# Feature Engagement
The Feature Engagement component provides a client-side backend for displaying
feature enlightenment or in-product help (IPH) with a clean and easy to use API
to be consumed by the UI frontend. The backend behaves as a black box and takes
input about user behavior. Whenever the frontend gives a trigger signal that
in-product help could be displayed, the backend will provide an answer to
whether it is appropriate to show it or not.
[TOC]
## Objectives
We often add new features, but some are hard to find. Both new and old features
could benefit from being surfaced for users that we believe would be the ones
who benefit the most. This has lead to the effort of providing direct in-product
help to our end users that should be extremely context aware to maximize the
value of the new information.
Conceptually one could implement tracking whether In-Product Help should be
displayed or not through a single preference for whether it has been shown
before. However, that leads to a few issues that this component tries to solve:
* Make showing In-Product Help context aware.
* If a user is continuously using a feature, there is no reason for Chrome
to display In-Product Help for it.
* Other events might be required to have happened first that would make it
more likely that the end user would be surprised and delighted when the
In-Product Help in fact does show up.
* Example: Having seen the Chrome offline dino 10 times the last week,
the user might be happier if they are informed that they can
download web pages exactly as a page successfully loads.
* Tackle interactions between different In-Product Help features.
* If other In-Product Help has been shown within the current session, we
might not want to show a different one.
* Whether we have shown a particular In-Product Help or not might be a
precondition for whether we should show different one.
* Users should be able to try out a feature on their own for some time before
they see help.
* We should show In-Product Help only if they don't seem to use it, but we
believe it would be helpful to them.
* Share the same statistics framework across all of Chrome.
* Sharing a framework within Chrome makes it easier to track statistics
and share queries about In-Product Help in a common way.
* Make it simpler to add new In-Product Help for developers, but still
enabling them to have a complex decision tree for when to show it.
## Overview
Each In-Product Help is called a feature in this documentation. Every feature
will have a few important things that are tracked, particularly whether the
in-product help has been displayed, whether the feature the IPH highlights has
been used and whether any required preconditions have been met. All of these are
tracked within **daily buckets**. This tracking is done only **locally on the
device** itself.
The client-side backend is feature agnostic and has no special logic for any
specific features, but instead provides a generic API and uses a special
configuration format to control how often IPH should be shown for end users. The
configuration provides thresholds in the experiment params and compare these
numbers to the local state and can be specified either on the client side, or on
the server side.
Whenever the triggering condition for possibly showing IPH happens, the frontend
asks the backend whether it should display the IPH. The backend then compares
the current local state with the experiment params to see if they are within the
given thresholds. If they are, the frontend is informed that it should display
the IPH. The backend does not display any UI.
To ensure that there are not multiple IPHs displayed at the same time, the
frontend also needs to inform the backend whenever the IPH has been dismissed.
In addition, since each feature might have preconditions that must be met within
the time window configured for the experiment, the frontend needs to inform the
backend whenever such events happen.
To ensure that it is possible to use whether a feature has been used or not as
input to the algorithm to decide whether to show IPH and for tracking purposes,
the frontend needs to inform whenever the feature has been used.
Lastly, some preconditions might require something to never have happened. The
first time a user has an IPH available, that will typically be true, since the
event just started being tracked so no interactions have been recorded yet. E.g.
if a precondition is "the user has never opened the menu", and this has not been
tracked before, the number of times that we have so far recorded that the
user has opened the menu is 0, even if that is a common action for the user.
Therefore, the framework supports requiring the IPH to have been available for a
certain amount of days before being applicable. With the opening of menu
scenario described above, we can configure the IPH to only be valid after the
IPH has been available for at least `N=14` days, before we say that the user has
never opened the menu.
The backend will track all the state in-memory and flush it to disk when
necessary to ensure the data is consistent across restarts of the application.
The time window for how long this data is stored is configurable per IPH.
All of the local tracking of data will happen per Chrome user profile.
## Developing a new In-Product Help Feature
You need to do the following things to enable your feature, all described in
detail below.
* [Declare your feature](#Declaring-your-feature) and make it available to the
`feature_engagement::Tracker`.
* [Start using the `feature_engagement::Tracker` class](#Using-the-feature_engagement_Tracker)
by notifying about events, and checking whether In-Product Help should be
displayed.
* [Configure UMA](#Required-UMA-Changes).
* [Add a field trial configuration](#field-trial-configuration).
