Self Handled Cards

Build custom card views in your Android app using the MoEngage self-handled Cards SDK.

Self-handled cards give you the flexibility of creating Card Campaigns on the MoEngage Platform and displaying the cards anywhere inside the application. SDK provides APIs to fetch the campaign’s data using which you can create your own view for cards.

SDK Installation

Installing using BOM

Integration using BOM is the recommended way of integration; refer to the Install Using BOM document. Once you have configured the BOM add the dependency in the app/build.gradle file as shown below

build.gradle.kts

dependencies {
   ...
   implementation("com.moengage:cards-core")
}

Once the BOM is configured, include the specific MoEngage modules required for the application.
Note: Version numbers are not required for these dependencies; the BOM automatically manages them.

Implementing Self Handled Cards

Use the below APIs to fetch the card’s data and build your own UI. The SDK provides both blocking and async APIs for fetching the data. In this document, we have just added the blocking APIs, refer to the API reference for MoECardHelper for the async APIs.

Notify on Section Load/Unload

You can show the cards on a separate screen or a section of the screen. When the cards screen/section is loaded call onCardSectionLoaded() and call onCardSectionUnloaded() when the screen/section is no longer visible or going to background.

• When onCardSectionLoaded() and onCardSectionUnloaded() are called together, the SDK automatically tracks the card impressions.
• The onCardSectionLoaded() has an SLA of 5 minutes.

Kotlin

// call on section or screen load
MoECardHelper.onCardSectionLoaded(context,listener);
// call when the section is no longer visible or going to background.
MoECardHelper.onCardSectionUnloaded(context);

Fetch Cards from the Server

Use the fetchCards() API to refresh cards from the MoEngage server.

Kotlin

MoECardHelper.fetchCards(Context, CardAvailableListener)

fetchCards() hits the server at most once every 5 minutes. If called more frequently, the existing cached cards are returned via the callback.

Refresh Cards

Checks the server for card updates. Returns a hasUpdates flag. If hasUpdates is true, the latest cards are stored in local storage. Call getCards() / getCardsForCategory() / getCardsInfo() to retrieve the updated cards from local storage.

Method signature: MoECardHelper.refreshCards(context, listener)

Kotlin

MoECardHelper.refreshCards(context, listener)

refreshCards() has a shorter SLA (~5 seconds) compared to fetchCards() (5 minutes), making it suitable for near-real-time card updates.

Fetch Categories

To fetch all the categories for which cards are configured, use the getCardCategories() API.

Kotlin

MoECardHelper.getCardCategories(context)

Additionally, you can optionally have an All category which would be like a superset of other categories. Use the isAllCategoryEnabled() API.

Kotlin

MoECardHelper.isAllCategoryEnabled(context)

Fetch Cards for Categories

To fetch cards eligible for display for a specific category, use the getCardsForCategory() API

Kotlin

MoECardHelper.getCardsForCategory(context, "[YOUR_CATEGORY]")

To fetch all the cards eligible for display irrespective of the category, pass the category CARD_CATEGORY_ALL as shown below

Kotlin

MoECardHelper.getCardsForCategory(context, CARDS_CATEGORY_ALL)

Refer to the documentation of the Card model to know more about the fields and data present.

Instead of using separate APIs to fetch the Cards and categories, you can use the getCardsInfo() API to fetch all the information in one go

Kotlin

MoECardHelper.getCardsInfo(context)

Widget and Widget Id Mapping

Basic Card/Illustration Card

Widget Id	Widget Type	Widget Information
0	Image (WidgetType.IMAGE)	Image widget in the card.
1	Text (WidgetType.TEXT)	Header text for the card.
2	Text (WidgetType.TEXT)	Message text for the card.
3	Button (WidgetType.Button)	Call to action(CTA) for the card.

Track Statistics for Cards

Since the UI/display of the cards is controlled by the application to track statistics on delivery, display, and click, we need the application to notify the SDK.

Delivered

To track delivery to the card section of the application, call the cardDelivered() API when the cards section of the application is loaded.

Kotlin

MoECardHelper.cardDelivered(context)

Impression

Call the cardShown() API when a specific card is visible on the screen.

Kotlin

MoECardHelper.cardShown(context, card)

Click

Call the cardClicked() API whenever a user clicks on a card, along with the card object widget identifier for the UI element clicked should also be passed.

Kotlin

MoECardHelper.cardClicked(context, card, widgetId)

Delete Card

Call the deleteCard() API to delete a card

Kotlin

MoECardHelper.deleteCard(context, card)

To delete a list of cards, use deleteCards() API.

Please take a look at the documentation for a complete guide on available helper APIs.

FAQs

What is the recommended implementation for a standard Cards Inbox?

MoEngage recommends calling onCardSectionLoaded() when the user enters the Cards section and onCardSectionUnloaded() when they leave. Doing so allows the SDK to automatically handle server synchronization, event deduplication, and impression tracking.

How do I handle near-real-time card updates (e.g., replacing a card after a user action)

Follow this 3-step pattern to ensure cards are always fresh without hitting rate limits:

1. Initial Load: On page load, call fetchCards() to get the latest cards from the server.
2. Trigger Update: When you need to check for updates (e.g., after a survey submission), call refreshCards().
3. Retrieve Data: If refreshCards() returns hasUpdates = true, call getCardsForCategory() or getCardsInfo() to pull the updated cards from local storage.

What is the difference between onCardSectionLoaded() and fetchCards()?

Feature	onCardSectionLoaded() + onCardSectionUnLoaded()	fetchCards()
Use Case	Recommended for card inbox screens.	One-time refresh outside the section lifecycle.
Impression Tracking	The SDK tracks card impressions automatically.	User have to track impressions Manually