Contentful Personalization & Analytics

Optimization React Native SDK

The Optimization React Native SDK provides a stateful mobile runtime on top of the Optimization Core SDK. It adds React providers, hooks, OptimizedEntry, screen tracking, optional offline-aware event delivery, and in-app preview-panel support for React Native applications.

If you are integrating a React Native application, start with Getting Started, then use Integrating the Optimization React Native SDK in a React Native app for the step-by-step flow. This README keeps the package orientation and common setup options close at hand; generated reference documentation remains the source of truth for exported API signatures.

Getting started

Install using an NPM-compatible package manager, pnpm for example:

pnpm install @contentful/optimization-react-native @react-native-async-storage/async-storage
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For offline support, also install NetInfo:

pnpm install @react-native-community/netinfo
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For preview panel support, also install the preview-native peer dependencies:

pnpm install @react-native-clipboard/clipboard react-native-safe-area-context
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Wrap the app with OptimizationRoot near the top of the component tree:

import { OptimizationRoot } from '@contentful/optimization-react-native'

export default function App() {
  return (
    <OptimizationRoot clientId="your-client-id" environment="main" locale="en-US">
      <YourApp />
    </OptimizationRoot>
  )
}
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For non-component ownership paths, create the SDK instance explicitly and call methods directly:

import { ContentfulOptimization } from '@contentful/optimization-react-native'

const optimization = await ContentfulOptimization.create({
  clientId: 'your-client-id',
  environment: 'main',
  locale: 'en-US',
})
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When to use this package

Use @contentful/optimization-react-native for React Native applications that need mobile optimization, persisted state, screen tracking, entry interaction tracking, offline behavior, and preview-panel support. Native iOS and Android package work also exists in this monorepo for teams that need platform-native integration surfaces.

Common configuration

OptimizationRoot accepts Core stateful configuration directly, plus React Native-specific props. Only clientId is required.

Common api options:

Common fetchOptions are fetchMethod, requestTimeout, retries, intervalTimeout, onFailedAttempt, and onRequestTimeout. Default retries intentionally apply only to HTTP 503 responses.

Choose the application Contentful locale in your navigation, i18n, or app configuration layer. Pass that value directly to Contentful CDA requests, and pass the same value to SDK locale when Experience API responses and event context should use the same language. See Locale handling in the Optimization SDK Suite for the full locale model.

For provider-owned SDK instances, changing the locale prop calls sdk.setLocale() after initialization while the rest of the SDK config remains initialization-scoped. Locale updates do not fetch content or refresh profile state; trigger your app's normal screen(), identify(), or CDA fetch flow when localized data needs to change.

For every prop, callback payload, and exported type, use the generated React Native SDK reference.

Core workflows

Automatic navigation integrations use trackCurrentScreen() for current-screen deduplication. Direct manual screen() calls remain non-deduping event emits and return accepted/data event results.

Provider lifecycle

OptimizationRoot owns async React Native SDK initialization. It renders no children while platform state setup is pending, runs any onStatesReady callback, and only then renders provider children. This matches the React Web provider contract, but React Native uses async effect scheduling because storage and platform setup cannot be completed before paint.

When persistence consent permits durable profile continuity, SDK state from an Experience response is published only after the corresponding AsyncStorage write for that same response snapshot has settled or failed gracefully. AsyncStorage hydrates continuity during initialization and mirrors changes for the next launch; after startup, sdk.states, entry rendering, and tracking metadata read from in-memory SDK state. Application code can wait for sdk.states.profile, sdk.states.selectedOptimizations, or rendered SDK-derived UI instead of adding storage-timing delays before a relaunch-sensitive action.

Consent and persistence

Consent policy remains application-owned. For default-on application policies that do not render an end-user consent prompt, set defaults: { consent: true } on OptimizationRoot:

<OptimizationRoot clientId="your-client-id" defaults={{ consent: true }}>
  <YourApp />
</OptimizationRoot>
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When application policy depends on user choice, leave defaults.consent unset and call consent(true | false) from the application-owned control. Boolean consent calls control both event emission and durable profile-continuity persistence by default. Use consent({ events: true, persistence: false }) when events are allowed but continuity should stay session-only.

Do not use a component effect to grant default consent for an app that has no consent prompt. Seeding defaults.consent during SDK initialization applies the persistence policy before child effects, screen tracking, or manual identify() calls can run.

AsyncStorage persists consent and, when persistence consent permits it, profile-continuity state across app launches. It is not consulted for every live state read after initialization. For cross-SDK consent guidance, see Consent management in the Optimization SDK Suite.

Render optimized entries

OptimizedEntry resolves optimized Contentful entries and passes non-optimized entries through unchanged:

import { OptimizedEntry } from '@contentful/optimization-react-native'

function HeroEntry({ entry }) {
  return (
    <OptimizedEntry baselineEntry={entry}>
      {(resolvedEntry) => <Hero data={resolvedEntry.fields} />}
    </OptimizedEntry>
  )
}
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Fetch Contentful entries in your app layer. For optimized entries, request linked entries deeply enough for the baseline and variants, commonly with include: 10.

