ibm-appconfiguration-python-sdk 0.2.1

IBM Cloud App Configuration Python SDK

IBM Cloud App Configuration Python server SDK

IBM Cloud App Configuration SDK is used to perform feature flag and property evaluation based on the configuration on IBM Cloud App Configuration service.

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Installation
• Import the SDK
• Initialize SDK
• License

Overview

IBM Cloud App Configuration is a centralized feature management and configuration service on IBM Cloud for use with web and mobile applications, microservices, and distributed environments.

Instrument your applications with App Configuration Python SDK, and use the App Configuration dashboard, CLI or API to define feature flags or properties, organized into collections and targeted to segments. Toggle feature flag states in the cloud to activate or deactivate features in your application or environment, when required. You can also manage the properties for distributed applications centrally.

Installation

To install, use pip or easy_install:

pip install --upgrade ibm-appconfiguration-python-sdk

or

 easy_install --upgrade ibm-appconfiguration-python-sdk

Import the SDK

from ibm_appconfiguration import AppConfiguration, Feature, Property, ConfigurationType

Initialize SDK

app_configuration_client = AppConfiguration.get_instance()
app_configuration_client.init(region='region',
               guid='guid',
               apikey='apikey')

## Initialize configurations 
app_configuration_client.set_context(collection_id='airlines-webapp',
                       environment_id='dev')

• region : Region name where the service instance is created. Use
  • AppConfiguration.REGION_US_SOUTH for Dallas
  • AppConfiguration.REGION_EU_GB for London
  • AppConfiguration.REGION_AU_SYD for Sydney
• guid : GUID of the App Configuration service. Get it from the service credentials section of the dashboard
• apikey : ApiKey of the App Configuration service. Get it from the service credentials section of the dashboard
• collection_id : Id of the collection created in App Configuration service instance.
• environment_id : Id of the environment created in App Configuration service instance.

Work offline with local configuration file

SDK can work offline with a local configuration file and perform feature and property related operations.

app_configuration_client.set_context(collection_id='airlines-webapp',
                       environment_id='dev',
                       configuration_file='saflights/flights.json',
                       live_config_update_enabled=False)

• configuration_file : Path to the JSON file which contains configuration details.
• live_config_update_enabled : Set this value to false if the new configuration values shouldn't be fetched from the server. Make sure to provide a proper JSON file in the configuration_file path. By default, this value is enabled.

Permissions required by SDK

Add the permission for non-root users for writing permission to use the cache and logs in AppConfiguration SDK. AppConfiguration cache location will be ./ibm_appconfiguration/configurations/internal/utils/appconfiguration.json. The logs.txt file location will be the application root folder.

Get single feature

feature = app_configuration_client.get_feature('online-check-in') # feature can be null incase of an invalid feature id

if feature:
    print(f'Feature Name : {0}'.format(feature.get_feature_name()))
    print(f'Feature Id : {0}'.format(feature.get_feature_id()))
    print(f'Feature Data Type : {0}'.format(feature.get_feature_data_type()))
    print(f'Feature is enabled : {0}'.format(feature.is_enabled()))

Get all features

features_dictionary = app_configuration_client.get_features()

Evaluate a feature

Use the feature.get_current_value(entity_id=entity_id, entity_attributes=entity_attributes) method to evaluate the value of the feature flag. Pass an unique entityId as the parameter to perform the feature flag evaluation.

Usage

• If the feature flag is configured with segments in the AppConfiguration service, provide a json object as entityAttributes parameter to this method.

  entity_id = "john_doe"
  entity_attributes = {
    'city': 'Bangalore',
    'country': 'India'
  }
  feature_value = feature.get_current_value(entity_id=entity_id,    entity_attributes=entity_attributes)
  

• If the feature flag is not targeted to any segments and the feature flag is turned ON this method returns the feature enabled value. And when the feature flag is turned OFF this method returns the feature disabled value.

  entity_id = "john_doe"
  feature_value = feature.get_current_value(entity_id=entity_id)
  

Get single Property

property = app_configuration_client.get_property('check-in-charges') # property can be null incase of an invalid property id
if property:
    print(f'Property Name : {0}'.format(property.get_property_name()))
    print(f'Property Id : {0}'.format(property.get_property_id()))
    print(f'Property Data Type : {0}'.format(property.get_property_data_type()))

Get all Properties

properties_dictionary = app_configuration_client.get_properties()

Evaluate a property

Use the property.get_current_value(entity_id=entity_id, entity_attributes=entity_attributes) method to evaluate the value of the property. Pass an unique entityId as the parameter to perform the property evaluation.

