Supported on: Android SDK
1.0.33+Present an Onboarding Flow
Present a specific onboarding flow by ID:false if the flow configuration is not available (e.g., config has not loaded yet or the flow ID is invalid).
If
flowId is null, the SDK presents the currently active flow as configured in remote config. This is useful when you want the Console to control which flow is shown.Module Access
Access the onboarding module directly:Module Methods
The
context argument is accepted for API symmetry with iOS but is not yet propagated to the underlying flow on Android — pass context through userProperties on identify(...) if you need it available in the running flow.OnboardingContext
Pass additional context when presenting a flow:Paywalls inside onboarding flows
Steps withoutcome: present_paywall open a paywall and route the user based on the result (purchase / fail / dismiss → next step). The host’s AppDNAPaywallDelegate (registered via AppDNA.paywall.setDelegate(...)) fires for these embedded paywalls identically to standalone presentations — purchase, restore, action, promo-code, and post-purchase callbacks all reach the host. See the paywall docs for the full delegate surface.
AppDNAOnboardingDelegate
Implement the delegate interface to respond to onboarding flow events:Example Implementation
Backend-interactive elements
Hook:onElementInteraction.
Available on Android SDK
1.0.39+ / iOS SDK 1.0.67+.onElementInteraction so your app can talk to your backend and push the result back into the live step — without advancing or re-presenting it. The action + value arguments identify what the user did.
action (identical on Android and iOS) with an optional value:
Return an
ElementInteractionResult to update the rendered step, or null to do nothing (the default):
fieldConfigPatches are layered as read-time overrides on top of the (immutable) block, so the element re-renders with the new state while Android and iOS stay at parity. inputValuePatches are merged into the values the step reports on completion. The hook ships with a default no-op implementation, so it is fully opt-in.
Permissions
Add a permission step in the Console and choose a permission type — Notifications, App Tracking, Location, Camera, Microphone, Photos, Contacts, or Calendar. When the user taps the step’s primary button, the SDK requests the real OS permission, records the outcome, and advances.Required manifest permissions (your app)
Declare the permissions you use in your app’sAndroidManifest.xml. If a permission isn’t declared, the SDK reports it as unavailable and advances (no crash).
Routing on grant vs deny
After the prompt, the SDK storespermission_<type> = "granted" or "denied" in the step’s collected values, so you can branch with next-step rules (e.g. skip a reminders screen when permission_notification is denied).
Delegate
Step Types
Onboarding flows support the following step types, configured in the Console:Step types and their content are defined entirely in the Console. The SDK renders them automatically based on the flow configuration. You do not need to build UI for individual step types.
Selection Modes
Question steps support two selection modes:Content Blocks
Each onboarding step is composed of content blocks that control the visual layout. Blocks are configured in the Console and rendered natively using Jetpack Compose. The block string the Console emits is the same string the SDK switches on. The following block types are available:Layout primitives
Interactive blocks
Form input blocks
Form inputs are individual blocks (not a singleform block). Each input type emits its current value through the step’s inputValues map and is included in the step responses on completion.
Blocks are configured entirely in the Console. The SDK renders them automatically — no code is needed unless you register custom views.
Advanced content blocks
Available on Android SDK
1.0.39+ / iOS SDK 1.0.67+.field_config object (the table notes the key fields); shared styling (text, bg_color, text_color, active_color, field_id) works as it does on other blocks. Blocks marked interactive fire onElementInteraction when the user acts on them.
Button Actions
button and social_login blocks emit a structured payload to your AppDNAOnboardingDelegate.onBeforeStepAdvance hook when tapped. The action value on the button (configured in the Console) determines what shape the payload takes and lets you route to the right backend call (sign in, register, request OTP, etc.).
If the user has not completed required form fields on the step, the SDK shows an inline validation toast and does not emit the action — same gate as the standard next button.
Flow control
Authentication entry
When the user taps a button with one of these actions, the SDK calls youronBeforeStepAdvance handler with the payload below. Show a “Signing in…” spinner by returning StepAdvanceResult.Block(message) while async auth runs, then return Proceed / ProceedWithData when the backend responds.
Account lifecycle
request_otp channel resolution
request_otp and verify_otp include a channel field so your handler knows which delivery method to call back on. The SDK resolves it in this order:
- Explicit — set the button’s
action_valueto"sms","email","whatsapp", or"voice"in the Console (case-insensitive). - Auto-detect — if the step has exactly one phone-typed input (
input_phone) →channel: "sms"; exactly one email-typed input (input_email) →channel: "email". - Omitted — if the step has both an email AND a phone input (or neither), the
channelkey is absent from the payload. Check withstepData?["channel"] as? Stringand fail explicitly ifnullrather than guessing. Setaction_valueon the button to disambiguate.
recipient so you don’t have to look it up from the step responses.