### Declaring your feature
#### Naming
You need to create a `base::Feature` that represents your In-Product Help
feature, that enables the whole feature to be controlled server side. The name
of the constant should be of the form:
1. `kIPH` prefix
1. Your unique CamelCased name, for example `GoatTeleportation`.
1. `Feature` suffix.
The example listed above would end up as `kIPHGoatTeleportationFeature`.
The name member of the `base::Feature` struct should match the constant name,
and be on the form:
1. `IPH_` prefix
1. Your unique CamelCased name, for example `GoatTeleportation`.
#### Required Code Changes
There are also a few more places where the feature should be added, so overall
you would have to add it to the following places:
1. `//components/feature_engagement/public/feature_constants.cc`:
To find the option that fits best for your use case, please read the section
[Configuring when to show in-product help](#Configuring-when-to-show-in-product-help)
below. The section explains when to use client side, server side, or a mix
of client side and server side configuration, and guidance on whether the
feature should be enabled or disabled by default.
For features configured only on the client side:
```c++
BASE_FEATURE(kIPHGoatTeleportationFeature, "IPH_GoatTeleportation",
base::FEATURE_ENABLED_BY_DEFAULT);
```
For features configured only on the server side:
```c++
BASE_FEATURE(kIPHGoatTeleportationFeature, "IPH_GoatTeleportation",
base::FEATURE_DISABLED_BY_DEFAULT);
```
1. `//components/feature_engagement/public/feature_constants.h`:
```c++
BASE_DECLARE_FEATURE(kIPHGoatTeleportationFeature);
```
1. `//components/feature_engagement/public/feature_list.cc`:
* Add to `const base::Feature* kAllFeatures[]`.
1. `//components/feature_engagement/public/feature_list.h`:
* `DEFINE_VARIATION_PARAM(kIPHGoatTeleportationFeature,
"IPH_GoatTeleportation");`
* `VARIATION_ENTRY(kIPHGoatTeleportationFeature)`
If the feature will also be used from Java, also add it to:
`org.chromium.components.feature_engagement.FeatureConstants` as a `String`
constant.
#### Required UMA Changes
To enable UMA tracking, you need to make the following changes to the metrics
configuration:
1. Add feature to the histogram variant `IPHFeature` in:
`//tools/metrics/histograms/metadata/feature_engagement/histograms.xml`.
* The variant name must match the `base::Feature` `name` member of your
feature.
2. Add feature to the actions file at: `//tools/metrics/actions/actions.xml`.
* The suffix must match the `base::Feature` `name` member with `IPH_`
stripped.
* Find the `<action-suffix>` entry at the end of the file, where the
following `<affected-action>`s are listed:
* `InProductHelp.NotifyEvent.IPH`
* `InProductHelp.NotifyUsedEvent.IPH`
* `InProductHelp.ShouldTriggerHelpUI.IPH`
* `InProductHelp.ShouldTriggerHelpUIResult.NotTriggered.IPH`
* `InProductHelp.ShouldTriggerHelpUIResult.Triggered.IPH`
* `InProductHelp.ShouldTriggerHelpUIResult.WouldHaveTriggered.IPH`
* Add an alphebetically sorted entry to the list of `<suffix>`es like:
`<suffix name="GoatTeleportationFeature" label="For goat teleportation
feature."/>`
### Using the feature_engagement::Tracker
To retrieve the `feature_engagement::Tracker` you need to use your platform
specific way for how to retrieve a `KeyedService`. For example for desktop
platforms and Android, you can use the `feature_engagement::TrackerFactory` in
`//chrome/browser/feature_engagement/tracker_factory.h` to retrieve it from the
`Profile` or `BrowserContext`:
```c++
feature_engagement::Tracker* tracker =
feature_engagement::TrackerFactory::GetForBrowserContext(profile);
```
That service can be first of all used to notify the backend about events:
```c++
tracker->NotifyEvent("your_event_name");
```
In addition, it can tell you whether it is a good time to trigger the help UI:
```c++
bool trigger_help_ui =
tracker->ShouldTriggerHelpUI(feature_engagement::kIPHGoatTeleportationFeature);
if (trigger_help_ui) {
// Show IPH UI.
}
```
If `feature_engagement::Tracker::ShouldTriggerHelpUI` returns `true`, you must
display the In-Product Help, as it will be tracked as if you showed it. In
addition you are required to inform when the feature has been dismissed:
```c++
tracker->Dismissed(feature_engagement::kIPHGoatTeleportationFeature);
```
#### Inspecting whether IPH has already been triggered for a feature
Sometimes additional tracking is required to figure out if in-product help for a
particular feature should be shown, and sometimes this is costly. If the
in-product help has already been shown for that feature, it might not be
necessary any more to do the additional tracking of state.
