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In-app content blocks

Display native in-app content blocks based on definitions set up in Engagement using the Android SDK

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In-app content blocks provide a way to display campaigns within your mobile applications that seamlessly blend with the overall app design. Unlike in-app messages that appear as overlays or pop-ups demanding immediate attention, in-app content blocks display inline with the app's existing content.

You can strategically position placeholders for in-app content blocks within your app. You can customize the behavior and presentation to meet your specific requirements.

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Refer to the In-app content blocks user guide for instructions on how to create in-app content blocks in Engagement.

In-app content blocks in the example app

Integration of a placeholder view

You can integrate in-app content blocks by adding one or more placeholder views in your app. Each in-app content block must have a Placeholder ID specified in its settings in Engagement. The SDK will display an in-app content block in the corresponding placeholder in the app if the current app user matches the target audience. In-app content block is shown until user interacts with it or placeholder view instance is reloaded programmatically.

Add a placeholder view

Get a placeholder view for the specified placeholderId from the API using the getInAppContentBlocksPlaceholder method:

val placeholderView = Exponea.getInAppContentBlocksPlaceholder("example_content_block", activityContext)

Then, place the placeholder view at the desired location by adding it to your layout:

yourLayout.addView(placeholderView)

After the SDK initializes, it will identify any in-app content blocks with matching placeholder ID and select the one with the highest priority to display within the placeholder view.

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Refer to InAppContentBlocksFragment in the example app for a reference implementation.

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Always us descriptive, human-readable placeholder IDs. They are tracked as an event property and can be used for analytics within Engagement.

Integration of a carousel view

If you want to show multiple in-app content blocks to the user for the same Placeholder ID, consider using ContentBlockCarouselView. The SDK will display the in-app content blocks for the current app user in a loop, in order of Priority. The in-app content blocks are displayed in a loop until the user interacts with them or until the carousel view instance is reloaded programmatically.

If the carousel view's placeholder ID only matches a single in-app content block, it will behave like a static placeholder view with no loop effect.

Add a carousel view

Get a carousel view for the specified placeholderId from the API using the getInAppContentBlocksCarousel method:

val carouselView = Exponea.getInAppContentBlocksCarousel(
        context = activityContext,
        placeholderId = "example_content_block",
        maxMessagesCount = 5,  // max count of visible content blocks; 0 for show all; default value is 0
        scrollDelay = 5 // delay in seconds between automatic scroll; 0 for no scroll; default value is 3
)

Then, place the placeholder view at the desired location by adding it to your layout:

yourLayout.addView(carouselView)

Or you may add the carousel view directly into your layout XML:

<com.exponea.sdk.view.ContentBlockCarouselView
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        app:placeholderId="example_carousel"
        app:maxMessagesCount="5"
        app:scrollDelay="5"
        />

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Refer to InAppContentBlocksFragment and fragment_inapp_content_blocks.xml in the example app for a reference implementation.

👍

Always us descriptive, human-readable placeholder IDs. They are tracked as an event property and can be used for analytics within Engagement.

Tracking

The SDK automatically tracks banner events for in-app content blocks with the following values for the action event property:

  • show
    In-app content block has been displayed to user.
    Event is tracked everytime if Placeholder view is used. Carousel view tracks this event only if content block is shown for first time after reload (once per rotation cycle).
  • action
    User clicked on action button inside in-app content block. The event also contains the corresponding text and link properties.
  • close
    User clicked on close button inside in-app content block.
  • error
    Displaying in-app content block failed. The event contains an error property with an error message.

❗️

The behavior of in-app content block tracking may be affected by the tracking consent feature, which in enabled mode requires explicit consent for tracking. Refer to the consent documentation documentation for details.

Customization

Prefetch in-app content blocks

The SDK can only display an in-app content block after it has been fully loaded (including its content, any images, and its height). Therefore, the in-app content block may only show in the app after a delay.

