Automatic environment attributes

Overview

This topic explains how LaunchDarkly automatically provides data about the environment where the application is running.

Some LaunchDarkly mobile SDKs support automatically providing data about the environment where the application is running. This data makes it simpler to target your mobile customers based on application name or version, or on device characteristics including manufacturer, model, operating system, locale, and so on.

When you configure your SDK, you must explicitly decide whether or not LaunchDarkly should collect and return this data. We recommend enabling this feature when you configure the SDK.

After you enable this option, the SDKs automatically add this data to each evaluation context you provide. The data is provided in two new context kinds: ld_application and ld_device. If the data is not available, it is omitted.

Customers who are billed by primary context kind may be charged based on the ld_device context kind if it becomes the context kind with the highest volume of monthly activity in their account. This feature does not affect customers on other billing models. To learn more, read Calculating client-side billing in the Account usage metrics topic.

To use this feature, you must:

• Use a supported client-side SDK
• Configure your SDK to enable collection of these environment attributes

Details about each SDK's configuration are available in the SDK-specific sections below.

• Client-side SDKs

Understanding the automatically added environment attributes

If you enable automatic environment attributes in the SDK client configuration, the SDK automatically adds additional contexts to each context that you evaluate. You can use attributes from these contexts in your targeting rules.

These automatically added contexts include the following attributes:

If the SDK cannot determine the information for a particular attribute, it will not include that attribute. For example, if the SDK cannot determine the device's model, it will not include the model attribute.

If the SDK can determine none of the information for an entire context, it will not include that context. For example, if you run the .NET (client-side) SDK on a desktop environment, the SDK cannot reliably get the device information. In this case the ld_device context is omitted.

Automatic environment attributes and application metadata configuration

If you are already setting application metadata as part of your SDK configuration, you can still use this new environment attributes feature. Any application metadata that you set will override the automatically collected environment attributes.

Specifically, ld_application context attributes are set based on the following priority order:

1. If you set values for application id, name, version, or version name using application metadata configuration in the SDK, then the ld_application context will reflect those values.
2. Otherwise, if you have set values for the application id, name, version, or version name within your mobile app, the ld_application context will reflect those values.
3. Otherwise, the ld_application context will use the LaunchDarkly SDK name and version.

Client-side SDKs

This feature is available in the following client-side SDKs:

• .NET (client-side)
• Android
• Flutter
• iOS
• React Native

.NET (client-side)

var config = Configuration
    .Builder("mobile-key-123abc", ConfigurationBuilder.AutoEnvAttributes.Enabled)
    .Build();
COPY

Android

LDConfig ldConfig = new LDConfig.Builder(AutoEnvAttributes.Enabled)
    .mobileKey("mobile-key-123abc")
    .build();
COPY

Flutter

final config = LDConfig(CredentialSource.fromEnvironment, AutoEnvAttributes.enabled)
COPY

iOS

let config = LDConfig(mobileKey: "mobile-key-123abc", autoEnvAttributes: .enabled)
COPY

React Native

const client = new ReactNativeLDClient('mobile-key-123abc', AutoEnvAttributes.Enabled, options);
COPY