To check if the triggering condition has already been fulfilled (i.e. can not
currently be triggered again), you can call:
```c++
// TriggerState is { HAS_BEEN_DISPLAYED, HAS_NOT_BEEN_DISPLAYED, NOT_READY }.
Tracker::TriggerState trigger_state =
GetTriggerState(feature_engagement::kIPHGoatTeleportationFeature);
```
Inspecting this state requires the Tracker to already have been initialized,
else `NOT_READY` is always returned. See `IsInitialized()` and
`AddOnInitializedCallback(...)` for how to ensure the call to this is delayed.
##### A note about TriggerState naming
Typically, the `FeatureConfig` (see below) for any particular in-product help
requires the configuration for `event_trigger` to have a comparator value of
`==0`, i.e. that it is a requirement that the particular in-product help has
never been shown within the search window. The values of the `TriggerState` enum
reflects this typical usage, whereas technically, this is the correct
interpretation of the states:
* `HAS_BEEN_DISPLAYED`: `event_trigger` condition is NOT met and in-product
help will not be displayed if `Tracker` is asked.
* `HAS_NOT_BEEN_DISPLAYED`: `event_trigger` condition is met and in-product
help might be displayed if `Tracker` is asked.
* `NOT_READY`: `Tracker` not fully initialized yet, so it is unable to inspect
the state.
#### Inspecting whether IPH would have been triggered for a feature
Another way to check the internal state of the `Tracker` is to invoke
`feature_engagement::Tracker::WouldTriggerHelpUI` which is basically the same as
invoking `feature_engagement::Tracker::ShouldTriggerHelpUI`, but being allowed
to ignore the state. It is still required to invoke
`feature_engagement::Tracker::ShouldTriggerHelpUI` if in-product help should be
shown.
> **WARNING: It is not guaranteed that invoking `ShouldTriggerHelpUI(...)` after
> this would yield the same result.** The state might change in-between the
> calls because time has passed, other events might have been triggered, and
> other state might have changed.
## Configuring when to show in-product help
To ensure that your in-product help triggers at the right time, you need to
configure what the constraints are for showing. There are two ways of doing
this: (1) Using a [client side configuration](#client-side-configuration), or
(2) using a [field trial configuration](#field-trial-configuration). It is also
possible to use a [mix of both (1) and (2)](#mixed-configuration).
Please read both sections below to figure out what fits your use-case best.
### Client side configuration
Using client side configuration is a quick and easy approach to getting your IPH
configured in a consistent way.
The client side configuration enables you to check in the configuration, and
this configuration lives in
[`feature_engagement::GetClientSideFeatureConfig`][GetClientSideFeatureConfig].
The format of this configuration is the same as when using a field trial, but is
written in C++ instead of JSON. See
[Configuration Format](#configuration-format) below for details.
A client side feature configuration is merely used as a default configuration.
It is possible to override any client side feature configuration using field
trial configuration. See [Field trial configuration](#field-trial-configuration)
below for details.
#### Enabled or disabled by default
When using client side configuration, you should define your `base::Feature` as
`base::FEATURE_ENABLED_BY_DEFAULT`, since otherwise you will not be able to see
the IPH. If you check in a client side configuration and enable the feature by
default, you are done.
If you leave it disabled by default, you can still use these options to enable
it:
* Use [demo mode](#demo-mode) described below.
* Use a command line flag to manually enable the feature, e.g.:
```sh
chrome --enable-features=IPH_GoatTeleportationFeature
```
* Use a field trial configuration to enable the feature, either using a
configuration on the server side or a
[command line field trial configuration](#Manual-testing-using-field-trial-configurations)
(advanced).
As an example for when leaving an IPH disabled by default could be helpful,
imagine that your feature uses one main feature flag in addition to multiple IPH
feature flags. You can still check in all the configuration locally, but leave
the main feature flag and the IPHs off by default. This enables you to use a
field trial to turn the IPHs on at the same time as your main feature flag. This
could potentially help some features in two ways:
1. They do not need to guard invocations of `ShouldTriggerHelpUI(...)` for each
IPH with their main feature flag, possibly leading to simpler code if the
IPH related code is spread around in the code base.
1. They can control when data collection starts for the IPHs.
### Field trial configuration
Using field trial configuration enables you to A/B test the IPH itself, e.g.
whether it is worth it to have an IPH for a particular feature or not.