You may prefetch in-app content blocks for specific placeholders to make them display as soon as possible.

val configuration = ExponeaConfiguration(
    // your configuration goes here
)
configuration.inAppContentBlockPlaceholdersAutoLoad = listOf("placeholder_1", "placeholder_2", ...)
Exponea.init(App.instance, configuration)

Defer in-app content blocks loading

Placing multiple placeholders on the same screen may have a negative impact on performance. We recommend only loading in-app content blocks that are visible to the user, especially for large scrollable screens using RecyclerView.

To add a placeholder to your layout but defer loading of the corresponding in-app content block, enable deferredLoad in its InAppContentBlockPlaceholderConfiguration.

The example below shows how to load the in-app content block in the onBindViewHolder method, however, you can call refreshContent() whenever it is appropriate (for example, after a 'shimmer' animation).

override fun onCreateViewHolder(parent: ViewGroup, viewType: Int): ViewHolder {
    ...
    var placeholderView = Exponea.getInAppContentBlocksPlaceholder(
        PLACEHOLDER_ID_1,
        parent.context,
        InAppContentBlockPlaceholderConfiguration(
            defferedLoad = true
        )
    )
    return ViewHolder(placeholderView)
}
override fun onBindViewHolder(holder: ViewHolder, position: Int) {
    // do nothing, content will load itself OR refresh content:
    (holder.itemView as InAppContentBlockPlaceholderView).refreshContent()
}

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Carousel view has deferred loading set automatically and cannot be changed.

Display in-app content block in placeholder view after content has loaded

You may want to render your app's UI differently depending on whether an in-app content block is available. For example, your layout may depend on the exact dimensions of the in-app content block, which are only known once it has been loaded.

In such use cases you can use the setOnContentReadyListener callback on the placeholder view to get notified when an in-app content block has been successfully loaded or no content was found.

val placeholderView = Exponea.getInAppContentBlocksPlaceholder("placeholder_1", activityContext)
placeholderView?.let {
    it.setOnContentReadyListener { contentLoaded ->
        if (contentLoaded) {
            // you now know the exact dimensions for the loaded content block
            Logger.i(this, "InApp CB has dimens width ${it.width}px height ${it.height}px")
        } else {
            // you can hide this view because no in-app content block is available right now
            it.visibility = View.GONE
        }
    }
}

Customize action behavior for placeholder view

When an in-app content block action (show, click, close, error) is performed, by default, the SDK tracks the appropriate event and, in case of a button click, opens a link.

You can override or customize this behavior by setting behaviorCallback on the InAppContentBlockPlaceholderView object.

The callback behavior object must implement InAppContentBlockCallback. The example below calls the original (default) behavior. This is recommended but not required.

val placeholderView = Exponea.getInAppContentBlocksPlaceholder(
        "placeholder_1",
        activityContext,
        // it is recommended to postpone message load if `onMessageShown` usage is crucial for you
        // due to cached messages so message could be shown before you set `behaviourCallback`
        InAppContentBlockPlaceholderConfiguration(true)
)
// you can access original callback and invokes it anytime
val origBehaviour = placeholderView.behaviourCallback

placeholderView.behaviourCallback = object : InAppContentBlockCallback {
    override fun onMessageShown(placeholderId: String, contentBlock: InAppContentBlock) {
        origBehaviour.onMessageShown(placeholderId, contentBlock)   // tracks 'show'
        Logger.i(this, "Content block with HTML: ${contentBlock.htmlContent}")
        // you may set this placeholder visible
    }
    override fun onNoMessageFound(placeholderId: String) {
        origBehaviour.onNoMessageFound(placeholderId)   // just log
        // you may set this placeholder hidden
    }
    override fun onError(placeholderId: String, contentBlock: InAppContentBlock?, errorMessage: String) {
        if (contentBlock == null) {
            return
        }
        // !!! invoke origBehaviour.onError to track 'error' or call it yourself
        Exponea.trackInAppContentBlockError(
                placeholderId, contentBlock, errorMessage
        )
        // you may set this placeholder hidden and do any fallback
    }
    override fun onCloseClicked(placeholderId: String, contentBlock: InAppContentBlock) {
        // !!! invoke origBehaviour.onCloseClicked to track 'close' or call it yourself
        Exponea.trackInAppContentBlockClose(placeholderId, contentBlock)
        // placeholder may show another content block if is assigned to placeholder ID
    }
    override fun onActionClicked(placeholderId: String, contentBlock: InAppContentBlock, action: InAppContentBlockAction) {
        // content block action has to be tracked for 'click' event
        Exponea.trackInAppContentBlockAction(
                placeholderId, action, contentBlock
        )
        // content block action has to be handled for given `action.url`
        handleUrlByYourApp(action.url)
    }
}

