DevRev SDK for React Native and Expo

DevRev SDK, used for integrating DevRev services into your React Native and Expo apps.

• DevRev SDK for React Native and Expo
  • Quickstart
    • Requirements
    • Installation
      • Expo
    • Set up the DevRev SDK
      • Update the feature configuration
      • Feature configuration reference
        • Support widget theme options
  • Features
    • Identification
      • Identify an unverified user
      • Identify a verified user
        • Generate an AAT
        • Exchange your AAT for a session token
        • Identify the verified user
      • Update the user
      • Logout
    • Identity model
      • Properties
        • User traits
        • Organization traits
        • Account traits
    • Support chat
      • Create a new support conversation
    • In-app link handling
    • In-app link callback
    • Dynamic theme configuration
    • Analytics
    • Session analytics
      • Opt in or out
      • Session recording
      • Session properties
      • Mask sensitive data
      • Mask elements inside web views
      • User interaction tracking
      • Timers
      • Capture errors
      • Track screens
      • Manage screen transitions (Android only)
    • Push notifications
      • Configuration
      • Register for push notifications
      • Unregister from push notifications
      • Handle push notifications
        • Android
        • iOS
  • Sample app (without framework)
  • Sample app (Expo)
  • Troubleshooting
    • ProGuard (Android only)
  • Migration Guide

Quickstart

Requirements

• React Native 0.79.0 or later.
• For Expo apps, Expo 50.0.0 or later.
• Android: minimum API level 24.
• iOS: minimum deployment target 15.1.

Installation

To install the DevRev SDK, run the following command:

npm install @devrev/sdk-react-native

Expo

1. To install the DevRev SDK, run the following command:

   npx expo install @devrev/sdk-react-native-expo-plugin
   

2. Configure the Expo config plugin in your app.json or app.config.js:

   {
     "expo": {
       "plugins": [
         "@devrev/sdk-react-native-expo-plugin"
       ]
     }
   }
   

3. Rebuild your app:

   npx expo prebuild --clean
   

Set up the DevRev SDK

1. Open the DevRev web app at https://app.devrev.ai and go to the Settings page.
2. Under PLuG settings copy the value under Your unique App ID.
3. Configure the DevRev SDK in your app using the obtained credentials.

[!WARNING] The DevRev SDK must be configured before you can use any of its features.

The SDK becomes ready for use once the configuration API is executed.

DevRev.configure(appID)

To provide a feature configuration during setup, call the overload that accepts it:

DevRev.configure(appID, featureConfiguration)

For default behavior, call the simpler form:

DevRev.configure('abcdefg12345')

To customize behavior such as frame capture, auto-start recording, or theme preferences, pass a full FeatureConfiguration object:

DevRev.configure('abcdefg12345', {
  enableFrameCapture: false,
  autoStartRecording: false,
  prefersDialogMode: false,
  alwaysUseRemoteConfig: true,
  supportWidgetTheme: {
    prefersSystemTheme: true,
  },
  enableSupportChatStreaming: true,
  supportWidgetArticleSearchFilters: articleSearchFilters,
});

Update the feature configuration

You can adjust the feature configuration without reconfiguring the SDK. Pass a full FeatureConfiguration object (all properties are required):

DevRev.updateFeatureConfiguration({
  enableFrameCapture: true,
  autoStartRecording: true,
  prefersDialogMode: false,
  alwaysUseRemoteConfig: true,
  supportWidgetTheme: {
    prefersSystemTheme: true,
  },
  enableSupportChatStreaming: true,
  supportWidgetArticleSearchFilters: articleSearchFilters,
});

Feature configuration reference

FeatureConfiguration controls how the SDK behaves both during initial setup and when calling DevRev.updateFeatureConfiguration(...). All properties are required when providing a feature configuration.

Support widget theme options

SupportWidgetTheme lets you fine-tune the support UI. Use the supportWidgetTheme property inside your feature configuration.

const customTheme = {
  prefersSystemTheme: false,
  primaryTextColor: '#1F2933',
  accentColor: '#F97316',
  spacing: {
    bottom: '20px',
    side: '16px',
  },
  conversationPageOptions: {
    headerText: 'Support',
    subheaderText: 'We typically reply in a few minutes',
  },
};

Conversation page options

ConversationPageOptions customizes the header strings shown on the support conversation page. Both fields are optional — when omitted, the server-configured defaults are used.

Features

Identification

To access certain features of the DevRev SDK, user identification is required.

The identification function should be placed appropriately in your app after the user logs in. If you have the user information available at app launch, call the function after the DevRev.configure(appID: string) method.

[!TIP] If you haven't previously identified the user, the DevRev SDK will automatically create an anonymous user for you immediately after the SDK is configured.