The field trial configuration support is built into Chrome and supports both
[local testing][field-trial-testing-configuration], and server side
configuration. The configuration is written using JSON and the format is
[described here](#configuration-format).
There are two things required to display an in-product help feature using this
approach:
1. Enable the feature by any means, typically by adding your IPH feature to the
`enable_features` list, and doing the same thing when using a server side
configuration.
1. Specify a configuration for when to display in-product help.
To ensure you test your feature with what you are planning to ship, it is
required to also configure the expected launch configuration as the main testing
configuration. Basically this requires you to add a new section to
`//testing/variations/fieldtrial_testing_config.json` for your feature. The
format is described in the documentation linked above, but it will probably look
something like this:
```javascript
{
"GoatTeleportationFeatureStudy": [
{
"platforms": ["android"],
"experiments": [
{
"name": "GoatTeleportationFeatureLaunchConfig",
"params": {
"availability": ">=30",
"session_rate": "<1",
"event_used": "name:fun_event_happened;comparator:any;window:360;storage:360",
"event_trigger": "name:fun_feature_iph_triggered;comparator:any;window:360;storage:360",
"event_1": "name:related_fun_thing_happened;comparator:>=1;window:360;storage:360"
},
"enable_features": ["IPH_GoatTeleportationFeature"],
"disable_features": []
}
]
}
],
...
}
```
When using a server side configuration, it is suggested to define the
`base::Feature` as `base::FEATURE_DISABLED_BY_DEFAULT`, since there is no
default configuration available.
### Mixed configuration
When having an active field trial configuration in the fieldtrial_testing_config.json, it will override any configuration declared on the client side (default configuration). However it is still possible to test out the default client configuration by enabling the flag `IPH Use Client Config` from `chrome://flags`.
## Demo mode
The feature_engagement::Tracker supports a special demo mode, which enables a
developer or testers to see how the UI looks like without using other more
complicated configurations or even going through a particular complicated
scenario.
The demo mode behaves differently than the code used in production where a
client side or server side configuration is used. Instead, it has only a few
rules:
* Event model must be ready (happens early).
* No other features must be showing at the moment.
* The given feature must not have been shown before in the current session.
This basically leads to each selected IPH feature to be displayed once. The
triggering condition code path must of course be triggered to display the IPH.
How to select a feature or features is described below.
### Enabling all In-Product Help features in demo-mode
1. Go to chrome://flags
1. Find "In-Product Help Demo Mode" (#in-product-help-demo-mode-choice)
1. Select "Enabled"
1. Restart Chrome
### Enabling a single In-Product Help feature in demo-mode
1. Go to chrome://flags
1. Find “In-Product Help Demo Mode” (#in-product-help-demo-mode-choice)
1. Select the feature you want with the "Enabled " prefix, for example for
`IPH_GoatTeleportationFeature` you would select:
* Enabled IPH_GoatTeleportationFeature
1. Restart Chrome
## Feature Grouping
Sometimes, it's desirable to have one list of rules apply to many different
features. For example, you may have a set of 3 similar features and want to
show one to the user each week. Each feature can declare itself part of one
or more groups. Groups have their own extra configuration, and then when a
feature is checked, all the group configuration properties are checked as
well. Thus, for a feature to show, its own configuration and all of its
groups' configurations must be met. Effectively, the strictest set of rules
will apply.
## Configuration Format
Each In-Product Help feature must have its own feature configuration
[FeatureConfig](#FeatureConfig), which has 4 required configuration items that
must be set, and then there can be an arbitrary number of additional
preconditions (but typically on the order of 0-5).
The data types are listed below.
### FeatureConfig
Format:
```
{
"availability": "{Comparator}",
"session_rate": "{Comparator}",
"session_rate_impact": "{SessionRateImpact}",
"blocked_by": "{BlockedBy}",
"blocking": "{Blocking}",
"event_used": "{EventConfig}",
"event_trigger": "{EventConfig}",
"event_???": "{EventConfig}",
"snooze_params": "{SnoozeParams}"
"tracking_only": "{Boolean}"
"groups": {GroupList},
"x_???": "..."