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Refer to InAppContentBlocksFragment in the example app for a reference implementation.

Override button action type in HTML message

The SDK automatically processes button action URLs as follows:

  • If the URL starts with http or https, the action type is set to browser.
  • In all other cases, the action type is set to deep-link.

It's possible to override this behavior by explicitly specifying the optional attribute data-actiontype with one of the following values:

  • browser - web URL, to be opened in a browser
  • deep-link - custom URL scheme or Universal Link, to be processed by the app accordingly

You can do this in the HTML builder by inserting the data-actiontype attribute as in the example below:

<div class="bee-block bee-block-4 bee-button">
   <div data-link="https://example.com" data-actiontype="browser" style="font-size: 14px; background-color: #f84cac; border-bottom: 0px solid transparent; border-left: 0px solid transparent; border-radius: 4px; border-right: 0px solid transparent; border-top: 0px solid transparent; color: #ffffff; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; font-weight: 700; max-width: 100%; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 18px; padding-right: 18px; padding-top: 4px; width: auto; display: inline-block;" class="bee-button-content"><span style="word-break: break-word; font-size: 14px; line-height: 200%;">Action</span></div>
</div>

The SDK also supports the data-actiontype attribute in <a> elements for compatibility with the Visual builder:

<div class="bee-block bee-block-4 bee-button">
   <a data-link="https://example.com" data-actiontype="deep-link">Click me</a>
</div>

In the Visual builder, you can set the action type as follows:

  1. In the preview, select the button you want to override the action type for
  2. In the editor on the right side, scroll down to the Attributes section
  3. Click on ADD NEW ATTRIBUTE
  4. Select data-actiontype
  5. Insert a value (either browser or deep-link)

Screenshot

Handle carousel presentation status

If you need to access additional information about content blocks displayed in a carousel, you can use the following methods:

// returns complete InAppContentBlock structure of shown content block or null
val blockName = carouselView.getShownContentBlock()?.name
// returns zero-base index of shown content block or -1 for empty list
val index = carouselView.getShownIndex()
// returns count of content blocks available for user
val count = carouselView.getShownCount()

You can register a behaviourCallback to a carousel view instance to retrieve information for each update and change behaviour by setting the trackActions and overrideDefaultBehavior flags.

  • trackActions
    • If false, events "close" and "click" on banners won't be tracked by the SDK. Events "show" and "error" are tracked regardless from this flag.
    • If true, events "close" and "click" are tracked by the SDK.
    • Default behaviour is as with value true, all events are tracked by the SDK
  • overrideDefaultBehavior
    • If true, deep-links and universal links won't be opened by SDK. This does not affect tracking behaviour.
    • If false, deep-links and universal links will be opened by SDK.
    • Default behaviour is as with value false, action links are opened by SDK.

