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    Offline mode

    Read time: 5 minutes
    Last edited: Feb 27, 2023

    Overview

    This topic explains how to set an SDK to offline mode.

    Newer versions of LaunchDarkly SDKs replace users with contexts

    A context is a generalized way of referring to the people, services, machines, or other resources that encounter feature flags in your product. Contexts replace another data object in LaunchDarkly: "users." To learn more, read Contexts and segments.

    Creating contexts and evaluating flags based on them is supported in the latest major versions of most of our SDKs. For these SDKs, the code samples on this page include the two most recent versions.

    Understanding offline mode

    Offline mode closes an SDK's connection to LaunchDarkly and switches to a feature flag's last known values.

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

    • Client-side SDKs
    • Server-side SDKs

    Client-side SDKs

    If a user's device is not connected to a network, such as when the device is in airplane mode, the SDK uses the latest stored flag settings in memory. If there are no previously stored flag settings, the SDK uses the default values.

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

    .NET (client-side)

    Expand .NET (client-side) code sample

    The fallback values are defined in your code. The SDK returns the fallback value only if it encounters an error or if LaunchDarkly is unreachable.

    In some situations, you might want avoid remote calls to LaunchDarkly and use fallback values for your feature flags. For example, if your software is both cloud-hosted and distributed to customers to run on-premises, it might make sense to use fallback values when running on-premises. You can do this by setting offline mode in the client's Config. When the client is in offline mode, it makes no network requests, so it is suitable for unit-testing.

    Here's how:

    Configuration config = Configuration.Builder("SDK_KEY")
    .Offline(true)
    .Build();
    LdClient client = LdClient.Init(config);

    Android

    Expand Android code sample

    In some situations, you might want to stop making remote calls to LaunchDarkly and switch to the last known values for your feature flags. offline mode lets you do this easily.

    Here's how:

    LDConfig ldConfig = new LDConfig.Builder()
    .setMobileKey("mobile-key-123abc")
    .setOffline(true)
    .build();
    LDClient client = LDClient.init(this.getApplication(), ldConfig, context);
    // Or to switch an already-instantiated client to offline mode:
    client.setOffline();

    Flutter

    Expand Flutter code sample

    In some situations, you might want to stop making remote calls to LaunchDarkly and rely on locally cached values for your feature flags for future evaluations. offline mode lets you do this easily.

    Here's how:

    LDConfig ldConfig = LDConfigBuilder('mobile-key-123abc')
    .offline(true)
    .build();
    await LDClient.start(ldConfig, user);
    // Or to switch an already-instantiated client to offline mode:
    await LDClient.setOnline(false);

    iOS

    Expand iOS code sample

    In some situations, you might want to stop making remote calls to LaunchDarkly and switch to the last known values for your feature flags. Offline mode lets you do this easily.

    The SDK protects itself from multiple rapid calls to setOnline(true) by enforcing an increasing delay (called throttling) each time setOnline(true) is called within a short time. The first time, the call proceeds normally. For each subsequent call, the delay is enforced, and if waiting, increased to a maximum delay. When the delay has elapsed, the setOnline(true) proceeds, assuming that the client app has not called setOnline(false) during the delay. Therefore, a call to setOnline(true) may not immediately result in the LDClient going online.

    Client app developers should consider this situation abnormal, and take steps to prevent the client app from making multiple rapid setOnline(true) calls. Calls to setOnline(false) are not throttled. Calls to start(config: context: completion:), and setting the config or context can also call setOnline(true) under certain conditions. After the delay, the SDK resets and the client app can make a subsequent call to setOnline(true) without being throttled.

    Client apps can set a completion closure called when the setOnline call completes. For unthrottled setOnline(true) and all setOnline(false) calls, the SDK calls the closure immediately on completion of this method. For throttled setOnline(true) calls, the SDK calls the closure after the throttling delay at the completion of the setOnline method.

    The SDK does not go online if the client has not been started, or the mobileKey is empty. For macOS, the SDK does not go online in the background unless enableBackgroundUpdates is true.

    Use isOnline to get the online/offline state.

    Here is an example:

    LDClient.get()!.setOnline(false)
    LDClient.get()!.setOnline(true) {
    // Client is online
    }
    let connectionStatus = LDClient.get()!.isOnline

    React Native

    Expand React Native code sample

    In some situations, you might want to stop making remote calls to LaunchDarkly and switch to the last known values for your feature flags. You can use offline mode to do this.

    Here's how:

    let offlineResult = client.setOffline(); //true or false
    let offlineStatus = client.isOffline(); //true or false
    let onlineResult = client.setOnline(); //true or false

    Server-side SDKs

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

    .NET (server-side)

    Expand .NET (server-side) code sample

    The feature flag fallback values are defined in your code. The fallback value only returns if the SDK encounters an error or if LaunchDarkly is unreachable.

    In some situations, you might want avoid remote calls to LaunchDarkly and use fallback values for your feature flags. For example, if your software is both cloud-hosted and distributed to customers to run on-premises, it might make sense to use fallback values when running on-premises. You can do this by setting offline mode in the client's Config. When the client is in offline mode, no network requests will be made, so it is suitable for unit-testing.

