rtn-gimbal-airship-adapter

The Gimbal Airship Adapter is a React Native dependency that integrates Gimbal Place Event triggers with Airship Custom Events for React Native apps.

Resources

Installation

Prerequisites

In Gimbal Manager > Apps create an app for each iOS and Android. (For the purposes of differentiating between them in analytics, it helps to make the names and bundle/package IDs unique.) You can find your apps' API keys in the app detail view -- you will need these later.

Also ensure that you have an Airship project already set up, and note your app secret and keys.

This adapter is meant to work alongside an Airship dependency, which at the moment would be @ua/react-native-airship. The adapter primarily manages the creation and propagation of Airship CustomEvents and RegionEvents, but does not initialize Airship on its own.

If push notifications are required, ensure that you've performed the necessary steps required for your platform. For iOS, make sure to change the app bundle ID to one registered with push capabilities. For Android, change the application ID to one registered with Firebase and add the necessary configuration file to the project.

Creating Places

If you do not already have Gimbal Places set up in your organization, you can do so in Gimbal Manager > Places; there, add a new place by clicking the + New button towards the top of the page. On the next page, enter a place Name, then either define your place using a geofence or an activated Gimbal Beacon. If using a geofence, you may either select an address, or import a pre-defined geofence. If using a Gimbal Beacon that has not been activated, first do so using the instructions here.

Airship Configuration

See the documentation on Gimbal-Airship integrations here.

Add the plugin

npm install rtn-gimbal-airship-adapter

For iOS, after installing your dependencies you will also need to pod install from your ios directory.

Initialization

First, ensure that your Airship credentials are present in both the AirshipConfig.plist and airshipconfig.properties for iOS and Android respectively.

You can import and start the adapter as shown:

import { GimbalAirshipAdapter } from 'rtn-gimbal-airship-adapter';

GimbalAirshipAdapter.start(GIMBAL_API_KEY)

Where GIMBAL_API_KEY is your api key as obtained from Gimbal Manager. Please note that your iOS and Android apps are managed separately in Gimbal Manager and so will have separate API keys. If using the sample app, these keys must be provided in App.tsx.

Once the adapter is started, it will automatically resume its last state when the app is restarted, including if started in the background. The API key and the started status are persisted between app starts -- you only need to call start once.

Typically this will be called when the user has opted-in to a feature that benefits from location-triggered Airship notifications, after the appropriate permissions are granted by the user. It is also possible to call start before permissions are granted, but for Android, note that the first time that permissions are granted (after Gimbal is started), Gimbal may not request location updates from the OS until the next app restart.

Permissions

This Adapter does not make requests on behalf of the app, as location permission flow has gotten far too complex -- it can't presume to know how or when any particular app should make its requests. If granted, Gimbal will use fine, coarse and background location permissions, as well as Bluetooth scan permission, to be as location-aware as it can.

iOS

<key>NSBluetoothAlwaysUsageDescription</key>
  <string>Let this sample app trigger Gimbal beacon-based events</string>
  <key>NSLocationAlwaysAndWhenInUseUsageDescription</key>
  <string>Let this sample app trigger Gimbal location-based events</string>
  <key>NSLocationAlwaysUsageDescription</key>
  <string>Let this sample app trigger Gimbal location-based events</string>
  <key>NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription</key>
  <string>Let this sample app trigger Gimbal location-based events while the app is in use</string>
  <key>UIBackgroundModes</key>
  <array>
    <string>location</string>
    <string>processing</string> <!-- required by Airship -->
    <string>remote-notification</string> <!-- required for notifications -->
  </array>

Android

  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION" />

Event Tracking

The adapter can be configured to track Airship Events when Gimbal Place Events are triggered. This tracking can be enabled or disabled as shown:

  GimbalAirshipAdapter.setShouldTrackCustomEntryEvents(true);
  GimbalAirshipAdapter.setShouldTrackCustomExitEvents(true);
  GimbalAirshipAdapter.setShouldTrackRegionEvents(false);

By default, Airship CustomEvents are created upon Gimbal entry and exit events, while RegionEvents are disabled, as RegionEvents have been deprecated in favor of CustomEvents. Place entry events are tracked as gimbal_custom_entry_event and departure events are tracked as gimbal_custom_exit_event.

Each CustomEvent is populated with the following properties:

visitID - a UUID for the Gimbal Visit. This is common for the visit's entry and departure.
placeIdentifier - a UUID for the Gimbal Place
placeName - the human readable place name as entered in Gimbal Manager. Not necessarily unique!
source - always Gimbal
boundaryEvent - an enumeration of 1 for entry and 2 for exit/departure

If there are any Place Attributes key-value pairs (as set on the triggering place in Gimbal Manager) present on the place that triggered the event, they will also be added to the CustomEvent properties. They are prefixed with GMBL_PA_, e.g. DMA:825 becomes GMBL_PA_DMA:825.

For more information regarding Airship Custom Events, see the Airship Custom Event documentation.

Stopping the adapter

  GimbalAirshipAdapter.stop();