The callback behavior object must implement ContentBlockCarouselCallback. 

carouselView.behaviourCallback = object : ContentBlockCarouselCallback {
    // If overrideDefaultBehavior is set to true, default action will not be performed (deep link, universal link, etc.)
    override val overrideDefaultBehavior = false
    // If trackActions is set to false, click and close in-app content block events will not be tracked automatically
    override val trackActions = true
    
    override fun onMessageShown(placeholderId: String, contentBlock: InAppContentBlock, index: Int, count: Int) {
        // This is triggered on each scroll so 'contentBlock' parameter represents currently shown content block,
        // so as 'index' represents position index of currently shown content block 
    }
    override fun onMessagesChanged(count: Int, messages: List<InAppContentBlock>) {
        // This is triggered after 'reload' or if a content block is removed because interaction has been done
        // and message has to be shown until interaction.
    }
    override fun onNoMessageFound(placeholderId: String) {
        // This is triggered after `reload` when no content block has been found for a given placeholder.
    }
    override fun onError(placeholderId: String, contentBlock: InAppContentBlock?, errorMessage: String) {
        // This is triggered when an error occurs while loading or showing of content block.
        // Parameter `contentBlock` is the content block which caused the error or null in case of general problem.
        // Parameter `errorMessage` is the error message that describes the problem.
    }
    override fun onCloseClicked(placeholderId: String, contentBlock: InAppContentBlock) {
        // This is triggered when a content block is closed.
    }
    override fun onActionClicked(
        placeholderId: String,
        contentBlock: InAppContentBlock,
        action: InAppContentBlockAction
    ) {
        // This is triggered when a content block action is clicked.
        // Parameter `action` contains the action information.
    }
}

Customize presentation of placeholder view

If the default UI presentation of the placeholder view doesn't fit the UX design of your app, you can create a View element that wraps the existing InAppContentBlockPlaceholderView instance.

The exact implementation will depend on your use case but should, in general, have the following four elements:

  1. Create a CustomView class. In its constructor, prepare an InAppContentBlockPlaceholderView instance with deferred loading enabled and add it to your layout so it's on the same View lifecycle:
class CustomView : FrameLayout {

    private lateinit var placeholderView: InAppContentBlockPlaceholderView

    constructor(context: Context) : super(context) {
        placeholderView = Exponea.getInAppContentBlocksPlaceholder(
                "placeholder_1",
                context,
                InAppContentBlockPlaceholderConfiguration(true)
        ) ?: return
        overrideBehaviour(placeholderView)
        addView(placeholderView, LayoutParams(ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, ViewGroup.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT))
        placeholderView.refreshContent()
    }
}
  1. Add an overrideBehaviour method in your CustomView class. Inside the method, set behaviourCallback and implement InAppContentBlockCallback with the desired behavior:
private fun overrideBehaviour(placeholderView: InAppContentBlockPlaceholderView) {
    val originalBehavior = placeholderView.behaviourCallback
    placeholderView.behaviourCallback = object : InAppContentBlockCallback {
        override fun onMessageShown(placeholderId: String, contentBlock: InAppContentBlock) {
            // Calling originalBehavior tracks 'show' event and opens URL
            originalBehavior.onMessageShown(placeholderId, contentBlock)
            showMessage(contentBlock)
        }

        override fun onNoMessageFound(placeholderId: String) {
            showNoMessage()
        }

        override fun onError(placeholderId: String, contentBlock: InAppContentBlock?, errorMessage: String) {
            // Calling originalBehavior tracks 'error' event
            originalBehavior.onError(placeholderId, contentBlock, errorMessage)
            showError()
        }

        override fun onCloseClicked(placeholderId: String, contentBlock: InAppContentBlock) {
            // Calling originalBehavior tracks 'close' event
            originalBehavior.onCloseClicked(placeholderId, contentBlock)
            hideMe()
        }

        override fun onActionClicked(placeholderId: String, contentBlock: InAppContentBlock, action: InAppContentBlockAction) {
            // Calling originalBehavior tracks 'click' event
            originalBehavior.onActionClicked(placeholderId, contentBlock, action)
        }
    }
}

/**
 * Update your customized content.
 * This method could be called multiple times for every content block update, especially in case that multiple messages are assigned to given "placeholder_1" ID
 */
fun showMessage(data: InAppContentBlock) {
    //...
}
  1. Invoke invokeActionClick on the placeholder view manually. For example, if your CustomView contains a Button that is registered with View.OnClickListener and is calling a method onMyActionClick:
fun onMyActionClick(url: String) {
    placeholderView.invokeActionClick(url)
}

Your CustomView will now receive all in-app content block data.

