As an app developer, your app might have to supply the consumer with new content material
and options to maintain them and tailor the app expertise to suit
everybody’s wants, that is the place distant setup is available in.

In conclusion, the distant configuration of AppGallery Join can:

Modify settings within the cloud, in order that apps put in on units can commonly get setting updates from the cloud, which doesn’t require customers to replace the app and thus quickens app deployment.

This weblog will present you use distant settings to toggle the app
options based mostly on a distant configuration. With Huawei’s AppGallery Join,
can make the most of consumer attributes and distant circumstances to shortly and simply
modify parameters from the cloud.

As a fast comparability to the same old Android developer toolchain. You may consider AppGallery Join (AGC) because the equal of Firebase. So after I discuss AGC console, you’ll be able to examine it with Firebase console. On each consoles, you’ve gotten entry to options like analytics, crash evaluation, distant configuration, push notifications with deep hyperlinks, in-app messaging, and rather more.

In case you’ve used Firebase Distant Config, Huawei AGC Distant Configuration is simply as simple to make use of. If you have not used Firebase, it would not matter! AGC Distant Configuration has an intuitive and easy API. He The sample app written for this blog post is available open source on GitHub here.

With that… let’s… begin!

Check in or join AppGallery Join

The very first thing to do is that you simply register and/or to AppGallery Join and confirm your id (it could take as much as 3 days, so plan for this). Be sure to have a undertaking and app created that you may work on. If you have not completed it earlier than, You can read more about it here.

As soon as that is completed, you’ll have entry to the console that appears one thing like this:

Create an app that makes use of distant configuration

Let’s create an software that makes use of distant configuration to determine design its consumer interface. He AGC Academy has a video explanation here. It is a typical distant configuration use case, maybe mostly you’d disable total options or change breadcrumbs to allow and disable options, however right here to maintain the tutorial easy we’ll toggle among the textual content and alter the colour of background.

By means of remote configuration there are a selection of options that may be utilized, equivalent to varied filters, historic model administration, and real-time updates.

In analytics you’ve gotten one thing referred to as “Person Attributes”, these are particular particulars a few consumer or the habits of customers that may show you how to differentiate and segregate consumer teams. AGC Analysis It has a built-in consumer attribute referred to as “Nation/Area” and this lets you group your customers based mostly on the IP handle of the community {hardware} your telephone was final related to.

So, for instance, as an instance you’ve gotten a soccer app, you can present supporters who “are from” Scotland the Scottish flag in your house display screen UI and people in England the English flag. This could have some excessive instances of IP alongside the border between Scotland and England, which is an issue, however a much bigger drawback could be Spaniards solely visiting Scotland for a vacation. We will get round this drawback with one thing referred to as Customized Person Attributes.

Making a customized consumer attribute for ‘nation’ would permit you to decide the place the individual is from based mostly on one thing apart from the IP. In our demo, we have now an EditText on the display screen and you may sort the identify of a rustic (in an actual world state of affairs you would not sort this, however perhaps you infer it from the lively SIM ISO or locale of the system, or perhaps you can have the consumer choose it from an inventory.

Configuring Distant Configuration Console Settings

To create this tradition consumer attribute, go to the AppGallery Connect Console > Huawei Analytics > Person Attributes and press ‘create’. You might be then prompted for an ID, identify, and outline. The identify and outline are for human functions solely, the id can be used as a key for us to learn/write this consumer attribute from our app.

Set the next values:

• id = “nation”
• Title = “Nation”
• Description = “The nation during which we have now decided that you’re at the moment positioned.”

It’ll look one thing like this while you’re completed:

Now that we have now our customized consumer attribute created. We will use it to filter from our Distant Configuration.

Return to the AppGallery Connect console > Develop > Distant Configuration, choose the “Circumstances” tab, after which press the “New Situation” button. You might be then prompted for a Situation and a Description, beneath that could be a dropdown the place you’ll be able to choose the situation to make use of for the filter. Set the next values:

• Situation = “Nation United Kingdom”
• Description = “True when the nation consumer attribute is about to UK.”
• Choose = “Person Attributes” > Nation > Similar > “United Kingdom”

It’ll look one thing like this while you’re completed:

Press “save” and return to the “Parameters” tab.

We will make two parameters, the primary can be a normal distant configuration change that can be a boolean set to the console true or false. The second may also be a boolean change, nevertheless true or false can be decided based mostly on the situation we simply made.

Press the “new parameter” button to create these values. You might be then prompted for “Parameter”, which is the identify of the important thing that we’ll use to reference this distant configuration parameter in our software. A “default worth” that may take JSON or any primitive worth sort (like String, Int, and so on.). And a “description” to recollect what this worth is for.

For the primary operate, set the next values:

• Parameter = “enable_feature_1234_cool” _{(try to use a typical naming scheme)}
• Default = “false”
• Description = “True to allow function 1234. It will set off this cool new function.”

For the second operate, set the next values:

• Parameter = “enable_function_1235_theme” _{(try to use a typical naming scheme)}
• Default = “false”
• Description = “True to allow operate 1235. It will activate the theme operate.”
• Add Conditional Worth > Situation = “Nation UK”, Worth = “true”

It’ll look one thing like this while you’re completed:

Configure and initialize the appliance

Now that each one the console setup is completed, we are able to transfer on to creating the Android app! If you have not already added the AppGallery Join companies to your Android app (by together with the plugin and companies json file), You can read more about it here. You could acknowledge this sample. This is similar course of that you simply undergo while you first add Firebase to your undertaking. He sample project It is also configured this manner, including the agconnect plugin to do the json parsing of your config.