[!TIP] The Identity structure allows for custom fields in the user, organization, and account traits. These fields must be configured through the DevRev app before they can be used. For more information, refer to Object customization.

You can select from the following methods to identify users within your application:

Identify an unverified user

The unverified identification method identifies users with a unique identifier, but it does not verify their identity with the DevRev backend.

DevRev.identifyUnverifiedUser(userID: string, organizationID?: string)

Identify a verified user

The verified identification method is used to identify users with an identifier unique to your system within the DevRev platform. The verification is done through a token exchange process between you and the DevRev backend.

The steps to identify a verified user are as follows:

1. Generate an AAT for your system (preferably through your backend).
2. Exchange your AAT for a session token for each user of your system.
3. Pass the user identifier and the exchanged session token to the DevRev.identifyVerifiedUser(userID: string, sessionToken: string) method.

[!WARNING] For security reasons, it is strongly recommended that the token exchange is executed on your backend to prevent exposing your application access token (AAT).

Generate an AAT

1. Open the DevRev web app at https://app.devrev.ai and go to the Settings page.
2. Open the PLuG Tokens page.
3. Under the Application access tokens panel, click New token and copy the token that's displayed.

[!WARNING] Ensure that you copy the generated application access token, as you cannot view it again.

Exchange your AAT for a session token

To proceed with identifying the user, you need to exchange your AAT for a session token. This step helps you identify a user of your own system within the DevRev platform.

Here is a simple example of an API request to the DevRev backend to exchange your AAT for a session token:

[!WARNING] Make sure that you replace the <AAT> and <YOUR_USER_ID> with the actual values.

curl \
--location 'https://api.devrev.ai/auth-tokens.create' \
--header 'accept: application/json, text/plain, */*' \
--header 'content-type: application/json' \
--header 'authorization: <AAT>' \
--data '{
  "rev_info": {
    "user_ref": "<YOUR_USER_ID>"
  }
}'

The response of the API call contains a session token that you can use with the verified identification method in your app.

[!WARNING] As a good practice, your app should retrieve the exchanged session token from your backend at app launch or any relevant app lifecycle event.

Identify the verified user

Pass the user identifier and the exchanged session token to the verified identification method:

DevRev.identifyVerifiedUser(userID: string, sessionToken: string)

Update the user

You can update the user's information using the following method:

DevRev.updateUser(identity: Identity)

[!WARNING] The userID property cannot be updated.

Logout

You can logout of the current user by using the following method:

DevRev.logout(deviceID: string)

Identity model

The Identity interface is used to provide user, organization, and account information when identifying users or updating their details. This class is used primarily with the identifyUnverifiedUser and updateUser methods.

Properties

The Identity class contains the following properties:

[!NOTE] The custom fields properties defined as part of the user, organization and account traits, must be configured in the DevRev web app before they can be used. See Object customization for more information.

User traits

The UserTraits class contains detailed information about the user:

[!NOTE] All properties in UserTraits are optional.

Organization traits

The OrganizationTraits class contains detailed information about the organization:

[!NOTE] All properties in OrganizationTraits are optional.

Account traits

The AccountTraits class contains detailed information about the account:

[!NOTE] All properties in AccountTraits are optional.

Support chat

Once the user identification is complete, you can start using the chat (conversations) dialog supported by our DevRev SDK. The support chat feature can be shown as a modal screen from the top-most screen.

DevRev.showSupport()

Create a new support conversation

You can initiate a new support conversation directly from your app. This method displays the support chat screen and simultaneously creates a new conversation.

DevRev.createSupportConversation(prefillMessage?: string)

You can optionally pass a plain-text message to prefill the conversation input field:

DevRev.createSupportConversation('I need help with billing for order #12345')

In-app link handling

In certain cases, the links opened from the support chat are opened in the app instead of a browser. You can control whether the chat modal should be dismissed after the link is opened by calling the following method:

DevRev.setShouldDismissModalsOnOpenLink(value: boolean)

Setting this flag to true applies the system's default behavior for opening links, which includes dismissing any DevRev modal screens to facilitate handling your own deep links.

In-app link callback

[!TIP] This feature is supported only on Android.

For scenarios where custom handling is needed, links from the support chat can be captured with the following method:

DevRev.setInAppLinkHandler((url) => {
    // Perform an action here.
});

Dynamic theme configuration

The DevRev SDK allows you to configure the theme dynamically based on the system appearance, or use the theme configured on the DevRev portal. By default, the theme is dynamic and follows the system appearance.

