building-an-extension.md

Building an extension

Prerequisites to building an extension

Before you build an extension, complete the following tasks:

• Ensure that you are using the Adobe Experience Platform SDKs.

  Extensions extend the behavior of these SDKs.

• Ensure that you can accomplish your goals only by using an extension.

  To determine your goals, think about the following questions:

  • Do you need access to data that is not already exposed via the Adobe Experience Platform SDKs?
  • Do you need to be notified when messages will be sent, or data is being collected by the Adobe Experience Platform SDKs?
  • Do you need to add data to or modify data for outgoing messages?
  • Do you need to expose data to other extensions or to rules processing?

  If your answer to any of these questions is yes, build the extension.

• Ensure that you are using Objective-C on iOS or Java on Android.

  Extensions for iOS can currently only be built using Objective-C, and extensions on Android can currently only be built using Java.

• Ensure that you have already included the Adobe Experience Platform SDKs in your project.

Implementing an Adobe Experience Platform SDK extension

To create a simple extension, complete the following procedures in the order in which they are listed:

A. Create an extension class

The ACPExtension(iOS) or Extension (Android) class is the base class from which extensions must be derived. The init method (iOS) or the base constructor (Android) of your extension class is where you can extend the Adobe Experience Platform SDKs functionality by registering event listeners or by setting a default shared state that other modules can access.

Android

The Extension class has the following method that you must override:

• getName, which returns the name of the extension.

  Extension developers must prefix their extension names with the company name (for example, com.myCompany.myExtension). For more information about the naming constraints, see Namespace Conventions. The name that you use to register cannot conflict with other registered extensions or Adobe internal modules.

The name that you use to register cannot conflict with other registered extensions or Adobe internal modules. The extension name is considered case insensitive by the Mobile SDK.

Tip: All Adobe module names are prefixed with com.adobe.module and are considered reserved.

The Extension class has the following methods that you can optionally override and a member that provides access to the Event Hub:

• getVersion, which returns a version string for your extension. The version string is only used for logging and is currently not validated for formatting.
• onUnregistered, which allows your extension to complete the cleanup that is required when the Adobe Experience Platform SDK unregisters your extension. Unregistration typically happens when you shutdown the app, but it can also occur when an extension is behaving badly. Examples of the extension behaving badly include taking too long to handle a callback or throwing an exception.
• onUnexpectedError, which allows you log additional information when the Adobe Experience Platform SDK encounters an error that could not be returned immediately from a call into the Adobe Experience Platform SDK. An example is an exception that is thrown on a worker thread. The exceptions are rare after your extension has been correctly implemented, but the exceptions might occur during development.
• getApi , allows the extension developer to interact with the Event Hub to register event listeners, manage shared state, and so on. This method can be used at any time after the extension registration is complete. It may also be used by your listeners by calling super.getParentExtension().getApi().

Tip: The Extension class provides access to the ExtensionApi interface through the getApi member.

Android code example

import com.adobe.marketing.mobile.*;
class MyExtension extends Extension {

    public MyExtension(final ExtensionApi extensionApi) {
        super(extensionApi);
    }

    @Override
    public String getName() {
        return "my.company.com";
    }

    @Override
    public void onUnregistered() {
        // this method will be called when the extension is unregistered from the 
        // Event Hub in order for you to perform the necessary cleanup
    }
}

iOS

The ACPExtension class has the following method that you must override:

• name, which returns the name of the extension.
  Extension developers must prefix their extension names with the company name (for example, com.myCompany.myExtension). For more information about the naming constraints, see Namespace Conventions. The name that you use to register cannot conflict with other registered extensions or Adobe internal modules.

  Tip: All Adobe module names are prefixed with com.adobe.module and are considered reserved.

The ACPExtension class has the following methods that you can optionally override and a member that provides access to the Event Hub:

• version, which returns a version string for your extension. The version string is only used for logging and is currently not validated for formatting.

• onUnregister, which allows your extension to complete the cleanup that is required when the Adobe Experience Platform SDK unregisters your extension. Unregistration typically happens at app shutdown but can also occur when an extension is behaving badly. Examples of the extension behaving badly include taking too long to handle a callback or throwing an exception.

• unexpectedError, which allows you log additional information when the Adobe Experience Platform SDKs encounter an error that could not be returned immediately from a call into the SDK. An example is an exception that is thrown on a worker thread. The exceptions are rare after your extension has been correctly implemented, but the exceptions might occur during development.