Usage

• If the property is configured with segments in the App Configuration service, provide a json object as entityAttributes parameter to this method.

  entity_id = "john_doe"
  entity_attributes = {
      'city': 'Bangalore',
      'country': 'India'
  }
  property_value = property.get_current_value(entity_id=entity_id, entity_attributes=entity_attributes)
  

• If the property is not targeted to any segments this method returns the property value.

  entity_id = "john_doe"
  property_value = property.get_current_value(entity_id=entity_id)
  

Supported Data types

App Configuration service allows to configure the feature flag and properties in the following data types : Boolean, Numeric, String. The String data type can be of the format of a TEXT string , JSON or YAML. The SDK processes each format accordingly as shown in the below table.

View Table

Feature or Property value	DataType	DataFormat	Type of data returned by GetCurrentValue()	Example output
true	BOOLEAN	not applicable	bool	true
25	NUMERIC	not applicable	int	25
"a string text"	STRING	TEXT	string	a string text
{ "firefox": { "name": "Firefox", "pref_url": "about:config" } }	STRING	JSON	Dictionary or List of Dictionary	{'firefox': {'name': 'Firefox', 'pref_url': 'about:config'}}
men: - John Smith - Bill Jones women: - Mary Smith - Susan Williams	STRING	YAML	Dictionary	{'men': ['John Smith', 'Bill Jones'], 'women': ['Mary Smith', 'Susan Williams']}

Feature flag

feature = client.get_feature('json-feature')
feature.get_feature_data_type() // STRING
feature.get_feature_data_format() // JSON
feature.get_current_value(entityId, entityAttributes) // returns single dictionary object or list of dictionary object

// Example Below
// input json :- [{"role": "developer", "description": "do coding"},{"role": "tester", "description": "do testing"}]
// expected output :- "do coding"

tar_val = feature.get_current_value(entityId, entityAttributes)
expected_output = tar_val[0]['description']

// input json :- {"role": "tester", "description": "do testing"}
// expected output :- "tester"

tar_val = feature.get_current_value(entityId, entityAttributes)
expected_output = tar_val['role']

feature = client.getFeature('yaml-feature')
feature.get_feature_data_type() // STRING
feature.get_feature_data_format() // YAML
feature.get_current_value(entityId, entityAttributes) // returns dictionary object

// Example Below
// input yaml string :- "---\nrole: tester\ndescription: do_testing"
// expected output :- "do_testing"

tar_val = feature.get_current_value(entityId, entityAttributes)
expected_output = tar_val['description']

Property

property = client.get_property('json-property')
property.get_property_data_type() // STRING
property.get_property_data_format() // JSON
property.get_current_value(entityId, entityAttributes) // returns single dictionary object or list of dictionary object

// Example Below
// input json :- [{"role": "developer", "description": "do coding"},{"role": "tester", "description": "do testing"}]
// expected output :- "do coding"

tar_val = property.get_current_value(entityId, entityAttributes)
expected_output = tar_val[0]['description']

// input json :- {"role": "tester", "description": "do testing"}
// expected output :- "tester"

tar_val = property.get_current_value(entityId, entityAttributes)
expected_output = tar_val['role']

property = client.get_property('yaml-property')
property.get_property_data_type() // STRING
property.get_property_data_format() // YAML
property.get_current_value(entityId, entityAttributes) // returns dictionary object 

// Example Below
// input yaml string :- "---\nrole: tester\ndescription: do_testing"
// expected output :- "do_testing"

tar_val = property.get_current_value(entityId, entityAttributes)
expected_output = tar_val['description']

Set listener for the feature and property data changes

To listen to the data changes add the following code in the application.

def configuration_update(self):
    print('Received updates on configurations')

app_configuration_client.register_configuration_update_listener(configuration_update)

Fetch latest data

Fetch the latest configuration data.

app_configuration_client.fetch_configurations()

Enable debugger (Optional)

Use this method to enable/disable the logging in SDK.

app_configuration_client.enable_debug(True)

Examples

The examples folder has the examples.

License

This project is released under the Apache 2.0 license. The license's full text can be found in LICENSE