Ruby SDK reference
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Last edited: May 04, 2023
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."
Code samples on this page are from the two most recent SDK versions where they differ. To learn more about upgrading, read Ruby SDK 6.x to 7.0 migration guide.
Overview
This topic documents how to get started with the server-side Ruby SDK, and links to reference information on all of the supported features.
LaunchDarkly's SDKs are open source. In addition to this reference guide, we provide source, API reference documentation, and sample applications:
Resource | Location |
---|---|
SDK API documentation | SDK API docs |
GitHub repository | ruby-server-sdk |
Sample applications | Ruby Rails with bootstrapping |
Published module | RubyGems |
Due to a bug in recent versions of RubyGems, RubyGems versions 2.4.x are not compatible with the LaunchDarkly Ruby SDK.
The LaunchDarkly Ruby SDK, version 7.0 and higher, is compatible with Ruby 2.7 and higher.
Prior to version 7.0, the LaunchDarkly Ruby SDK also supported Ruby 2.5 and 2.6.
Getting started
After you complete the Getting Started process, follow these instructions to start using the LaunchDarkly SDK in your Ruby application.
First, install the LaunchDarkly SDK as a dependency in your application using your application's dependency manager. Refer to the SDK releases page to identify the latest version if you want to depend on a specific version.
If you are using Bundler, you can add gem "launchdarkly-server-sdk"
to your Gemfile and run bundle install
. Otherwise, you can install the gem directly:
gem install launchdarkly-server-sdk
Next, import the LaunchDarkly client in your application code. This step may not be necessary if you are using a framework that automatically loads all dependencies, as Rails does.
Here's how:
require 'ldclient-rb'
After you install and import the SDK, create a single, shared instance of LDClient
. Specify your SDK key here to authorize your application to connect to a particular environment within LaunchDarkly.
Here's how:
client = LaunchDarkly::LDClient.new("sdk-key-123abc")
It's important to make LDClient
a singleton for each LaunchDarkly project. The client instance maintains internal state that allows LaunchDarkly to serve feature flags without making any remote requests. Do not instantiate a new client with every request.
If you have multiple LaunchDarkly projects, you can create one LDClient
for each. In this situation, the clients operate independently. For example, they do not share a single connection to LaunchDarkly.
You can use client
to check which variation a particular context will receive for a given feature flag. To learn more, read Evaluating flags and Flag evaluation reasons. For more information about how contexts are specified, read User and context configuration.
Here's how:
context = LaunchDarkly::LDContext.with_key("user@test.com")show_feature = client.variation("your.flag.key", context, false)if show_feature# application code to show the featureelse# the code to run if the feature is off
Initializing LDClient in a Rails Application
To use LaunchDarkly in a Rails application, initialize the client in config/initializers/launchdarkly.rb
:
Rails.configuration.client = LaunchDarkly::LDClient.new("sdk-key-123abc")
To use LaunchDarkly with the Rails application preloader Spring, we recommend using an after_fork
callback in the config/spring.rb file:
Spring.after_fork doRails.configuration.client = LaunchDarkly::LDClient.new('sdk-key-123abc')end
Similarly, with Unicorn, you'll need to specify an after_fork
hook in your unicorn.rb config file:
after_fork do |server,worker|Rails.configuration.client = LaunchDarkly::LDClient.new('sdk-key-123abc')end
If you use the Puma web server, we recommend initializing the client in on_worker_boot
, as well as initializing in the Rails app:
on_worker_boot doRails.configuration.client = LaunchDarkly::LDClient.new('sdk-key-123abc')end
If you use the Passenger web server, we recommend initializing the client in config.ru
, or from any code called while loading config.ru
:
if defined?(PhusionPassenger)PhusionPassenger.on_event(:starting_worker_process) do |forked|Rails.configuration.client = LaunchDarkly::LDClient.new('sdk-key-123abc')endend
Lastly, shut down the client when your application terminates. This frees the resources the worker threads were using and provides an explicit signal for the Ruby SDK to send the remaining event data back to LaunchDarkly. To learn more, read Shutting down.
Supported features
This SDK supports the following features:
- Anonymous contexts and users
- Big Segments
- Configuration
- Evaluating flags
- Flag evaluation reasons
- Flushing events
- Getting all flags
- Identifying and changing contexts
- Logging configuration
- Monitoring SDK status
- Offline mode
- Private attributes
- Reading flags from a file
- Relay Proxy configuration
- Secure mode
- Sending custom events
- Service endpoint configuration
- Shutting down
- Storing data
- Subscribing to flag changes
- Test data sources
- User and context configuration
- Web proxy configuration