Use one CDA locale for entries passed to OptimizedEntry or useEntryResolver(). For localized apps, derive the application locale from your navigation, i18n, or app configuration layer and pass it directly to Contentful CDA requests. Do not pass all-locale CDA responses from withAllLocales or locale=*; these APIs expect direct single-locale field values. See Entry personalization and variant resolution for the entry contract and Locale handling in the Optimization SDK Suite for the broader locale model.

Use useEntryResolver() when a component needs manual entry resolution without the OptimizedEntry wrapper:

import { useEntryResolver } from '@contentful/optimization-react-native'

function HeroData({ entry }) {
  const { resolveEntry } = useEntryResolver()
  const resolvedEntry = resolveEntry(entry)

  return <Hero data={resolvedEntry.fields} />
}
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Track entry interactions

Entry tracking records views and taps for Contentful entries, not arbitrary UI components. Global defaults live on OptimizationRoot; individual OptimizedEntry components can override them:

<OptimizationRoot clientId="your-client-id" trackEntryInteraction={{ views: true, taps: true }}>
  <OptimizedEntry baselineEntry={entry} trackViews={true} trackTaps={false}>
    {(resolvedEntry) => <Card entry={resolvedEntry} />}
  </OptimizedEntry>
</OptimizationRoot>
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Wrap scrollable screens with OptimizationScrollProvider so view tracking uses actual scroll position instead of only screen dimensions.

Track screens

Use OptimizationNavigationContainer to emit screen events from React Navigation changes:

<OptimizationNavigationContainer>
  {(navigationProps) => (
    <NavigationContainer {...navigationProps}>{/* navigators */}</NavigationContainer>
  )}
</OptimizationNavigationContainer>
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Use useScreenTracking() for screen-level control and useScreenTrackingCallback() when names are derived from navigation state or other dynamic data.

Provider-managed state subscriptions

Use onStatesReady when application code needs SDK state subscriptions that line up with provider initialization. The provider calls it after async SDK state setup completes and before child screen, navigation, or entry effects can emit events.

<OptimizationRoot
  clientId="your-client-id"
  onStatesReady={(states) => {
    const subscriptions = [
      states.eventStream.subscribe((event) => {
        if (event) devToolsPanel.logEvent(event)
      }),
      states.blockedEventStream.subscribe((blocked) => {
        if (blocked) devToolsPanel.logBlockedEvent(blocked)
      }),
    ]

    return () => {
      subscriptions.forEach((subscription) => subscription.unsubscribe())
    }
  }}
>
  <YourApp />
</OptimizationRoot>
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The callback receives only sdk.states. Use regular hooks and React effects for component-local UI state under the provider.

Use OptimizationProvider directly with a pre-built sdk only when an application or framework adapter owns initialization. Without onStatesReady, children render immediately because the SDK is already available. When onStatesReady is provided, the provider waits until those subscribers are attached before children mount and runs the returned cleanup on unmount. In both cases, it does not call destroy() on the injected SDK.

Live updates and preview

liveUpdates controls whether OptimizedEntry continuously reacts to SDK state changes. The preview panel always forces live updates on while it is open.

<OptimizationRoot clientId="your-client-id" liveUpdates={true}>
  <OptimizedEntry baselineEntry={entry} liveUpdates={false}>
    {(resolvedEntry) => <Card entry={resolvedEntry} />}
  </OptimizedEntry>
</OptimizationRoot>
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Enable the preview panel only in authoring or development flows and provide a Contentful client:

import { PreviewPanelOverlay } from '@contentful/optimization-react-native/preview'
;<OptimizationRoot clientId="your-client-id">
  <YourApp />
  {__DEV__ && <PreviewPanelOverlay contentfulClient={contentfulClient} />}
</OptimizationRoot>
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Preview UI components and preview-specific types are exported from the preview subpath:

import { PreviewPanelOverlay } from '@contentful/optimization-react-native/preview'
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Offline support

When NetInfo is installed, the SDK can queue events while the device is offline and flush them after connectivity returns. When the app moves to the background or inactive state, the SDK also flushes queued events and drains pending AsyncStorage persistence. Tune queue bounds and retry behavior with queuePolicy when the defaults are not appropriate for your app.

Runtime notes

• ContentfulOptimization.create(...) is asynchronous. Prefer OptimizationRoot when React needs to own initialization.
• View tracking defaults to enabled; tap tracking defaults to disabled.
• Live updates default to disabled so entries lock to the first resolved value unless enabled globally, per component, or by the preview panel.
• React Native compatibility polyfills are imported automatically for Iterator Helpers, crypto.randomUUID(), and crypto.getRandomValues(); applications do not need additional setup beyond installing this SDK and its documented dependencies.
• Call destroy() before creating replacement instances in tests or hot-reload workflows.

Related

• Integrating the Optimization React Native SDK in a React Native app - step-by-step React Native integration guide
• React Native SDK generated reference - exported API reference
• React Native reference implementation - example application with optimized content, navigation tracking, live updates, preview, and E2E coverage
• React Native dev dashboard - package-local harness for development and manual verification