DevRev.setPrefersSystemTheme(value: boolean)

Analytics

The DevRev SDK allows you to send custom analytic events by using a properties map. You can track these events using the following function:

DevRev.trackEvent(name: string, properties?: { [key: string]: string })

Session analytics

The DevRev SDK offers session analytics features to help you understand how users interact with your app.

Opt in or out

Session analytics features are opted-in by default, enabling them from the start. However, you can opt-out using the following method:

DevRev.stopAllMonitoring()

To opt back in, use the following method:

DevRev.resumeAllMonitoring()

Session recording

You can enable session recording to record user interactions with your app.

[!NOTE] The session recording feature is opt-out and is enabled by default.

The session recording feature includes the following methods to control the recording:

Session properties

You can add custom properties to the session recording to help you understand the context of the session. The properties are defined as a map of string values.

DevRev.addSessionProperties(properties: { [key: string]: string })

To clear the session properties in scenarios such as user logout or when the session ends, use the following method:

DevRev.clearSessionProperties()

Mask sensitive data

To protect sensitive data, the DevRev SDK provides an auto-masking feature that masks data before sending to the server. Input views such as password text fields are automatically masked.

While the auto-masking feature is sufficient for most situations, you can manually mark additional views as sensitive using the following method:

DevRev.markSensitiveViews(tags: any[])

If any previously masked views need to be unmasked, you can use the following method:

DevRev.unmarkSensitiveViews(tags: any[])

For example:

import * as DevRev from '@devrev/sdk-react-native';
import { View, Text, findNodeHandle } from "react-native";
import { useRef, useEffect } from "react";

const YourComponent = () => {
  const sensitiveViewRef = useRef(null);
  const insensitiveViewRef = useRef(null);

  useEffect(() => {
    // Mark sensitive view
    const sensitiveId = findNodeHandle(sensitiveViewRef.current);
    if (sensitiveId) {
      DevRev.markSensitiveViews([sensitiveId]);
    }

    // Unmark insensitive view
    const insensitiveId = findNodeHandle(insensitiveViewRef.current);
    if (insensitiveId) {
      DevRev.unmarkSensitiveViews([insensitiveId]);
    }
  }, []);

  return (
    <View>
      <View ref={sensitiveViewRef}>
        <Text>Sensitive content (masked in recordings)</Text>
      </View>
      <View ref={insensitiveViewRef}>
        <Text>Insensitive content (visible in recordings)</Text>
      </View>
    </View>
  );
};

export default YourComponent;

Mask elements inside web views

To mark elements as sensitive inside a web view (WebView), apply the devrev-mask CSS class. To unmark them, use devrev-unmask.

• Mark an element as masked:

  <label class="devrev-mask">OTP: 12345</label>
  

• Mark an element as unmasked:

  <input type="text" placeholder="Enter Username" name="username" required class="devrev-unmask">
  

User interaction tracking

The DevRev SDK automatically tracks user interactions such as taps, swipes, and scrolls. However, in some cases you may want to disable this tracking to prevent sensitive user actions from being recorded.

To temporarily disable user interaction tracking, use the following method:

DevRev.pauseUserInteractionTracking()

To resume user interaction tracking, use the following method:

DevRev.resumeUserInteractionTracking()

Timers

The DevRev SDK offers a timer mechanism to measure the time spent on specific tasks, allowing you to track events such as response time, loading time, or any other duration-based metrics.

The mechanism uses balanced start and stop methods, both of which accept a timer name and an optional dictionary of properties.

To start a timer, use the following method:

DevRev.startTimer(name: string, properties: { [key: string]: string })

To stop a timer, use the following method:

DevRev.endTimer(name: string, properties: { [key: string]: string })

Capture errors

You can report a handled error from a catch block using the captureError function.

This ensures that even if the error is handled in your app, it will still be logged for diagnostics.

DevRev.captureError(
    error: Error | string,
    tag: string
)

Example:

try {
} catch (error) {
    DevRev.captureError(
        error,
        'network-failure'
    );
}

Example with Error:

try {
    throw new Error('Something went wrong');
} catch (error) {
    DevRev.captureError(error, 'custom-error');
}

Track screens

The DevRev SDK offers automatic screen tracking to help you understand how users navigate through your app. Although screens are automatically tracked, you can manually track screens using the following method:

DevRev.trackScreenName(name: string)

Manage screen transitions (Android only)

The DevRev SDK allows tracking of screen transitions to understand the user navigation within your app. You can manually update the state using the following methods:

// Mark the transition as started.
DevRev.setInScreenTransitioning(true)

// Mark the transition as ended.
DevRev.setInScreenTransitioning(false)

Push notifications

You can configure your app to receive push notifications from the DevRev SDK. The SDK is able to handle push notifications and execute actions based on the notification's content.