Handling auth actions
Existing
next, skip, link, permission, and social_login button actions are unchanged. Host apps that already implement AppDNAOnboardingDelegate keep working without changes — the default onBeforeStepAdvance returns Proceed, so flows that don’t switch on stepData?["action"] advance normally. Host apps that have NO delegate set will see the no-delegate warning above when an auth action fires; for those flows, either implement the delegate or keep using next as the button action.Custom View Registration
Register your own Composables to be rendered inside onboarding steps wherever acustom_view block appears. The factory receives the block’s config map so you can parameterize the view from the Console:
id must match the custom view identifier configured in the Console for the custom_view block.
Dynamic Bindings
You can pre-fill form fields and override copy at render time viaonBeforeStepRender by returning a StepConfigOverride:
StepConfigOverride: fieldDefaults, title, subtitle, ctaText, layoutOverrides. The SDK merges these into the step config before rendering.
Block Styling
Every content block supports ablock_style design token that controls appearance properties such as padding, margin, background color, corner radius, border, shadow, and opacity. Block styles are configured in the Console and applied automatically by the SDK.
Visibility Conditions
Blocks can be shown or hidden based on user responses, bindings, or device attributes. Visibility conditions are configured per-block in the Console using rules likeanswer_equals, binding_not_empty, platform_is, and locale_matches. The SDK evaluates conditions client-side before rendering each block.
Entrance Animations
Each block supports an entrance animation that plays when the block first appears. Animations are configured per-block in the Console. Supported animation types includefade, slide_up, slide_down, slide_left, slide_right, scale, flip, and bounce. You can configure duration, delay, and easing curve.
Form Steps
Theform step type provides native input fields for collecting structured user data. Each form can contain multiple fields with validation, conditional visibility, and custom configuration.
Supported Input Types
Field Validation
Form fields support built-in and custom validation:- Required fields — marked in the Console, the SDK prevents advancing until filled
- Regex patterns — custom validation (e.g.,
^[A-Z]{2}\d{4}$for a code format) - Min/max values — for
number,slider, andstepperfields - Max length — for
textandtextareafields
Conditional Fields
Fields can depend on other fields usingdepends_on rules. For example, a “Company name” field can appear only when the user selects “Employed” in a previous field. Supported operators: equals, not_equals, contains, not_empty, empty, gt, lt, is_set.
Form Responses
Form field values are included in theresponses map passed to onOnboardingCompleted, keyed by step ID. Each step’s value is a map of field ID to field value.
Location Fields
Thelocation field type provides an autocomplete search input that returns structured location data including city, state, country, coordinates, and timezone.
When the user starts typing (e.g., “New York”), the SDK debounces the input (300ms), calls the AppDNA geocoding proxy, and displays a dropdown of suggestions. The user selects a result and the SDK stores the complete structured data.
Location Data Structure
Each location selection contains:Accessing Location Data
UseAppDNA.getLocationData(fieldId) to access the selected location from anywhere in your app:
Template Engine
Location data is accessible in dynamic content templates:Configuration in Console
In the onboarding flow editor, add alocation field to a form step and configure:
Location autocomplete uses a server-side proxy — no third-party SDK is added to your app binary. The geocoding provider (Mapbox by default) can be configured in Settings > Geocoding.
Interactive Chat Steps
Theinteractive_chat step type renders a conversational UI that forwards each user message to your webhook and renders the reply. This is how you integrate your own LLM, agent, or rule-based backend into an onboarding flow.
How it works
- User types a message in the chat step.
- SDK
POSTs the conversation payload to thewebhook_urlconfigured in the Console (with any custom headers you set). - Your server responds with JSON in the schema below.
- SDK renders the AI reply, quick-reply buttons, media, etc.
Request payload (SDK → your webhook)
Bearer YOUR_TOKEN (the SDK does not add the Bearer prefix automatically).
The context object is opaque session state you control — whatever you returned in data on a previous turn gets echoed back here on every subsequent call. This is how you integrate threaded AI backends (OpenAI Assistants, hosted LLMs with threadId, etc.) without replaying the full history on every request. context is absent on turn 1 (your server hasn’t written anything yet) and accumulates across turns; later values overwrite earlier ones per-key (last-write-wins). See Threaded backends below for the full pattern.
Response schema (your webhook → SDK)
messages[].content is required — every other field is optional. The SDK reads messages[] to render chat bubbles, so if you omit it or return a different shape, the reply won’t render.
Full response schema
Unknown fields in your response are ignored, so you can also include your own server-side state at the top level (it just won’t round-trip — use
data for anything you want back).
