Flagsmith NodeJS SDK

This library can be used with server-side NodeJS projects. The source code for the client is available on Github.

Getting Started

These instructions will get you a copy of the project up and running on your local machine for development and testing purposes. See running in production for notes on how to deploy the project on a live system.

Installing

VIA npm:

npm i flagsmith-nodejs --save

Usage

Retrieving feature flags for your project

const flagsmith = require('flagsmith-nodejs');

flagsmith.init({
 environmentID: '<YOUR_ENVIRONMENT_KEY>',
});

flagsmith.hasFeature('header', '<My User Id>').then((featureEnabled) => {
 if (featureEnabled) {
  //Show my awesome cool new feature to this one user
 }
});

flagsmith.hasFeature('header').then((featureEnabled) => {
 if (featureEnabled) {
  //Show my awesome cool new feature to the world
 }
});

flagsmith.getValue('header', '<My User Id').then((value) => {
 //Show some unique value to this user
});

flagsmith.getValue('header').then((value) => {
 //Show a value to the world
});

Available Options

Property	Description	Required	Default Value
environmentID	Defines which project environment you wish to get flags for. example ACME Project - Staging.	YES	null
onError	Callback function on failure to retrieve flags. (error)=>{...}	NO	null
api	Use this property to define where you're getting feature flags from, e.g. if you're self hosting.	NO	https://api.flagsmith.com/api/v1
cache	Defines an object containing 3 functions (has(k), get(k), set(k,v)) to cache API results	NO	null

Available Functions

Property	Description
init	Initialise the sdk against a particular environment
hasFeature(key)	Get the value of a particular feature e.g. flagsmith.hasFeature("powerUserFeature") // true
hasFeature(key, userId)	Get the value of a particular feature for a user e.g. flagsmith.hasFeature("powerUserFeature", 1234) // true
getValue(key)	Get the value of a particular feature e.g. flagsmith.getValue("font_size") // 10
getValue(key, userId)	Get the value of a particular feature for a specificed user e.g. flagsmith.getValue("font_size", 1234) // 15
getFlags()	Trigger a manual fetch of the environment features
getFlagsForUser(userId)	Trigger a manual fetch of the environment features for a given user id
getUserIdentity(userId)	Trigger a manual fetch of both the environment features and users' traits for a given user id
getTrait(userId, key)	Trigger a manual fetch of a specific trait for a given user id
setTrait(userId, key, value)	Set a specific trait for a given user id

Identifying users

Identifying users allows you to target specific users from the Flagsmith dashboard. You can include an optional user identifier as part of the hasFeature and getValue methods to retrieve unique user flags and variables.

Caching Data

You can initialise the SDK with something like this:

flagsmith.init({
 cache: {
   has:(key)=> return Promise.resolve(!!cache[key]) , // true | false
   get: (k)=> cache[k] // return flags or flags for user
   set: (k,v)=> cache[k] = v // gets called if has returns false with response from API for Identify or getFlags
  }
})

The core concept is that if has returns false, the SDK will make the required API calls under the hood. The keys are either flags or flags_traits-${identity}.

An example of a concrete implemention is below.

const flagsmith = require('flagsmith-nodejs');
const redis = require('redis');

const redisClient = redis.createClient({
 host: 'localhost',
 port: 6379,
});

flagsmith.init({
 environmentID: '<Flagsmith Environment API Key>',
 cache: {
  has: (key) =>
   new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    redisClient.exists(key, (err, reply) => {
     console.log('check ' + key + ' from cache', err, reply);
     resolve(reply === 1);
    });
   }),
  get: (key) =>
   new Promise((resolve) => {
    redisClient.get(key, (err, cacheValue) => {
     console.log('get ' + key + ' from cache');
     resolve(cacheValue && JSON.parse(cacheValue));
    });
   }),
  set: (key, value) =>
   new Promise((resolve) => {
    // Expire the key after 60 seconds
    redisClient.set(key, JSON.stringify(value), 'EX', 60, (err, reply) => {
     console.log('set ' + key + ' to cache', err);
     resolve();
    });
   }),
 },
});

router.get('/', function (req, res, next) {
 flagsmith.getValue('background_colour').then((value) => {
  res.render('index', {
   title: value,
  });
 });
});