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Getting Started with the OpenFeature Java SDK and Spring Boot

Introduction​

This walk-through teaches you the basics of using OpenFeature in Java in the context of a Spring Boot Web application.

You'll learn how to:

  • Integrate the OpenFeature Java SDK
  • Install and configure the OpenFeature provider
  • Perform basic feature flagging

Requirements​

This walk-through assumes that:

  • You have a basic knowledge of Java and Spring Boot
  • You have Java 8 or later
  • You have Docker installed and running on the host system

Walk-through​

Step 1: Create a Spring Boot Web application​

To get started, visit Spring Initializer. This website allows you to download a pre-configured Spring boot application.

For our use case, add Spring Web from the dependencies section and set the following project metadata values,

  • Group: com
  • Artifact: demo

Select a Java version matching your installation and download the application using the GENERATE button. Extract the archive and open it in your favorite editor.

Step 2: Add dependencies​

Based on the selected build system for Spring Boot application, add OpenFeature Java SDK and flagd provider dependencies to existing dependency management configuration.

Given below are dependencies for Maven and Gradle with the latest dependency versions at the time of writing this walk-through.

<dependency>
    <groupId>dev.openfeature</groupId>
    <artifactId>sdk</artifactId>
    <version>1.0.0</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>dev.openfeature.contrib.providers</groupId>
    <artifactId>flagd</artifactId>
    <version>0.5.2</version>
</dependency>

Step 3: Add code​

The OpenFeatureAPI class is the main access point to OpenFeature SDK. This class is designed to act as a singleton. Let's define a simple bean configuration class called OpenFeatureBeans, that allows us to inject the OpenFeatureAPI singleton into desired Spring components.

Create the Java class OpenFeatureBeans.java inside the package com.demo and add the following code,

package com.demo;

import dev.openfeature.sdk.OpenFeatureAPI;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;

@Configuration
public class OpenFeatureBeans {

    @Bean
    public OpenFeatureAPI OpenFeatureAPI() {
        final OpenFeatureAPI openFeatureAPI = OpenFeatureAPI.getInstance();

        return openFeatureAPI;
    }
}

Then we can add the REST endpoint definition of /hello endpoint, along with dependency injection for OpenFeatureAPI instance.

Create the Java class RestHello.java inside the package com.demo and add the following code.

package com.demo;

import dev.openfeature.sdk.Client;
import dev.openfeature.sdk.OpenFeatureAPI;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;

@RestController
public class RestHello {
    private final OpenFeatureAPI openFeatureAPI;

    @Autowired
    public RestHello(OpenFeatureAPI OFApi) {
        this.openFeatureAPI = OFApi;
    }
    
    @GetMapping("/hello")
    public String getHello() {
        final Client client = openFeatureAPI.getClient();

        // Evaluate welcome-message feature flag
        if (client.getBooleanValue("welcome-message", false)) {
            return "Hello, welcome to this OpenFeature-enabled website!";
        }

        return "Hello!";
    }
}

At this point, we are ready to run the initial version of our application.

Step 4: Run the initial application​

Let's compile and run the application.

mvn clean install
java -jar target/demo-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar

Now you can visit the url http://localhost:8080/hello and observe the message Hello!.

"Why I'm I seeing that value?", you may ask. Well, it's because a provider hasn't been configured yet. Without a provider to actually evaluate flags, OpenFeature will return the default value. In the next step, you'll learn how to add a provider.

Step 5: Configure a provider (flagd)​

Providers are an important concept in OpenFeature because they are responsible for the flag evaluation itself. As we saw in the previous step, OpenFeature without a provider always returns the default value. If we want to actually perform feature flagging, we'll need to register a provider.

Create a new file named flags.json and add the following JSON. Notice that there's a flag called welcome-message which matches the flag key referenced earlier. The welcome-message flag has on and off variants that return true and false respectively. The state property controls whether the feature flag is active or not. Finally, the defaultVariant property controls the variant that should be returned. In this case, the defaultVariant is off, therefore the value false would be returned.

{
  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/open-feature/schemas/main/json/flagd-definitions.json",
  "flags": {
    "welcome-message": {
      "variants": {
        "on": true,
        "off": false
      },
      "state": "ENABLED",
      "defaultVariant": "off"
    }
  }
}

NOTE: This configuration is specific for flagd and varies across providers.

With the flagd configuration in place, start flagd service with the following docker command.

docker run -p 8013:8013 -v $(pwd)/:/etc/flagd/ -it ghcr.io/open-feature/flagd:latest start --uri file:/etc/flagd/flags.json

Finally, let's add the required code change to OpenFeatureBeans.java class.

package com.demo;

+ import dev.openfeature.contrib.providers.flagd.FlagdProvider;
import dev.openfeature.sdk.OpenFeatureAPI;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;

@Configuration
public class OpenFeatureBeans {

    @Bean
    public OpenFeatureAPI OpenFeatureAPI() {
        final OpenFeatureAPI openFeatureAPI = OpenFeatureAPI.getInstance();
        
+        // Use flagd as the OpenFeature provider and use default configurations
+        openFeatureAPI.setProvider(new FlagdProvider());

        return openFeatureAPI;
    }
}

Step 6: Rerun the application​

Let's rerun our Java Spring Boot application.

mvn clean install
java -jar target/demo-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar

Revisit the endpoint http://localhost:8080/hello and you will see the same value.

Let's change the feature flag in our flags.json, making defaultVariant to on

{
  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/open-feature/schemas/main/json/flagd-definitions.json",
  "flags": {
    "welcome-message": {
      "variants": {
        "on": true,
        "off": false
      },
      "state": "ENABLED",
-      "defaultVariant": "off"
+      "defaultVariant": "on"
    }
  }
}

Revisit the endpoint http://localhost:8080/hello and you will be greeted with Hello, welcome to this OpenFeature-enabled website!

Conclusion​

This walk-through introduced you to the OpenFeature Java SDK and how it can be easily integrated into well-known frameworks such as Spring Boot. It covered how a provider can be configured to perform the flag evaluation and introduced basic feature flagging concepts. It also showcased how feature flags can be updated at runtime, without requiring a code change and a redeployment.