy



Read more about the strategies in the [activation strategies reference documentation](https://docs.getunleash.io/reference/activation-strategies).



#### Custom strategies

You may also specify and implement your own strategy. The specification must be registered in the Unleash UI and

you must register the strategy implementation when you set up Unleash.



```java

Strategy s1 = new MyAwesomeStrategy();

Strategy s2 = new MySuperAwesomeStrategy();

Unleash unleash = new DefaultUnleash(config, s1, s2);

```



### Unleash context



In order to use some of the common activation strategies you must provide an [Unleash context](https://docs.getunleash.io/reference/unleash-context).

This client SDK provides two ways of providing the Unleash context:



#### 1. As part of the `isEnabled` call

This is the simplest and most explicit way of providing the Unleash context.

You just add it as an argument to the `isEnabled` call.



```java

UnleashContext context = UnleashContext.builder()

  .userId("user@mail.com").build();



unleash.isEnabled("someToggle", context);

```



#### 2. Via an `UnleashContextProvider`

This is a more advanced approach, where you configure an Unleash context provider.

With a context provider, you don't need to rebuild or pass the Unleash context to every `unleash.isEnabled` call.



The provider typically binds the context to the same thread as the request.

If you use Spring, the `UnleashContextProvider` will typically be a request-scoped bean.



```java

UnleashContextProvider contextProvider = new MyAwesomeContextProvider();



UnleashConfig config = new UnleashConfig.Builder()

            .appName("java-test")

            .instanceId("instance x")

            .unleashAPI("http://unleash.herokuapp.com/api/")

            .apiKey("")

            .unleashContextProvider(contextProvider)

            .build();



Unleash unleash = new DefaultUnleash(config);



// Anywhere in the code unleash will get the unleash context from your registered provider.

unleash.isEnabled("someToggle");

```



### Custom HTTP headers

If you want the client to send custom HTTP Headers with all requests to the Unleash API

you can define that by setting them via the `UnleashConfig`.



```java

UnleashConfig unleashConfig = UnleashConfig.builder()

                .appName("my-app")

                .instanceId("my-instance-1")

                .unleashAPI(unleashAPI)

                .apiKey("12312Random")

                .customHttpHeader("", "")

                .build();

```



### Dynamic custom HTTP headers

If you need custom HTTP headers that change during the lifetime of the client, a provider can be defined via the `UnleashConfig`.

```java

public class CustomHttpHeadersProviderImpl implements CustomHttpHeadersProvider {

    @Override

    public Map getCustomHeaders() {

        String token = "Acquire or refresh token";

        return new HashMap() {{ put("Authorization", "Bearer "+token); }};

    }

}

```

```java

CustomHttpHeadersProvider provider = new CustomHttpHeadersProviderImpl();



UnleashConfig unleashConfig = UnleashConfig.builder()

                .appName("my-app")

                .instanceId("my-instance-1")

                .unleashAPI(unleashAPI)

                .apiKey("API token")

                .customHttpHeadersProvider(provider)

                .build();

```



### Subscriber API



> Introduced in 3.2.2



Sometimes you want to know when Unleash updates internally. This can be achieved by registering a subscriber. An example on how to configure a custom subscriber is shown below. Have a look at [UnleashSubscriber.java](https://github.com/Unleash/unleash-client-java/blob/main/src/main/java/io/getunleash/event/UnleashSubscriber.java) to get a complete overview of all methods you can override.



```java

UnleashConfig unleashConfig = UnleashConfig.builder()

    .appName("my-app")

    .instanceId("my-instance-1")

    .unleashAPI(unleashAPI)

    .apiKey("API token")

    .subscriber(new UnleashSubscriber() {

        @Override

        public void onReady(UnleashReady ready) {

            System.out.println("Unleash is ready");

        }

        @Override

        public void togglesFetched(FeatureToggleResponse toggleResponse) {

            System.out.println("Fetch toggles with status: " + toggleResponse.getStatus());

        }



        @Override

        public void togglesBackedUp(ToggleCollection toggleCollection) {

            System.out.println("Backup stored.");

        }



    })

    .build();

```



### Options



- **appName** - Required. Should be a unique name identifying the client application using Unleash.

- **synchronousFetchOnInitialisation** - Allows the user to specify that the Unleash client should do one synchronous fetch to the `unleash-api` at initialisation. This will slow down the initialisation (the client must wait for an HTTP response). If the `unleash-api` is unavailable the client will silently move on and assume the api will be available later.

