A/B Smartly SDK

A/B Smartly Ruby SDK

Compatibility

The A/B Smartly Ruby SDK is compatible with Ruby versions 2.7 and later. For the best performance and code readability, Ruby 3 or later is recommended. This SDK is being constantly tested with the nightly builds of Ruby, to ensure it is compatible with the latest Ruby version.

Getting Started

Install the SDK

Install the gem and add to the application's Gemfile by executing:

$ bundle add absmartly-sdk

If bundler is not being used to manage dependencies, install the gem by executing:

$ gem install absmartly-sdk

Import and Initialize the SDK

Once the SDK is installed, it can be initialized in your project.

Absmartly.configure_client do |config|
  config.endpoint = "https://your-company.absmartly.io/v1"
  config.api_key = "YOUR-API-KEY"
  config.application = "website"
  config.environment = "development"
end

SDK Options

Config	Type	Required?	Default	Description
endpoint	string	✅	undefined	The URL to your API endpoint. Most commonly "your-company.absmartly.io"
apiKey	string	✅	undefined	Your API key which can be found on the Web Console.
environment	"production" or "development"	✅	undefined	The environment of the platform where the SDK is installed. Environments are created on the Web Console and should match the available environments in your infrastructure.
application	string	✅	undefined	The name of the application where the SDK is installed. Applications are created on the Web Console and should match the applications where your experiments will be running.
retries	number	❌	5	The number of retries before the SDK stops trying to connect.
timeout	number	❌	3000	An amount of time, in milliseconds, before the SDK will stop trying to connect.
eventLogger	(context, eventName, data) => void	❌	See "Using a Custom Event Logger" below	A callback function which runs after SDK events.

Using a Custom Event Logger

The A/B Smartly SDK can be instantiated with an event logger used for all contexts. In addition, an event logger can be specified when creating a particular context, in the [CONTEXT_CONFIG_VARIABLE].

Custom Event Logger Code

The data parameter depends on the type of event. Currently, the SDK logs the following events:

eventName	when	data
"error"	Context receives an error	error object thrown
"ready"	Context turns ready	data used to initialize the context
"refresh"	Context.refresh() method succeeds	data used to refresh the context
"publish"	Context.publish() method succeeds	data sent to the A/B Smartly event collector
"exposure"	Context.treatment() method succeeds on first exposure	exposure data enqueued for publishing
"goal"	Context.track() method succeeds	goal data enqueued for publishing
"close"	Context.close() method succeeds the first time	nil

Create a New Context Request

context_config = Absmartly.create_context_config

With Prefetched Data

client_config = ClientConfig.new(
  endpoint: 'https://your-company.absmartly.io/v1',
  api_key: 'YOUR-API-KEY',
  application: 'website',
  environment: 'development')

sdk_config = ABSmartlyConfig.create
sdk_config.client = Client.create(client_config)

sdk = Absmartly.create(sdk_config)

Refreshing the Context with Fresh Experiment Data

For long-running contexts, the context is usually created once when the application is first started. However, any experiments being tracked in your production code, but started after the context was created, will not be triggered.

Alternatively, the refresh method can be called manually. The refresh method pulls updated experiment data from the A/B Smartly collector and will trigger recently started experiments when treatment is called again.

Setting Extra Units

You can add additional units to a context by calling the set_unit() or set_units() methods. These methods may be used, for example, when a user logs in to your application and you want to use the new unit type in the context.

Please note, you cannot override an already set unit type as that would be a change of identity and would throw an exception. In this case, you must create a new context instead. The set_unit() and set_units() methods can be called before the context is ready.

context_config.set_unit('session_id', 'bf06d8cb5d8137290c4abb64155584fbdb64d8')
context_config.set_unit('user_id', '123456')
context = Absmartly.create_context(context_config)

or

context_config.set_units(
  session_id: 'bf06d8cb5d8137290c4abb64155584fbdb64d8',
  user_id: '123456'
)
context = Absmartly.create_context(context_config)

Basic Usage

Selecting A Treatment

treatment = context.treatment('exp_test_experiment')

if treatment.zero?
  # user is in control group (variant 0)
else
  # user is in treatment group
end

Treatment Variables

default_button_color_value = 'red'

context.variable_value('experiment_name', default_button_color_value)

Peek at Treatment Variants

Although generally not recommended, it is sometimes necessary to peek at a treatment or variable without triggering an exposure. The A/B Smartly SDK provides a peek_treatment() method for that.

treatment = context.peek_treatment('exp_test_experiment')

Peeking at variables

treatment = context.peek_variable_value('exp_test_experiment')

Overriding Treatment Variants

During development, for example, it is useful to force a treatment for an experiment. This can be achieved with the set_override() and/or set_overrides() methods. These methods can be called before the context is ready.

context.set_override("exp_test_experiment", 1) # force variant 1 of treatment

context.set_overrides(
    'exp_test_experiment' => 1,
    'exp_another_experiment' => 0,
)

Advanced

Context Attributes

Attributes are used to pass meta-data about the user and/or the request. They can be used later in the Web Console to create segments or audiences. They can be set using the set_attribute() or set_attributes() methods, before or after the context is ready.

context.set_attribute('session_id', session_id)
context.set_attributes(
    'customer_age' => 'new_customer'
)

Custom Assignments

Sometimes it may be necessary to override the automatic selection of a variant. For example, if you wish to have your variant chosen based on data from an API call. This can be accomplished using the set_custom_assignment() method.

chosen_variant = 1
context.set_custom_assignment('experiment_name', chosen_variant)

If you are running multiple experiments and need to choose different custom assignments for each one, you can do so using the set_custom_assignments() method.

assignments = [
    'experiment_name' => 1,
    'another_experiment_name' => 0,
    'a_third_experiment_name' => 2
]

context.set_custom_assignments(assignments)  

Publish

Sometimes it is necessary to ensure all events have been published to the A/B Smartly collector, before proceeding. You can explicitly call the publish() methods.

context.publish

Finalize

The close() method will ensure all events have been published to the A/B Smartly collector, like publish(), and will also "seal" the context, throwing an error if any method that could generate an event is called.

context.close

Tracking Goals

context.track(
    'payment',
    { item_count: 1, total_amount: 1999.99 }
)