/construct.gradle:

buildscript  
  repositories  
    ...
    maven url 'https://developer.huawei.com/repo/' 
   


buildscript  
  dependencies  
    ...
    classpath 'com.huawei.agconnect:agcp:1.5.2.300'
   

/app/construct.gradle:

dependencies {
  implementation 'com.huawei.agconnect:agconnect-core:1.5.2.300'
  ...

Create distant configuration within the software

To make use of distant config with consumer attributes, distant config and checkout have to be added as dependencies to your undertaking:

dependencies {
  ...
  implementation 'com.huawei.agconnect:agconnect-remoteconfig:1.5.2.300'
  implementation 'com.huawei.hms:hianalytics:6.0.0.300' 
  ...

Subsequent, we create a format that enables us to show and edit the ‘nation’ consumer attribute. We added a TextView to show the standing of our 1234 operate and a button to pressure an replace of the at the moment fetched distant configuration. We make sure that the basis view has an ID so we are able to change its background colour.

<?xml model="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:id="@+id/content_main"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    app:layout_behavior="@string/appbar_scrolling_view_behavior">

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/text_explanation"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:textual content="This might normally be a worth hidden from the consumer. However for the sake of the demo you'll be able to change it right here. Refresh the config after altering the worth. Person nation:"
        app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="father or mother"
        app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="father or mother"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="father or mother" />

    <com.google.android.materials.textfield.TextInputLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:trace="Person nation (strive 'Spain' or 'UK'):"
        app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="father or mother"
        app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="father or mother"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@id/text_explanation">

        <com.google.android.materials.textfield.TextInputEditText
            android:id="@+id/edit_text_one"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:textual content="Spain" />

    </com.google.android.materials.textfield.TextInputLayout>

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/text_view_one"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="father or mother"
        app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="father or mother"
        app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="father or mother"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="father or mother" />

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/button_one"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:onClick="onRefreshConfigClick"
        android:textual content="Refresh Distant Configuration"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="father or mother"
        app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="father or mother"
        app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="father or mother" />

</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

To make use of distant configuration we want an occasion of AGConnectConfig (api doc), and to get/set the UserAttributes we use an occasion of HiAnalyticsInstance (api doc).

personal lateinit var config: AGConnectConfig
personal lateinit var analytics: HiAnalyticsInstance

override enjoyable onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
    tremendous.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
    config = AGConnectConfig.getInstance()
    analytics = HiAnalytics.getInstance(this)
    ...

When the UI masses, we would like the EditText to show the consumer’s present nation attribute, and when the refresh button is pressed, we need to save the final nation typed. Within the HiAnalyticsInstance API, a UserAttribute known as UserProfile.

val currentCountry = analytics.getUserProfiles(false)["country"] ?: "Spain"

val editTextOne: EditText = findViewById(R.id.edit_text_one)
val currentCountry = editTextOne.textual content.toString()
// This units the customized UserAttribute 'nation' we created within the console
analytics.setUserProfile("nation", currentCountry)

We are actually setting the customers nation each time it adjustments, this implies if we glance up the distant setting for “enable_feature_1235_theme” it would take into consideration what nation they’re in when returning true or false. By comparability, trying to find “enable_feature_1234_cool” will all the time return ‘false’ since we explicitly set it within the console. That is the way you get each booleans with distant config:

val enableFeature = config.getValueAsBoolean("enable_feature_1234_cool")
val textView: TextView = findViewById(R.id.text_view_one)
if (enableFeature) 
    textView.textual content = "Function Enabled! (Go to the console to toggle this)"
 else 
    textView.textual content = "Function Disabled! (Go to the console to toggle this)"


val enableFeature1235 = config.getValueAsBoolean("enable_feature_1235_theme")
val contentMain: ViewGroup = findViewById(R.id.content_main)
if (enableFeature1235) 
 contentMain.setBackgroundColor(Colour.parseColor("#22FF0000"))
 Toast.makeText(this, "Welcome to the UK!", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).present()
 else 
 contentMain.setBackgroundColor(Colour.parseColor("#2200FF00"))
 Toast.makeText(this, "Goodbye!", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).present()

Lastly we’ll pressure a refresh of the distant configuration by urgent the button. That is normally not mandatory in a manufacturing software, as you’d have an affordable replace interval and the library will routinely test for updates to this configuration. However for demo functions, we need to pressure an replace so we are able to see the way it impacts altering the nation.

config.fetch(0) // a worth of 0 right here is for DEBUGGING ONLY, delete for prod (giving a 12 hour refresh interval)
    .addOnSuccessListener 
        config.apply(it)
        Log.d(TAG, "Utilized")
        updateUIBasedOnRemoteConfig()
    

Conclusion

That is all! All the code you see above is available on GitHub here. You have been ready to make use of the AppGallery Join console to create a distant configuration that takes customized consumer attributes under consideration and use it to allow and disable options inside your app. It helps SDK integration with just some strains of code, you’ll be able to simply entry the service.

As well as, AppGallery Join companies can be utilized for Android, net,
and quick apps with cross-platform framework, together with Flutter,
Cordoba and React Native.

Full Disclosure Discover: I wrote this submit in partnership with Huawei and they’re excited to announce AppGallery Connect Academy and encourage using App Gallery Connection.

Huawei AppGallery Join has a training academy here, with materials out there equivalent to written articles, paperwork, and video explanations that can assist you grow to be aware of these nice options. There’s a lot extra, together with AB testing, in-app messaging, deep app linking, and extra methods to make use of distant settings.