❗️

Ensure that the InAppContentBlockPlaceholderView instance is added to the Layout. It could be hidden but it relies on the attachToWindow lifecycle to be able to refresh content on a data update. Otherwise, you have to invoke refreshContent() manually after invokeActionClick().

Customize carousel view filtration and sorting

A carousel view filters available content blocks in the same way as a placeholder view:

  • The content block must meet the Schedule setting configured in the Engagement web app
  • The content block must meet the Display setting configured in the Engagement web app
  • The content must be valid and supported by the SDK

The order in which content blocks are displayed is determined by:

  1. By the Priority setting, descending
  2. By the Name, ascending (alphabetically)

You can implement additional filtration and sorting by registering your own contentBlockSelector on the carousel view instance:

carouselView.contentBlockSelector = object : ContentBlockSelector() {
    // if you want keep default filtration, do not override this method
    override fun filterContentBlocks(source: List<InAppContentBlock>): List<InAppContentBlock> {
        // you can add your own filtration, for example ignore any item named "Carousel 3"
        return super.filter { it.name != "Carousel 3" }
    }
    // if you want to keep default sort, do not override this method
    override fun sortContentBlocks(source: List<InAppContentBlock>): List<InAppContentBlock> {
        // you can still invoke default/super implementation
        return super.sortContentBlocks(source)
                // and/or bring your own sorting, for example reverse default sorting result
                .asReversed()
    }
}

❗️

A carousel view accepts the results from the filtration and sorting implementations. Ensure that you return all wanted items as result from your implementations to avoid any missing items.

❗️

A carousel view can be configured with maxMessagesCount. Any value higher than zero applies a maximum number of content blocks displayed, independently of the number of results from filtration and sorting methods. So if you return 10 items from filtration and sorting method but maxMessagesCount is set to 5 then only first 5 items from your results.

Troubleshooting

This section provides helpful pointers for troubleshooting in-app content blocks issues.

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Enable verbose logging

The SDK logs a lot of information in verbose mode while loading in-app content blocks. When troubleshooting in-app content block issues, first ensure to set the SDK's log level to VERBOSE.

In-app content block not displayed

  • The SDK can only display an in-app content block after it has been fully loaded (including its content, any images, and its height). Therefore, the in-app content block may only show in the app after a delay.
  • Always ensure that the placeholder IDs in the in-app content block configuration (in the Engagement web app) and in your mobile app match.

In-app content block shows incorrect image

  • To reduce the number of API calls and fetching time of in-app content blocks, the SDK caches the images contained in content blocks. Once the SDK downloads an image, an image with the same URL may not be downloaded again. If a content block contains a new image with the same URL as a previously used image, the previous image is displayed since it was already cached. For this reason, we recommend always using different URLs for different images.

Log messages

While troubleshooting in-app content block issues, you can find useful information in the messages logged by the SDK at verbose log level. Look for messages similar to the ones below:

  1. InAppCB: Placeholder ["placeholder"] has invalid state - action or message is invalid.

    Data for the message is empty. Try to call .refreshContent() method over InAppContentBlockPlaceholderView or .reload() method over ContentBlockCarouselView.

  2. [HTML] Unknown action URL: ["url"]

    Invalid action URL. Verify the URL for the content block in the Engagement web app.

  3. InAppCB: Manual action ["actionUrl"] invoked on placeholder ["placeholder"]

    This log message informs you which action/URL was called.

  4. Invoking InApp Content Block action 'actionName'

    Everything is set up correctly.

Updated 2 months ago