- **disablePolling** - Stops the client from polling. If used without synchronousFetchOnInitialisation will cause the client to never fetch toggles from the `unleash-api`.

- **fetchTogglesInterval** - Sets the interval (in seconds) between each poll to the `unleash-api`. Set this to `0` to do a single fetch and then stop refreshing while the process lives.



### HTTP Proxy with Authentication



The Unleash Java client uses `HttpURLConnection` as its HTTP client, which automatically recognizes common JVM proxy settings such as `http.proxyHost` and

`http.proxyPort`. If your proxy does not require authentication, it works without additional configuration. However, if you have to use Basic Authentication, settings such as `http.proxyUser` and `http.proxyPassword` are not recognized by default.

To enable Basic Authentication for an HTTP proxy, enable the following option on the configuration builder:



```java

UnleashConfig config = UnleashConfig.builder()

    .appName("my-app")

    .unleashAPI("http://unleash.org")

    .apiKey("API token")

    .enableProxyAuthenticationByJvmProperties()

    .build();

```



### Toggle fetcher



The Unleash Java client supports using your own toggle fetcher.

The Config builder has been expanded to accept an `io.getunleash.util.UnleashFeatureFetcherFactory` which should be a `Function`.

If you want to use OkHttp instead of HttpURLConnection you'll need a dependency on okhttp



```xml



    com.squareup.okhttp3

    okhttp

    4.10+



```



Then you can change your config to

```java

UnleashConfig config = UnleashConfig.builder()

    .appName("my-app")

    .unleashAPI("http://unleash.org")

    .apiKey("API token")

    .unleashFeatureFetcherFactory(OkHttpFeatureFetcher::new)

    .build();

```



This will then start using OkHttp instead of HttpURLConnection.



### Metrics sender

The Unleash Java client supports using your own metrics sender.

The Config builder has been expanded to accept a `io.getunleash.util.MetricsSenderFactory` which should be a `Function`.



If you want to use OkHttp instead of HttpURLConnection you'll need a dependency on okhttp



```xml



    com.squareup.okhttp3

    okhttp

    4.10+



```



Then you can change your config to

```java

UnleashConfig config = UnleashConfig.builder()

    .appName("my-app")

    .unleashAPI("http://unleash.org")

    .customHttpHeader("Authorization", "API token")

    .unleashMetricsSenderFactory(OkHttpMetricsSender::new)

    .build();

```



This will then start using OkHttp instead of HttpURLConnection to send metrics.



## Local backup

By default unleash-client fetches the feature toggles from unleash-server every 10s, and stores the

result in `unleash-repo.json` which is located in the `java.io.tmpdir` directory. This means that if

the unleash-server becomes unavailable, the unleash-client will still be able to toggle the features

based on the values stored in `unleash-repo.json`.



As a result of this, the second argument of `isEnabled` will be returned in two cases:

- When `unleash-repo.json` does not exist.

- When the named feature toggle does not exist in `unleash-repo.json`.



## Bootstrapping



Unleash supports bootstrapping from a JSON string. You can configure your own custom provider implementing the `ToggleBootstrapProvider` interface's single method `String read()`. This should return a JSON string in the same format returned from `/api/client/features`.



Example bootstrap files can be found in the JSON files located in [src/test/resources](src/test/resources).



This setup can be useful for applications deployed to ephemeral containers or restricted  file systems where Unleash's need to write the backup file is not desirable or possible.



### Provided Bootstrappers



#### ToggleBootstrapFileProvider



Unleash comes configured with a `ToggleBootstrapFileProvider` which implements the `ToggleBootstrapProvider` interface. This is the default implementation used if not overridden via the `setToggleBootstrapProvider` on UnleashConfig.



##### Configure ToggleBootstrapFileProvider



The `ToggleBootstrapFileProvider` reads the file located at the path defined by the `UNLEASH_BOOTSTRAP_FILE` environment variable. It supports both `classpath:` paths and absolute file paths.



## Unit testing

You might want to control the state of the toggles during unit testing. Unleash comes with a ```FakeUnleash``` implementation for doing this.