Minimal working example
Node.js (Express):Threaded backends: round-tripping session state
If your AI service uses a thread/session handle (OpenAI Assistants API, a hosted LLM with conversation memory, or any third-party AI proxy that mints a session id), do not replay the full conversation history on every turn — latency and cost grow linearly with conversation length. Instead, return your session handle indata once; the SDK accumulates it and echoes it back in context on every subsequent turn.
The wire contract in plain English:
- You write to
contextby returning fields underdatain any response. - You read from
contextoffreq.body.contexton every request after the first. - Keys are merged across turns; later values overwrite earlier ones per-key.
- The SDK never inspects or mutates
context— it’s opaque to us. You choose the keys and the shape.
threadId. If your backend rotates the thread (expiry, failure, migration), just return the new id in data — the SDK overwrites the cached value and uses it on the next turn automatically.
context round-trip IS your session storage.
The same pattern works for anything opaque you need per-conversation: API rate-limit bucket ids, A/B cohort labels, tool-call state, reasoning scratchpads — whatever your AI backend needs to resume, stash it in
data and read it from context on the next turn.Console configuration
In the onboarding flow editor, add a step of type Interactive Chat, then set:Auto-tracked events
The standard onboarding step events (
onboarding_step_viewed, onboarding_step_completed) also fire for chat steps — there are no separate chat_step_viewed / chat_step_completed events.
Async Step Hooks
The onboarding delegate supports two suspend functions that let you intercept step transitions for server-side validation, dynamic content loading, or custom routing logic.onBeforeStepAdvance
Called before the SDK advances to the next step. Return aStepAdvanceResult to control what happens next:
StepAdvanceResult
Use Stay for “I handled it; keep the user here”
Use Stay when your hook handled the user’s action — for example, sent a password-reset email — and you want the user to remain on the same step. This is distinct from Block (error styling) and from Proceed (advances).
onBeforeStepRender
Called before a step is rendered. Return aStepConfigOverride to dynamically modify the step’s content:
Both hooks are
suspend functions — the SDK shows a loading indicator while waiting for your response. If either hook throws an exception or times out, the SDK proceeds normally.Row Direction and Distribution
Therow content block supports configurable direction and distribution, set in the Console:
Button Gradients
Buttons support gradient backgrounds configured in the Console:
Gradients override the solid
background_color when set.
Select Display Styles
input_select form-input blocks (and select form fields) support three display styles:
The display style is configured per select field in the Console under
field_config.display_style. Question-step option lists always render in a fixed grid layout; the styles above apply specifically to input_select / select.
Progress Bar Custom Colors
Theprogress_bar content block supports custom color configuration:
Colors are configured per block in the Console. When not set, the SDK uses the app’s primary theme color.
Per-Step Progress Visibility
The progress indicator can be hidden on specific steps while still counting them in the total progress. This is useful for splash screens, permission prompts, or transition steps where the progress bar would be distracting. Configurehide_progress per step in the Console under Step Design > Logic. When enabled, the progress bar is hidden on that step but the step still contributes to the overall progress calculation (e.g., step 3 of 5 still advances progress to 60%).
This is a per-step override of the flow-level
show_progress setting. If show_progress is false at the flow level, the progress bar is hidden on all steps regardless of hide_progress.Conditional Branching
Onboarding flows support conditional branching — the next step changes based on the user’s answer. Branching is configured entirely in the Console: Example:- Open your flow in the Console (Onboarding > Flows)
- On a question step, click Add branching rule
- Map each answer option to a target step
- The SDK handles routing automatically — no code needed
responses map in onOnboardingCompleted.
Auto-Tracked Events
The onboarding module automatically tracks the following events:
Each event includes the
flowId, stepId, and stepIndex where applicable.
The
responses map passed to onOnboardingCompleted contains all user answers keyed by step ID. Use these responses to personalize the user experience or send them to your backend for analysis.Configuration in Console
Onboarding flows are managed in the AppDNA Console:- Navigate to Onboarding > Flows.
- Create a new flow or edit an existing one.
- Add steps (welcome, question, value_prop, form, interactive_chat, custom) and configure their content.
- Set targeting rules to control which users see the flow.
- Publish the flow to make it available to the SDK via the config bundle.
Full Example
Paywall trigger nodes — entitlement-aware skip + restore behavior (1.0.32+)
Onboarding flows can includepaywall_trigger graph nodes that present a paywall in the middle of a flow and route the user via per-outcome targets (on_success_target, on_fail_target, on_dismiss_target).
Starting in 1.0.32 the SDK ships two behavioral changes around these triggers — both controllable from the console editor.