}
```
Alternate format:
```
{
"IPH_GoatTeleportationFeature_availability": "{Comparator}",
"IPH_GoatTeleportationFeature_session_rate": "{Comparator}",
"IPH_GoatTeleportationFeature_session_rate_impact": "{SessionRateImpact}",
"IPH_GoatTeleportationFeature_blocked_by": "{BlockedBy}",
"IPH_GoatTeleportationFeature_blocking": "{Blocking}",
"IPH_GoatTeleportationFeature_event_used": "{EventConfig}",
"IPH_GoatTeleportationFeature_event_trigger": "{EventConfig}",
"IPH_GoatTeleportationFeature_event_???": "{EventConfig}",
"IPH_GoatTeleportationFeature_tracking_only": "{Boolean}"
"IPH_GoatTeleportationFeature_x_???": "..."
}
```
The `FeatureConfig` fields `availability`, `session_rate`, `event_used` and
`event_trigger` are required, and there can be an arbitrary amount of other
`event_???` entries. The fields can optionally have a feature name prefix (e.g.
`IPH_GoatTeleportationFeature_`) as well, which is sometimes required to
disambiguate between param names between different IPHs if they are combined
into the same field trial.
* `availability` __REQUIRED__
* For how long must an in-product help experiment have been available to
the end user.
* The value of the `Comparator` is in a number of days.
* See [Comparator](#Comparator) below for details.
* `session_rate` __REQUIRED__
* How many other in-product help have been displayed within the current
end user session.
* The value of the `Comparator` is a count of total In-Product Help
displayed in the current end user session.
* See [Comparator](#Comparator) below for details.
* `session_rate_impact`
* Which other in-product help features showing the current IPH impacts.
* By default, a feature impacts every other feature.
* Defaults to `all`.
* See [SessionRateImpact](#SessionRateImpact) below for details.
* `blocked_by`
* Which other in-product help features the current IPH is blocked by.
* By default, a feature is blocked by any other feature.
* Defaults to `all`.
* See [BlockedBy](#BlockedBy) below for details.
* `blocking`
* Which other in-product help features showing the current IPH blocks.
* By default, a feature blocks every other feature.
* Defaults to `all`.
* See [Blocking](#Blocking) below for details.
* `event_used` __REQUIRED__
* Relates to what the in-product help wants to highlight, i.e. teach the
user about and increase usage of.
* This is typically recorded during the action that the In-Product Help
should stimulate usage of.
* Special UMA is tracked for this.
* See [EventConfig](#EventConfig) below for details.
* `event_trigger` __REQUIRED__
* Relates to the times in-product help is triggered.
* Automatically increments when the in-product help is triggered.
* Special UMA is tracked for this.
* See [EventConfig](#EventConfig) below for details.
* `event_???`
* Similar to the other `event_` items, but for all other preconditions
that must have been met.
* Name must match `/^event_[a-zA-Z0-9-_]+$/` and not be `event_used` or
`event_trigger`.
* See [EventConfig](#EventConfig) below for details.
* `snooze_params`
* Enabled snooze capability for in-product help bubbles.
* By default, an in-product help is not snoozable and is dismissed until triggered again.
* See [SnoozeParams](#SnoozeParams) below for details.
* `groups`
* List of groups this feature is part of.
* The feature will be subject to all items from its groups' configurations.
* See [GroupList](#GroupList) below for details.
* `tracking_only`
* Set to true if in-product help should never trigger.
* Tracker::ShouldTriggerHelpUI(...) will always return false, but if all
other conditions are met, it will still be recorded as having been shown
in the internal database and through UMA.
* This is meant to be used by either local tests or for comparisons
between different experiment groups.
* If you want to later transition users with this flag set to `true` to in
fact display in-product help, you might want to use a different
`EventConfig::name` for the `event_trigger` configuration than the
non-tracking configuration.
* Defaults to `false`.
* See [Boolean](#Boolean) below for details.
* `x_???`
* Any parameter starting with `x_` is ignored by the feature engagement
tracker.
* A typical use case for this would be if there are multiple experiments
for the same in-product help, and you want to specify different strings
to use in each of them, such as:
```
"x_promo_string": "IDS_GOATTELEPORTATION_PROMO_2"
```
* Failing to use an `x_`-prefix for parameters unrelated to the
`FeatureConfig` will end up being recorded as `FAILURE_UNKNOWN_KEY` in
the `InProductHelp.Config.ParsingEvent` histogram.
**Examples**
Trigger the IPH once every 4 months if the `download_completed` event has
triggered at least one time and the `download_home_iph_trigger` (download home
IPH) hasn't triggered in the last 90 days. The feature needs to have been
available for more than a month and no other IPH has been shown for the current
session.
