How to construct an implicit audience tag about java-library

[madelgi]

Hello @meyumeapps -- you can model the behavior of an implicit or selector like so:

Selector orTags = Selectors.tags("tag1", "tag2", "tag3");

Note that this will still be serialized as an explicit or selector, i.e.:

// Result after serialization
{
    "or": [
        {"tag": "tag1"},
        {"tag": "tag2"},
        {"tag": "tag3"},
    ]
}

Unfortunately, there is no analogous method for an "and" selector -- you must call Selectors.tag explicitly for each tag you wish to reference:

Selector andTags = Selectors.and(
    Selectors.tag("tag1"),
    Selectors.tag("tag2"),
    Selectors.tag("tag3")
);

[madelgi]

Alternatively, if you know which tags you're sending to before constructing the request, you can define a segment and simply send to the segment:

Selector tagSegment = Selectors.segment("my-segment"); 

This will actually reduce the size of the payload, but it requires that you build the segment ahead of time.

[meyumeapps]

Thanks @madelgi . Our tags are dynamic so I don't think the segment idea will work.

We are facing two problems:

• more than 1000 tags
• large message (> 2Mb)

Do you have any thoughts on how I can resolve these please?

[madelgi]

Hi @meyumeapps, do you mind explaining what your use case is? 1000 tags is an enormous query, and it's possible we offer a tool (perhaps named users) that would be more suitable for accomplishing your goals.

There are a number of features we're trying to add to the java library right now, and I don't think we're going to get around to updating the serialization method for tags. However, we'd consider a patch if you want to submit something. Before that, though, we should see if there's is an implementation for your use case that doesn't use tags.

[meyumeapps]

Sure, we send notifications for our weather sites. Each site has a unique id.

Users subscribe to receive notifications for a weather site e.g. their home location or perhaps where they work.

We have over 6,000 sites and therefore have to send a push notification for each affected site. For example, if there was a severe weather warning covering much of the UK then we would want to send a push to UA listing the affected sites. Each tag would be a site id.

[madelgi]

Ah, interesting. This is a bit of an edge case, and I don't think our other features can help us out here. If you want to submit a PR that adds the implicit-or functionality, we'd be happy to review it. I'm sorry we couldn't help you more directly!

[meyumeapps]

Will certainly look at submitting the PR.

However, can you tell me if we would still hit the 1000 tag limit with the implicit-or functionality ?

[madelgi]

No such limit exists for the push API -- maybe you're thinking of the 1000 tag limit in place for segment creation?

Also, I'd recommend searching through or posting in the forums. You may be able to get additional help there.

[meyumeapps]

This is the limit I was concerned about:

https://support.urbanairship.com/entries/109178196-What-are-the-limitations-to-the-Urban-Airship-Engage-API-

Have I misunderstood?

[madelgi]

That limit is advised, but it's not enforced by the push API. If you exceed it, you shouldn't encounter an error.

[meyumeapps]

Ah, excellent news, thank you 👍