Example usage:



```java

// example 1: everything on

FakeUnleash fakeUnleash = new FakeUnleash();

fakeUnleash.enableAll();



assertThat(fakeUnleash.isEnabled("unknown"), is(true));

assertThat(fakeUnleash.isEnabled("unknown2"), is(true));



// example 2

FakeUnleash fakeUnleash = new FakeUnleash();

fakeUnleash.enable("t1", "t2");



assertThat(fakeUnleash.isEnabled("t1"), is(true));

assertThat(fakeUnleash.isEnabled("t2"), is(true));

assertThat(fakeUnleash.isEnabled("unknown"), is(false));



// example 3: variants

FakeUnleash fakeUnleash = new FakeUnleash();

fakeUnleash.enable("t1", "t2");

fakeUnleash.setVariant("t1", new Variant("a", (String) null, true, true));



assertThat(fakeUnleash.getVariant("t1").getName(), is("a"));

```



See more in [FakeUnleashTest.java](https://github.com/Unleash/unleash-client-java/blob/main/src/test/java/io/getunleash/FakeUnleashTest.java)



## Development



Build:

```bash

mvn clean install

```



Jacoco coverage reports:

```bash

mvn jacoco:report

```

The generated report will be available at ```target/site/jacoco/index.html```.



## Formatting



- We follow the AOSP Java code style, enforced by Spotless. To format your code, run `mvn spotless:apply`. Spotless automatically applies formatting during compilation to code that has changed since `origin/main`.

- For IDE-specific formatting support:

  - IntelliJ: Install the [Google Java Format plugin](https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/8527-google-java-format).

  - VS Code: Use the [Google Java Format extension](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=wx-chevalier.google-java-format).

  - Vim: Install the [vim-codefmt plugin](https://github.com/google/vim-codefmt).



## Releasing



### Deployment



 - You'll need an account with [Sonatype's JIRA](https://issues.sonatype.org).

 - In addition, your account needs access to publish under io.getunleash.



### GPG signing



 - You'll need GPG installed and a configured GPG key for signing the artifacts.



#### Example settings.xml



 - In `~/.m2/settings.xml`, put:

```xml



    ...

    

        ...

        

            ossrh

            

                true

            

            

                gpg 

                [PASSPHRASE FOR YOUR GPG KEY]

            

        

    

    ...

    

        ...

        

            sonatype-nexus-snapshots

            [YOUR_SONATYPE_JIRA_USERNAME]

            [YOUR_SONATYPE_JIRA_PASSWORD]

        

        

            ossrh

            [YOUR_SONATYPE_JIRA_USERNAME]

            [YOUR_SONATYPE_JIRA_PASSWORD]

        

        

            sonatype-nexus-staging

            [YOUR_SONATYPE_JIRA_USERNAME]

            [YOUR_SONATYPE_JIRA_PASSWORD]

        

    



```



#### More information



- https://central.sonatype.org/pages/ossrh-guide.html



## Configuration options



The `UnleashConfig$Builder` class (created via `UnleashConfig.builder()`) exposes a set of builder methods to configure your Unleash client. The available options are listed below with a description of what they do. For the full signatures, take a look at the [`UnleashConfig` class definition](src/main/java/io/getunleash/util/UnleashConfig.java).



| Method name                                | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      | Required | Default value                                                                                                        |

|--------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| `apiKey`                                   | The API key to use for authenticating against the Unleash API.                                                                                                                                                                                   | Yes      | `null`                                                                                                               |

| `appName`                                  | The name of the application as shown in the Unleash UI. Registered applications are listed on the Applications page.                                                                                                                             | Yes      | `null`                                                                                                               |

| `backupFile`                               | The path to the file where [local backups](#local-backup) get stored.                                                                                                                                                                            | No       | Synthesized from your system's `java.io.tmpdir` and your `appName`: `"/unleash--repo.json"` |

| `customHttpHeader`                         | Add a [custom HTTP header](#custom-http-headers) to the list of HTTP headers that will the client sends to the Unleash API. Each method call will add a new header. Note: in most cases, you'll need to use this method to provide an API token. | No       | N/A                                                                                                                  |

| `customHttpHeadersProvider`                | Add a custom HTTP header provider. Useful for [dynamic custom HTTP headers](#dynamic-custom-http-headers).                                                                                                                                       | No       | `null`                                                                                                               |

| `disablePolling`                           | A boolean indicating whether the client should poll the Unleash API for updates to toggles.                                                                                                                                                      |