The DevRev backend sends push notifications to your app to notify users about new messages in the support chat.

Configuration

To receive push notifications, you need to configure your DevRev organization by following the instructions in the push notifications section.

Register for push notifications

[!TIP] Push notifications require that the SDK has been configured and the user has been identified, to ensure delivery to the correct user.

The DevRev SDK offers a method to register your device for receiving push notifications. You can register for push notifications using the following method:

DevRev.registerDeviceToken(deviceToken: string, deviceID: string)

On Android devices, the deviceToken should be the Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) token value, while on iOS devices, it should be the Apple Push Notification service (APNs) token.

Unregister from push notifications

If your app no longer needs to receive push notifications, you can unregister the device.

Use the following method to unregister the device:

DevRev.unregisterDevice(deviceID: string)

The method requires the device identifier, which should be the same as the one used when registering the device.

Handle push notifications

Android

On Android, notifications are implemented as data messages to offer flexibility. However, this means that automatic click processing isn't available. To handle notification clicks, developers need to intercept the click event, extract the payload, and pass it to a designated method for processing. This custom approach enables tailored notification handling in Android applications.

To process the notification, use the following method:

DevRev.processPushNotification(payload: string)

Here, the message object from the notification payload needs to be passed to this function.

For example:

const notificationPayload = {
    // message may be nested based on the notification library
    "message": {
        // ... (the entire message object)
    }
};
const messageJson = notificationPayload["message"];
DevRev.processPushNotification(JSON.stringify(messageJson));

iOS

On iOS, the AppDelegate must be updated to intercept notification clicks and forward the payload to the SDK.

In didFinishLaunchingWithOptions, set the UNUserNotificationCenter delegate:

UNUserNotificationCenter.current().delegate = self

Implement userNotificationCenter(_:didReceive:) to pass the notification payload to the SDK:

func userNotificationCenter(
    _ center: UNUserNotificationCenter,
    didReceive response: UNNotificationResponse
) async {
    await DevRev.processPushNotification(
        response.notification.request.content.userInfo
    )
}

Sample app (without framework)

A sample app with use cases for the DevRev SDK for React Native has been provided as a part of our public repository. To set up and run the sample app, follow these steps:

1. Go to the sample directory:

   cd sample/react-native
   

2. Install the dependencies:

   yarn install
   

3. For iOS, run:

   pod install --project-directory=ios --repo-update
   

4. Start the React Native development server:

   npx react-native start
   

5. Run the app on Android using:

   npx react-native run-android
   

   or open the android directory in Android Studio and run the app from there.
6. Run the app on iOS using:

   npx react-native run-ios
   

   or open ios/DevRevSDKSampleRN.xcworkspace in Xcode and run the app from there.

Sample app (Expo)

A sample app with use cases for the DevRev SDK for Expo has been provided as a part of our public repository. To set up and run the sample app, follow these steps:

1. Go to the sample directory:

   cd sample/expo
   

2. Install the dependencies:

   yarn install
   

3. Run clean and prebuild:

   npx expo prebuild --clean
   

4. Run the app on Android using:

   npx expo run:android
   

   OR open the android directory in Android Studio and run the app.
5. Run the app on iOS:

   npx expo run:ios
   

   OR open ios/DevRevSDKSample.xcworkspace in Xcode and run the app.

Troubleshooting

• Issue: Support chat doesn't show. Solution: Ensure you have correctly called one of the identification methods: DevRev.identifyUnverifiedUser(...) or DevRev.identifyVerifiedUser(...).

• Issue: Not receiving push notifications. Solution: Ensure that your app is configured to receive push notifications and that your device is registered with the DevRev SDK.

ProGuard (Android only)

When trying to build your app for Android with ProGuard enabled, refer to these common issues and their solutions.

[!NOTE] You can always refer to the Android ProGuard documentation for more information.

• Issue: Missing class com.google.android.play.core.splitcompat.SplitCompatApplication. Solution: Add the following line to your proguard-rules.pro file:

  -dontwarn com.google.android.play.core.**
  

• Issue: Missing class issue due to transitive Flutter dependencies. Solution: Add the following lines to your proguard-rules.pro file:

  -keep class io.flutter.** { *; }
  -keep class io.flutter.plugins.** { *; }
  -keep class GeneratedPluginRegistrant { *; }
  

• Issue: Missing class org.s1f4j.impl.StaticLoggerBinder. Solution: Add the following line to your proguard-rules.pro file:

  -dontwarn org.slf4j.impl.StaticLoggerBinder
  

Migration Guide

If you are migrating from the legacy UserExperior SDK to the new DevRev SDK, please refer to the Migration Guide for detailed instructions and feature equivalence.