• api , allows the extension developer to interact with the Event Hub to register event listeners, manage shared state, and so on.

  This method can be used at any time during or after init has been called on your extension. It may also be used by your listeners by using the extension member.

Tip: The ACPExtension class provides access to the ACPExtensionApi interface through the API member.

iOS code example

1. In Xcode, create a new file from the Cocoa Touch Class template and save it in your project.
2. Name this class MyExtension and ensure that this class is a member of ACPExtension.

Tip: In the example below, the methods that are available for overriding are displayed.

MyExtension.h

#import "ACPExtension.h"

@interface MyExtension : ACPExtension
- (nullable NSString*) name;
- (nullable NSString*) version;
- (void) unexpectedError: (nonnull NSError*) error;
- (void) onUnregister;
@end

1. Provide at least an implementation for the init and name methods.

MyExtension.m

#import "MyExtension.h"

@implementation MyExtension
- (nullable NSString*) name {
    return @"com.myCompany.myExtension";
}

- (instancetype) init {
    if (self = [super init]) {
        // register your listeners here
    }

    return self;
}
@end

1. If you decide to override the init method, call the default implementation of onUnregister.

- (void) onUnregister {
    [super onUnregister];
    // your cleanup code goes here
}

1. Review the error message that was logged by the default implementation of unexpectedError.

- (void) unexpectedError:(NSError *)error {
    [super unexpectedError];
     // your error handling code goes here
}

B. Registering your extension

After creating your extension class, you can register it by using the ACPCore (iOS) or MobileCore (Android) method registerExtension. During registration, the extension class that you passed will be used by the Adobe Experience Platform SDKs to create an instance of your extension that will be retained until your extension is unregistered.

Tip: Registration can be completed any time after the app is launched.

{% tabs %} {% tab title="Android" %}

Android

A convenient place to register your extension on Android is in the onCreate method of your activity.

{% hint style="info" %} Some registration errors, such as sending a null extension class as parameter, are synchronous and occur immediately. Other errors like undefined names, name conflicts, or type checking issues, might occur asynchronously and are reported through the onUnexpectedError callback before the extension is unregistered. {% endhint %}

import com.adobe.marketing.mobile.MobileCore;
import com.adobe.marketing.mobile.ExtensionError;
import com.adobe.marketing.mobile.ExtensionErrorCallback;
...
@Override
public void onCreate() {
    super.onCreate();
    MobileCore.setApplication(this);

    ExtensionErrorCallback<ExtensionError> errorCallback = new ExtensionErrorCallback<ExtensionError>() {
        @Override
        public void error(final ExtensionError extensionError) {
            Log.e("Extensions", String.format("An error occurred while registering the MyCustomExtension %d %s", extensionError.getErrorCode(), extensionError.getErrorName()));
            }
        };
    if (!MobileCore.registerExtension(MyCustomExtension.class, errorCallback)) {
        Log.e("Extensions", "Failed to register the MyCustomExtension extension");
    }

    ...
    MobileCore.start(null);
}

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="Objective-C" %}

iOS

A convenient place to register your extension on iOS is in your AppDelegate's application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: method.

{% hint style="info" %} Some registration errors, such as undefined names, name conflicts, or type checking issues, occur immediately. Other errors might occur asynchronously and are reported through the unexpectedError callback before the extension is unregistered. {% endhint %}

#import "ACPCore.h"
#import "MyExtension.h"

@implementation AppDelegate

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
    NSError *error = nil;
    if ([ACPCore registerExtension:[MyExtension class] error:&error]) {
        NSLog(@"MyExtension was registered");
    } else {
        NSLog(@"Error registering MyExtension: %@ %d", [error domain], (int)[error code]);
    }

    ... // register other extensions
    [ACPCore start:^{
        dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
            // SDK was initialized
         });
    }];
    return YES;
}

@end

{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}

C. Unregistering your extension

If your extension does not need to be active at all times, you can unregister your extension by using unregisterExtension from the ACPExtensionApi (iOS) / ExtensionApi (Android). This process allows you to have more granular resource control, but the listeners that you registered will be unregistered. If you overrode onUnregister, you should see a call into your implementation that allows you to clean up resources before the instance is released.

Tip: If you retained a reference to the extension instance (for example by storing self or this in a static variable), this is where you should clean it up.

{% tabs %} {% tab title="Android" %}

Example

getApi().unregisterExtension();

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="Objective-C" %}

Example

[self.api unregisterExtension];

{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}