Support for anonymous users

[roryf]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
I would like to use the SDK for anonymous users, i.e. pre-registration in our app.

Describe the solution you'd like
Make user an optional parameter in LDClient#configure. Even if i ignore typescript warnings, the LaunchdarklyReactNativeClient#internalConfigure function requires a user object to configure the native iOS client.

Describe alternatives you've considered
As far as I can tell, the only way around this currently is to generate my own key and pass { key: myGeneratedRandomKey, anonymous: true } to configure.

Additional context
The React client clearly defaults to anonymous user without specifying a key, and the initial user parameter is optional in the underlying LDClient iOS SDK

[roryf]

I have tried passing { anonymous: true } and the promise from configure is not resolved or rejected (it really should be resolved or rejected, this is probably a separate bug). Only by passing a key prop will the promise resolve and I can access flags.

[bwoskow-ld]

Hi @roryf,

Our React Native SDK does work for anonymous users. However, at present you'll need to provide a user object with both a defined key attribute and anonymous: true as you noted in your workaround.

Our React Native SDK is written as a wrapper around our native iOS and Android SDKs. While this improves our ability to develop and maintain the SDK more efficiently, it also means that from time to time we need to deal with inconsistencies between the native SDKs' behavior and APIs. As you pointed out, the iOS SDK takes an optional user parameter -- however, the Android SDK requires the user parameter when initializing. This is why the React Native SDK also requires that a user be provided at initialization.

You also linked to the React SDK as an example where the behavior differs. This is because of a feature we built into our JavaScript SDK where the SDK can automatically generate unique keys for anonymous users. We haven't carried this feature over to any other SDKs (other than the React SDK which is implemented as a wrapper around the JS SDK, similar to the relationship between the React Native SDK and the native iOS/Android SDKs). I believe that this is what your feature request is most about -- that you want the React Native SDK to automatically generate user keys when provided with a user of { anonymous: true }, rather than actually making the user attribute optional.

Can you confirm that this is what you're after? In the time until this feature request is addressed, you'll need to generate user keys in your own application code when initializing the SDK.

As for your follow-up comment, this does sound like a separate bug that can be investigated. The promise should definitely either resolve or be rejected in all cases.

Cheers,
@bwoskow-ld

[roryf]

@bwoskow-ld thanks for the detailed explanation, makes sense.

Can you confirm that this is what you're after?

Yes, passing { anonymous: true } and having key generated by the SDK would work fine.

[bwoskow-ld]

Understood, thanks. I filed a feature request for this on our backlog. It isn't a high priority at the moment, though, so I do recommend in the meantime that you continue to generate the user key in your application code before passing in fully constructed user object.

Filed internally as 130395.

[andrew-hm]

if you're using segment, their library generates anonymousId well that comply with Apple’s required privacy policies, maintains compatibility, and also enables correct tracking in situations where multiple people use the same device, since the UUID can be regenerated.

[roryf]

@andrew-hm thanks, we are using Segment and it's presented another issue where the anonymousId we generate for LD does not match the events Segment is sending which prevents experiments from showing any conversions. So we need to change this to use the Segment anonymousId anyway, which kinda makes this request redundant in our use case!

[shaddeen]

Any idea where this feature sits in your roadmap?

[gwhelanLD]

Hi @shaddeen,

We've just released 5.1.1 which should resolve this issue. The React Native SDK will automatically generate a key for for users when one is not provided and mark the user as anonymous as of this version. I'll close this issue now that we've added this support.

Hope this helps,
@gwhelanLD