The event we are trying to increase the usage of is `download_home_opened` and
is allowed to have previously happened for the IPH to trigger.
```
{
"availability": ">=30",
"session_rate": "<1",
"event_used": "name:download_home_opened;comparator:any;window:90;storage:360",
"event_trigger": "name:download_home_iph_trigger;comparator:==0;window:90;storage:360",
"event_1": "name:download_completed;comparator:>=1;window:120;storage:180"
}
```
Trigger the IPH once per week, up to 3 times per year as long as the user
hasn't triggered `shopping_list_track_price_from_menu`. The IPH should be ready
to trigger as long as no other IPH has been shown.
```
{
"availability": ">=0",
"session_rate": "<1",
"event_used": "name:shopping_list_track_price_from_menu;comparator:==0;window:360;storage:360",
"event_trigger": "name:shopping_list_menu_item_iph_triggered;comparator:==0;window:7;storage:7",
"event_trigger_1": "name:shopping_list_menu_item_iph_triggered;comparator:<3;window:360;storage:360"
}
```
### EventConfig
Format:
`name:{std::string};comparator:{COMPARATOR};window:{uint32_t};storage:{uint32_t}`
The EventConfig is a semi-colon separate data structure with 4 key-value pairs,
all described below:
* `name`
* The name (unique identifier) of the event.
* Must match what is used in client side code.
* Must only contain alphanumeric, dash and underscore.
* Specifically must match this regex: `/^[a-zA-Z0-9-_]+$/`
* Value client side data type: std::string
* `comparator`
* The comparator for the event. See [Comparator](#Comparator) below.
* `window`
* Search for this occurrences of the event within this window.
* The value must be given as a number of days.
* For value N, the following holds:
* `0` Nothing should be counted.
* `1` |current_day| should be counted.
* `2+` |current_day| plus |N-1| more days should be counted.
* Value client side data type: uint32_t
* `storage`
* Store client side data related to events for this event minimum this
long.
* The value must be given as a number of days.
* For value N, the following holds:
* `0` Nothing should be stored.
* `1` |current_day| should be stored.
* `2+` |current_day| plus |N-1| more days should be stored.
* The value should not exceed 10 years (3650 days, see `kMaxStoragePeriod`).
* Value client side data type: uint32_t
* Whenever a particular event is used by multiple features, the maximum
value of all `storage` is used as the storage window.
**Examples**
The user_opened_app_menu event hasn't triggered in the last two weeks. Keep
existing events for 90 days.
```
name:user_opened_app_menu;comparator:==0;window:14;storage:90
```
The user_has_seen_dino event has occurred at least 5 times in the last 30 days.
Keep existing events for about a year.
```
name:user_has_seen_dino;comparator:>=5;window:30;storage:360
```
The user_has_seen_wifi event has occurred at least once in the last 30 days.
Keep existing events for 6 months.
```
name:user_has_seen_wifi;comparator:>=1;window:30;storage:180
```
### Comparator
Format: `{COMPARATOR}[value]`
The following comparators are allowed:
* `<` less than
* `>` greater than
* `<=` less than or equal
* `>=` greater than or equal
* `==` equal
* `!=` not equal
* `any` always true (no value allowed)
Other than `any`, all comparators require a value.
**Examples**
```
>=10
==0
any
<15
```
### Boolean
Format: `[true|false]`
The following values are allowed:
* `true`
* `false`
The value must be quoted (like all the other values).
**Examples**
```
true
false
TRUE
FALSE
True
False
```
### SessionRateImpact
Format: `[all|none|comma-separated list]`
* `all` means this feature impacts every other feature regarding their
`session_rate` calculations. This is the default.
* `none` means that this feature does not impact any other features regarding
the `session_rate`. This feature may therefore be shown an unlimited amount
of times, without making other features go over their `session_rate` config.
* `[comma-separated list]` means that this feature only impacts the particular
features listed. Use the `base::Feature` name of the feature in the list.
For features in the list, this feature will affect their `session_rate`
conditions, and for features not in the list, this feature will not affect
their `session_rate` calculations.
* It is *NOT* valid to use the feature names `all` or `none`. They must
only be used alone with no comma, at which point they work as described
above.
**Examples**
```
all
none
IPH_DownloadHome
IPH_DownloadPage,IPH_DownloadHome
```
### BlockedBy
Format: `[all|none|comma-separated list]`
* `all` means this feature is blocked by any other feature that is currently
showing. This is the default.
* `none` means that this feature is not blocked by any other features. This
feature may therefore be shown unrestricted by the currently showing features.