Entitlement-aware skip (default ON)
Each paywall_trigger node carries askip_if_subscribed flag (default true). When the SDK reaches the trigger, it checks AppDNA.billing.hasActiveSubscription() (synchronous; reads the in-memory EntitlementCache) first:
- User has an active subscription → SDK skips presentation, emits an
onboarding_paywall_skipevent withreason=user_already_subscribed, and routes the flow via the configured skip target (see below). - User has no active subscription → SDK presents the paywall as before; outcome routing is unchanged.
true at read time.
Subscribed-user skip routing — picking the target
The console editor exposes a dedicated dropdown directly under the Skip if user already has an active subscription toggle: When skipped (user is already subscribed), go to. Four options:
The SDK resolves the target with this chain at runtime:
on_subscribed_skip_target → falls back to on_success_target → falls back to “follow downstream edge”. The fallback means flows authored before 1.0.32 that worked around this by setting on_success_target = complete_flow continue to behave identically.
Warning callout in the editor
If you open a paywall_trigger that has Skip if user already has an active subscription on but the resolved skip target is “Follow downstream edge” and the next node in the graph is another paywall_trigger, the editor displays an inline warning:Heads up: this paywall is set to skip for subscribed users, but the next step is another paywall trigger — subscribed users will still see it. Set “When skipped” to “Complete flow” to bypass the rest of the paywall chain.One click on Complete flow in the dropdown clears the warning and fixes the chain. This is the most common authoring trap with multi-paywall flows (main paywall → winback paywall → end); the warning surfaces it before publish.
Restore now auto-dismisses + routes to success
Tapping Restore Subscription on a paywall now:- Fires
onPaywallRestoreCompleted(paywallId, productIds)on yourAppDNAPaywallDelegate. - Auto-finishes the
PaywallActivitywhenproductIdsis non-empty (i.e., the restore actually found entitlements). - Routes the onboarding flow via the trigger’s
on_success_target— same path as a real purchase.
productIds: emptyList()) the paywall stays up so the user can attempt a fresh purchase or close manually.
Hosts that handle their own dismiss
If you already finish thePaywallActivity inside your own onPaywallRestoreCompleted delegate body (e.g., to show a “Restored — tap continue when ready” overlay), the existing dispatchedDismiss flag inside PaywallActivity ensures the SDK auto-finish becomes a no-op once your finish() runs. First caller wins.
AppDNA.identify(userId) refreshes the entitlement cache
When you call AppDNA.identify(...) after the user signs in, the SDK now silently calls AppDNA.billing.refreshEntitlementCache() in the background (via the SDK’s lifecycle-bound coroutine scope). The next paywall_trigger gate then reflects the identified user’s Play Billing subscriptions instead of the prior anonymous user’s empty entitlement state.
If your app completes auth out-of-band (SSO callback, OAuth web flow), you can call AppDNA.billing.refreshEntitlementCache() (suspend) or AppDNA.billing.refreshEntitlementCacheFuture() (Java-friendly) manually after auth completes — same effect, no events fired.
Migration risk callout
⚠️ Behavioral change: paywall_trigger nodes now skip presentation for subscribed users by default. If your app intentionally relies on the legacy “always present” behavior (e.g., a confirmation/legal-acceptance screen rendered as a paywall), open the trigger node in the console editor and uncheck Skip if user already has an active subscription. ⚠️ Web-side entitlements (Stripe subscriptions, manually-granted entitlements via web tooling) are NOT consulted by this gate today — only Play Billing entitlements are. If your premium users have only web-side subscriptions, leave Skip if user already has an active subscription unchecked, or implement a host-side gate viaAppDNAOnboardingDelegate.onBeforeStepRender (see the async hooks doc) that consults your own backend.
Next Steps
- Present Paywalls at the end of onboarding flows
- Set up Billing to handle purchases triggered from onboarding
- Learn about Offline Support for onboarding config caching
Measurement mode (wheel_picker)
wheel_picker supports an optional measurement mode for capturing a weight, height, temperature, or any custom quantity with a unit toggle. Enable it in the console by setting a measurement type (Weight, Height, Temperature, or Custom) on the wheel picker. When set, the picker renders with:
- a unit toggle (e.g. kg ⇄ lbs, cm ⇄ in, °C ⇄ °F) that converts the value live, and
- a measurement visual style —
ruler(tick tape),gauge(radial dial),dial(rotary drum), orwheel(classic drum).
Reported value
The SDK stores the value in the base unit (the first unit you define) so it stays stable when the user flips units. Alongside it, the SDK reports the chosen unit and the displayed value:
The element-interaction callback receives
{ value, display_value, unit }, where value is the base-unit value.
When no measurement type is set, wheel_picker behaves exactly as before.