| `disableMetrics`                           | A boolean indicating whether the client should disable sending usage metrics to the Unleash server.                                                                                                                                              | No       | `false`                                                                                                              |

| `enableProxyAuthenticationByJvmProperties` | Enable support for [using JVM properties for HTTP proxy authentication](#http-proxy-with-authentication).                                                                                                                                        | No       | `false`                                                                                                              |

| `environment`                              | The value to set for the Unleash context's `environment` property. **Not** the same as [Unleash's environments](https://docs.getunleash.io/reference/environments).| No       | `null`                                                                                                               |

| `fallbackStrategy`                         | A strategy implementation that the client can use if it doesn't recognize the strategy type returned from the server.                                                                                                                            | No       | `null`                                                                                                               |

| `fetchTogglesInterval`                     | How often (in seconds) the client should check for toggle updates. Set to `0` if you want to only check once.                                                                                                                                    | No       | `15`                                                                                                                 |

| `instanceId`                               | A unique(-ish) identifier for your instance. Typically a hostname, pod id or something similar. Unleash uses this to separate metrics from the client SDKs with the same `appName`.                                                              | Yes      | `null`                                                                                                               |

| `namePrefix`                               | If provided, the client will only fetch toggles whose name starts with the provided value.                                                                                                                                                       | No       | `null`                                                                                                               |

| `projectName`                              | If provided, the client will only fetch toggles from the specified project. (This can also be achieved with an API token).                                                                                                                       | No       | `null`                                                                                                               |

| `proxy`                                    | A `Proxy` object. Use this to configure a third-party proxy that sits between your client and the Unleash server.                                                                                                                                | No       | `null`                                                                                                               |

| `scheduledExecutor`                        | A custom executor to control timing and running of tasks (such as fetching toggles, sending metrics).                                                                                                                                            | No       | [`UnleashScheduledExecutorImpl`](src/main/java/io/getunleash/util/UnleashScheduledExecutorImpl.java)                 |

| `sendMetricsInterval`                      | How often (in seconds) the client should send metrics to the Unleash server. Ignored if you disable metrics with the `disableMetrics` method.                                                                                                    | No       | `60`                                                                                                                 |

| `subscriber`                               | [Register a subscriber to Unleash client events](#subscriber-api).                                                                                                                                                                               | No       | `null`                                                                                                               |

| `synchronousFetchOnInitialisation`         | Whether the client should fetch toggle configuration synchronously (in a blocking manner) on initialisation.                                                                                                                                                       | No       | `false`                                                                                                              |

| `toggleBootstrapProvider`                  | Add a [bootstrap provider](#bootstrapping) (must implement the `ToggleBootstrapProvider` interface)                                                                                                                                              | No       |                                                                                                                      |

| `unleashAPI`                               | The URL of the Unleash API.                                                                                                                                                                                                                      | Yes      | `null`                                                                                                               |

| `unleashContextProvider`                   | An [Unleash context provider used to configure Unleash](#2-via-an-unleashcontextprovider).                                                                                                                                                       | No       | `null`                                                                                                               |

| `unleashFeatureFetcherFactory`             | A factory providing a FeatureFetcher implementation.                                                                                                                                                                                             | No       | [`HttpFeatureFetcher::new`](src/main/java/io/getunleash/repository/HttpFeatureFetcher.java)                          |

| `unleashMetricsSenderFactory`              | A factory providing a MetricSender implementation.                                                                                                                                                                                               | No       | [`DefaultHttpMetricsSender::new`](src/main/java/io/getunleash/metric/DefaultHttpMetricsSender.java)                  |

| `startupExceptionHandler`                  | Handler for the behavior in the event of an error when starting the client.                                                                                                                                                                      | No       | `null`                                                                                                               |



When you have set all the desired options, initialize the configuration with the `build` method.

You can then pass the configuration to the Unleash client constructor.

As an example:



```java



UnleashConfig config = UnleashConfig.builder()

            .appName("your app name")

            .instanceId("instance id")

            .unleashAPI("http://unleash.herokuapp.com/api/")

            .apiKey("API token")

            // ... more configuration options

            .build();



Unleash unleash = new DefaultUnleash(config);

```



### Next steps



Check out our documentation for tips and best practices on [building and scaling feature flag systems](https://docs.getunleash.io/topics/feature-flags/feature-flag-best-practices).