* `[comma-separated list]` means that this feature is only blocked by the
particular
features listed. Use the `base::Feature` name of the feature in the list.
* It is *NOT* valid to use the feature names `all` or `none`. They must
only be used alone with no comma, at which point they work as described
above.
**Examples**
```
all
none
IPH_DownloadHome
IPH_DownloadPage,IPH_DownloadHome
```
### Blocking
Format: `[all|none]`
* `all` means this feature blocks every other feature regarding their
`IsBlocked` calculations. This is the default.
* `none` means that this feature does not block any other features regarding
the `IsBlocked` calculation.
**Examples**
```
all
none
```
### SnoozeParams
Format: `max_limit:{uint32_t},snooze_interval:{uint32_t}`
The SnoozeParams is a comma separated data structure with the following two key-value pairs described below:
* `max_limit`
* The maximum amount of times an IPH bubble is shown to the client before being force dismissed.
* The value must be given as a number of recurrence.
* If `N = 0`, the IPH bubble will be dismissed after the first occurrence.
* If `N = 1`, the IPH bubble will be dismissed after the 2nd occurrence.
* Value client side data type: uint32_t
* `snooze_interval`
* The interval between when the client snoozes the IPH bubble and when the IPH is elligible to be shown to the client again.
* The value must be given as a number of days.
* If `N=1`, the IPH bubble will not be shown again to the client in the next 1 day (24 hours).
* Value client side data type: uint32_t
**Examples**
The IPH bubble will be force dismissed after 2 snoozes, which means it will be shown to the client exactly 3 times. The IPH bubble will be shown no less then 4 days apart.
```
max_limit:2,snooze_interval:4
```
### GroupList
Format: `[comma-separated list]`
This is a comma-separated list of group names that this feature is part of.
### GroupConfig
The `GroupConfig` fields `session_rate` and `event_trigger` are required, and
there can be an arbitrary amount of other `event_???` entries. Like features,
the group fields can also have an optional name prefix.
```
{
"session_rate": "{Comparator}",
"event_trigger": "{EventConfig}",
"event_???": "{EventConfig}",
"x_???": "..."
}
```
* `session_rate` __REQUIRED__
* Similar to the [FeatureConfig](#FeatureConfig) field of the same name.
* The count of total In-Product Help displayed in the current end user session must
meet all session rates: the base feature's and those of any of its groups.
* `event_trigger` __REQUIRED__
* Similar to the [FeatureConfig](#FeatureConfig) field of the same name.
* Automatically increments whenever any feature in this group is triggered.
* `event_???`
* Similar to the [FeatureConfig](#FeatureConfig) field of the same name.
**Examples**
There are 2 features that trigger once per month each. The overarching group causes
only one of the 2 to trigger every week.
```
DownloadHomeIPH: {
"availability": ">=30",
"session_rate": "<1",
"event_used": "name:download_home_opened;comparator:any;window:90;storage:360",
"event_trigger": "name:download_home_iph_trigger;comparator:==0;window:30;storage:30",
"groups": "DownloadGroup",
}
DownloadCustomIPH: {
"availability": ">=30",
"session_rate": "<1",
"event_used": "name:download_custom_opened;comparator:any;window:90;storage:360",
"event_trigger": "name:download_custom_iph_trigger;comparator:==0;window:30;storage:30",
"groups": "DownloadGroup",
}
DownloadGroup: {
"session_rate": "<1",
"event_trigger": "name:download_group_trigger;comparator:==0;window:7;storage:30",
}
```
### Manual testing using field trial configurations
Usually, the options for testing IPHs provided in
[Configuring when to show in-product help](#Configuring-when-to-show-in-product-help)
are enough for most features. However, if you need to manually test your feature
and want to test the whole flow from parsing field trial parameters to enabling
your feature, the steps for this are described below.
It is possible to test the whole backend from parsing the configuration, to
ensuring that help triggers at the correct time. To do that you need to provide
a JSON configuration file, that is then parsed to become command line arguments
for Chrome, and after that you can start Chrome and verify that it behaves
correctly.
