This library utilizes Breinify's API to provide tasks like geocoding, reverse geocoding, weather and events look up, holidays determination through the API's endpoints, i.e., /activity and /temporaldata. Each endpoint provides different features, which are explained in the following paragraphs. In addition, this documentation gives detailed examples for each of the features available for the different endpoints.
Activity Endpoint: The endpoint is used to understand the usage-patterns and the behavior of a user using, e.g., an application, a mobile app, or a web-browser. The endpoint offers analytics and insights through Breinify's dashboard.
TemporalData Endpoint: The endpoint offers features to resolve temporal information like a timestamp, a location (latitude and longitude or free-text), or an IP-address, to temporal information (e.g., timezone, epoch, formatted dates, day-name), holidays at the specified time and location, city, zip-code, neighborhood, country, or county of the location, events at the specified time and location (e.g., description, size, type), weather at the specified time and location (e.g., description, temperature).
First of all, you need a valid API-key, which you can get for free at https://www.breinify.com. In the examples, we assume you have the following API key:
938D-3120-64DD-413F-BB55-6573-90CE-473A
It is recommended to use signed messages when utilizing the Java library. A signed messages ensures, that the request is authorized. To activate signed message ensure that Verification Signature is enabled for your key (see Breinify's API Docs for further information).
In this documentation we assume that the following secret is attached to the API key and used to sign a message.
utakxp7sm6weo5gvk7cytw==
The library is available through Maven Central and can be easily added using:
<dependency>
<groupId>com.breinify</groupId>
<artifactId>brein-api-library-java</artifactId>
<version>${CURRENT_VERSION}</version>
</dependency>
Whenever the library is used, it needs to be configured, i.e., the configuration defines which API key and which secret
(if signed messages are enabled, i.e., Verification Signature is checked) to use.
Breinify.setConfig("938D-3120-64DD-413F-BB55-6573-90CE-473A",
"utakxp7sm6weo5gvk7cytw==");In addition to the API key and the secret, it is also possible to configure the engine used to request the API. By default,
the library tries to auto-detect an available engine on the class-path. If no implementation is found, the library throws
an exception. To manually specify a library, simple use the setRestEngineType(BreinEngineType) method.
final BreinConfig config = new BreinConfig("938D-3120-64DD-413F-BB55-6573-90CE-473A", "utakxp7sm6weo5gvk7cytw==")
.setRestEngineType(BreinEngineType.UNIREST_ENGINE);
Breinify.setConfig(config);The library does not add any of the supported engines (i.e., UniRest or Jersey) to the class-path by default.
To add the preferred requesting-library one of the following dependencies has to be added.
<dependency>
<groupId>com.mashape.unirest</groupId>
<artifactId>unirest-java</artifactId>
<version>1.4.9</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>com.sun.jersey</groupId>
<artifactId>jersey-client</artifactId>
<version>1.19.1</version>
</dependency>
Whenever the library is not used anymore, it is necessary to clean-up and release the resources held (e.g., UniRest
utilizes a connection manager, which holds several connections to increase performance). To do so, the Breinify.shutdown()
method is used. A typical framework may look like that:
// whenever the application utilizing the library is initialized
Breinify.setConfig("938D-3120-64DD-413F-BB55-6573-90CE-473A", "utakxp7sm6weo5gvk7cytw==");
// whenever the application utilizing the library is destroyed/released
Breinify.shutdown();As mentioned earlier, the library provides method to simple add analytics for the usage of, e.g., an application, an app, or a web-site. There are several libraries available to be used for different system (e.g., iOS, Android, Node.js, JavaScript, ruby, php, python). Activities are sent to the API whenever something happens within the system, which should be tracked. There are some common activities, which are login, logout, and pageVisit. Depending on the system other events may be tracked as well, e.g., addToCart, checkOut, or readArticle.
The engine is informed of an activity by executing Breinify.activity(...). There are several overloaded versions of the activity method, making the usage as easy as possible. The following code-snippets illustrate the simplicity and show how the library can be utilized.
Breinify.activity(new BreinUser()
.set("email", "user.login@gmail.com")
.set("sessionId", "966542c6-2399-11e7-93ae-92361f002671"), "login");Instead of sending an activity utilizing the Breinify.activity(...) method, it is also possible to create an instance of a BreinActivity and use the execute(...) method to send the activity. This implementation is typically favored when multiple information are sent with the activity (e.g., tags or descriptions).
new BreinActivity()
.setUser("sessionId", "966542c6-2399-11e7-93ae-92361f002671")
.setActivityType("readArticle")
.setDescription("A Homebody President Sits Out His Honeymoon Period")
.setTag("group", "politics")
.setTag("date", "04/16/2017")
.setTag("subscription", true)
.execute();For some use-cases, e.g., understanding your customers favorite products, average time to checkout, or abandon rate, it is necessary to keep track of your check-out process. The system supports different activities to provide funnel-analytics, i.e., viewedProduct, addToCart, removeFromCart, and checkOut. Each activity uses the same information to provide a funnel analysis (see the following example).
new BreinActivity()
.setUser("sessionId", "966542c6-2399-11e7-93ae-92361f002671")
.setActivityType("addToCart")
.setTag("productPrices", new ArrayList<Double>() {{ // can be multiple prices
add(3.50);
add(3.70);
}})
.setTag("productIds", new ArrayList<String>() {{ // can be multiple ids
add("sock-AU-90");
add("sock-GR-92");
}})
.setTag("productCategories", new ArrayList<String>() {{ // optional
add("apparel");
add("apparel");
}})
.execute();The /temporalData endpoint is used to transform your temporal data into temporal information, i.e., enrich your temporal data with information like
current weather, upcoming holidays, regional and global events, and time-zones, as well as geocoding and reverse geocoding.
Sometimes it is necessary to get some more information about the user of an application, e.g., to increase usability and enhance the user experience,
to handle time-dependent data correctly, to add geo-based services, or increase quality of service. The client's information can be retrieved easily
by calling the /temporaldata endpoint utilizing the Breinify.temporalData(...) method or by executing a BreinTemporalData instance, i.e.,:
final BreinTemporalDataResult result = new BreinTemporalData()
.setLocalDateTime()
.execute();The returned result contains detailed information about the time, the location, the weather, holidays, and events at the time and the location. A detailed example of the returned values can be found here.
Output of the Sample Application utilizing some commanly used features.
Sometimes it is necessary to resolve a textual representation to a specific geo-location. The textual representation can be
structured and even partly unstructured, e.g., the textual representation the Big Apple is considered to be unstructured,
whereby a structured location would be, e.g., { city: 'Seattle', state: 'Washington', country: 'USA' }. It is also possible
to pass in partial information and let the system try to resolve/complete the location, e.g., { city: 'New York', country: 'USA' }.
final BreinTemporalDataResult result = new BreinTemporalData()
.setLocation("The Big Apple")
.execute();
Formatted output of textual (unstructured) location requests.
To receive detailed temporal information from a structured location (e.g., current time, timezone, holidays, weather, or events), have a look at the following snippet:
final BreinTemporalDataResult result = new BreinTemporalData()
.setLocation("Seattle", "Washington", "USA")
.execute();
The library also offers the feature of reverse geocoding. Having a specific geo-location and resolving the coordinates to a specific city or neighborhood (i.e., names of neighborhood, city, state, country, and optionally GeoJson shapes).
Formatted output utilizing the result of reverse geocoding requests.
To understand all the capabilities of Breinify's APIs, have a look at:
- the sample application,
- the change log, or
- Breinify's Website.