    Here's how:

    Configuration config = Configuration.Builder("SDK_KEY")
    .Offline(true)
    .Build();
    LdClient client = new LdClient(config);

    C/C++ (server-side)

    Expand C/C++ (server-side) code sample

    In some situations, you might want to stop making remote calls to LaunchDarkly and use fallback values for your feature flags. For example, if your software is both cloud-hosted and distributed to customers to run on-premises, it might make sense to use fallback values when running on-premises.

    Here's how:

    LDConfigSetOffline(config, true);

    Erlang

    Expand Erlang code sample

    In some situations, you might want to stop making remote calls to LaunchDarkly and use fallback values. For example, if your software is both cloud-hosted and distributed to customers to run on-premises, it might make sense to use fallback values when the software runs on-premises.

    You can do this by setting offline mode in the config map with the offline key.

    Here's how:

    ldclient:start_instance("sdk-key-123abc", #{offline => true})

    Go

    Expand Go code sample

    In some situations, you might want to stop making remote calls to LaunchDarkly and use fallback values for your feature flags. For example, if your software is both cloud-hosted and distributed to customers to run on-premises, it might make sense to use fallback values when running on-premises. You can do this by setting Offline mode in the client's Config.

    Here's how:

    var config ld.Config
    config.Offline = true
    client, _ := ld.MakeCustomClient("sdk-key-123abc", config, 5 * time.Second)
    client.BoolVariation("any.feature.flag", context, false) // will always return the default value (false)

    Haskell

    Expand Haskell code sample

    In some situations, you might want to stop making remote calls to LaunchDarkly and use fallback values for your feature flags. You can do this by setting offline mode in the config object with configSetOffline. For example, if your software is both cloud-hosted and distributed to customers to run on-premises, it might make sense to use fallback values when running on-premises.

    Here's how:

    config' = configSetOffline True config

    Java

    Expand Java code sample

    In some situations, you might want to stop making remote calls to LaunchDarkly and use fallback values for your feature flags. For example, if your software is both cloud-hosted and distributed to customers to run on-premises, it might make sense to use fallback values when running on-premises. You can do this by setting offline mode in the client's LDConfig.

    Here's how:

    LDConfig config = new LDConfig.Builder()
    .offline(true)
    .build();
    LDClient client = new LDClient("sdk-key-123abc", config);
    client.boolVariation("flag-key-123abc", context, false)
    // This call to client.boolVariation always
    // returns the default value (false)

    Node.js (server-side)

    Expand Node.js (server-side) code sample

    In some situations, you might want to stop making remote calls to LaunchDarkly and use fallback values for your feature flags. For example, if your software is both cloud-hosted and distributed to customers to run on-premises, it might make sense to use fallback values when running on-premises. You can do this by setting offline mode in the client's config object.

    Here's how:

    const options = { offline: true };
    client = ld.init('sdk-key-123abc', options);
    client.variation('any.feature.flag', user, false, cb) // cb will always be invoked with the default value (false)

    The default value you set in the variation method is returned in offline mode. This does not refer to the default rule set in your flag configuration.

    PHP

    Expand PHP code sample

    In some situations, you might want to stop making remote calls to LaunchDarkly and use fallback values for your feature flags. For example, if your software is both cloud-hosted and distributed to customers to run on-premises, it might make sense to use fallback values when running on-premises. setOffline lets you do this easily.

    Here's how:

    $client = new LaunchDarkly\LDClient("sdk-key-123abc", ["offline" => true]);
    $client->variation("any.feature.flag", $context, false); // will always return the default value (false)

    Python

    Expand Python code sample

    In some situations, you might want avoid remote calls to LaunchDarkly and use fallback values for your feature flags. For example, if your software is both cloud-hosted and distributed to customers to run on-premises, it might make sense to use fallback values when running on-premises. You can do this by setting offline mode in the client's Config.

    Here's how:

    # Initialization:
    ldclient.set_config(Config("sdk-key-123abc", offline=True))
    ldclient.get().variation("any.feature.flag", context, False) # will always return the default value (false)

    Ruby

    Expand Ruby code sample

    In some situations, you might want to stop making remote calls to LaunchDarkly and use fallback values for your feature flags. For example, if your software is both cloud-hosted and distributed to customers to run on-premises, it might make sense to use fallback values when running on-premises. Offline mode lets you do this easily.

    Here's how:

    config = LaunchDarkly::Config.new({offline: true})
    client = LaunchDarkly::LDClient.new("sdk-key-123abc", config)
    client.variation("any.feature.flag", context, false) # will always return the default value (false)

    Rust

    Expand Rust code sample

    In some situations, you might want to stop making remote calls to LaunchDarkly and use fallback values for your feature flags. For example, if your software is both cloud-hosted and distributed to customers to run on-premises, it might make sense to use fallback values when running on-premises. Offline mode lets you do this easily.

    Here's how:

    let config = ConfigBuilder::new("sdk-key-123abc").offline(true).build();
    let ld_client = Client::build(config).unwrap();
    ld_client.bool_variation(&context, "flag-key-123abc", false); // will always return the default value (false)