1. Create a file which describes the configuration you are planning on testing
with, and store it. In the following example, store the file
`DownloadStudy.json`:
```javascript
{
"DownloadStudy": [
{
"platforms": ["android"],
"experiments": [
{
"name": "DownloadExperiment",
"params": {
"availability": ">=30",
"session_rate": "<1",
"event_used": "name:download_home_opened;comparator:any;window:90;storage:360",
"event_trigger": "name:download_home_iph_trigger;comparator:any;window:90;storage:360",
"event_1": "name:download_completed;comparator:>=1;window:120;storage:180"
},
"enable_features": ["IPH_DownloadHome"],
"disable_features": []
}
]
}
]
}
```
1. Use the field trial utility to convert the JSON configuration to command
line arguments:
```bash
python ./tools/variations/fieldtrial_util.py DownloadStudy.json android shell_cmd
```
1. Pass the command line along to the binary you are planning on running.
Note: For Android you need to ensure that all arguments are are within one
set of double quotes. In particular, for the Android target
`chrome_public_apk` it would be:
```bash
./out/Debug/bin/chrome_public_apk run --args "--force-fieldtrials=DownloadStudy/DownloadExperiment --force-fieldtrial-params=DownloadStudy.DownloadExperiment:availability/>=30/event_1/name%3Adownload_completed;comparator%3A>=1;window%3A120;storage%3A180/event_trigger/name%3Adownload_home_iph_trigger;comparator%3Aany;window%3A90;storage%3A360/event_used/name%3Adownload_home_opened;comparator%3Aany;window%3A90;storage%3A360/session_rate/<1 --enable-features=IPH_DownloadHome<DownloadStudy"
```
### Printf debugging
Several parts of the feature engagement tracker has some debug logging
available. To see if the current checked in code covers your needs, try starting
a debug build of chrome with the following command line arguments:
```bash
--vmodule=tracker_impl*=2,event_model_impl*=2,persistent_availability_store*=2,chrome_variations_configuration*=3
```
## Automated External Testing (Tast)
If you want to restrict the IPH that can show when launching Chrome as an
external process as part of a test, use the `--propagate-iph-for-testing`
switch:
* `chrome --propagate-iph-for-testing`
- disables all IPH
* `chrome --propagate-iph-for-testing=IPH_GoatTeleportationFeature,IPH_FlyingCowFeature`
- disables all IPH except for "IPH_GoatTeleportationFeature" and
"IPH_FlyingCowFeature".
## Development of `//components/feature_engagement`
### Testing
To compile and run tests, assuming the product out directory is `out/Debug`,
use:
```bash
ninja -C out/Debug components_unittests ;
./out/Debug/components_unittests \
--test-launcher-filter-file=components/feature_engagement/components_unittests.filter
```
When adding new test suites, also remember to add the suite to the filter file:
`//components/feature_engagement/components_unittests.filter`.
## In-product Help Analysis Guideline
See
[this doc](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EhQe3G9juBiw-otuRnGf5gzTsfHZVZiSKrgF6r7Sz4E/edit#heading=h.la5fs7q2klme)
## Example
Let's image you want to add an in-product help to increase the use of the "Save
password" infobar. The in-product help will be shown at most once per year, when
the user is shown an infobar, if the user ignored the infobar 3 times in the
past 60 days and accepted it less than 2 times in the past two years.
The configuration will look like this:
```
{
"availability": ">=0",
"session_rate": "<1",
"event_used": "name:password_infobar_accepted;comparator:<=2;window:720;storage:720",
"event_trigger": "name:password_infobar_iph_trigger;comparator:==0;window:360;storage:360",
"event_1": "name:password_infobar_ignored;comparator:>=3;window:60;storage:60"
}
```
In `//components/feature_engagement/public/feature_constants.h`:
```c++
BASE_DECLARE_FEATURE(kIPHPasswordInfobarFeature);
```
In `//components/feature_engagement/public/event_constants.h`
```c++
extern const char kPasswordInfobarIgnored[]; // "password_infobar_ignored"
extern const char kPasswordInfobarAccepted[]; // "password_infobar_accepted"
```
In the Password Infobar code (example code):
```c++
void PasswordInfobar::OnInfobarIgnored() {
tracker->NotifyEvent(kPasswordInfobarIgnored);
}
void PasswordInfobar::OnInfobarAccepted() {
tracker->NotifyEvent(kPasswordInfobarAccepted);
}
void PasswordInfobar::OnInfobarPresented() {
if (tracker->ShouldTriggerHelpUI(kIPHPasswordInfobarFeature)) {
// Display the IPH.
}
}
```
[field-trial-testing-configuration]: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/main/testing/variations/README.md
[GetClientSideFeatureConfig]: https://source.chromium.org/chromium/chromium/src/+/main:components/feature_engagement/public/feature_configurations.cc?q=GetClientSideFeatureConfig
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