Superscript Runtime

This is the Superscript runtime library. Superscript is an expression language that builds upon CEL with enhanced null-safety, host integration, and mobile-optimized features.

The library can be used to evaluate Superscript expressions, with support for:

• Dynamic property resolution from host platform
• Built-in null-safety transformations
• Type normalization and coercion
• WebAssembly (WASM) deployment

Installation

To build the library, you'll need to install:

1. Rust (https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install)
2. Docker (for cross) (https://docs.docker.com/get-docker/)
3. cross (https://github.com/cross-rs/cross)

Building

To build the library, run:

./build_android.sh

(note: for the first run you will need to chmod +x build.sh and wait a bit until the docker images are downloaded)

This will:

• Clear the previously built jniLibs
• Build the library using cross for Defined Android images (add a new image in the script if needed).
• Copy the generated library to the jniLibs folder.
• Use UniFFI to generate the JNI bindings and a cel.kt file at ./src/uniffi/cel/cel.kt.
• Copy the necessary files to the ./target/android/ folder.

Usage

The library defines three methods exposed to the host platform, which you can use depending on the type of expression you want to evaluate:

 // Evaluates a Superscript expression with provided variables and platform callbacks
 string evaluate_with_context(string definition, HostContext context);
 
 // Evaluates a Superscript AST expression with provided variables, platform callbacks
 string evaluate_ast_with_context(string definition, HostContext context);
 
 // Evaluates a pure Superscript AST expression
 string evaluate_ast(string ast);
 
 // Parses a Superscript expression into an AST
 string parse_to_ast(string expression);

The HostContext object is a callback interface allowing us to invoke host (iOS/Android) functions from our Rust code. It provides two functions:

• computed_property(name: String, args: String, callback: ResultCallback) - For computed properties/functions
• device_property(name: String, args: String, callback: ResultCallback) - For device properties/functions

The functions pass in the name and the args (if required, serialized as JSON) of the dynamic function/property to invoke, and use a callback to return the result asynchronously.

Android

To use the library in your Android application, you need to:

• Copy the jniLibs folder from ./target/android to Android project's superwall/src/main folder.
• Copy the cel.kt file from ./src/uniffi/cel/cel.kt to your Android project's superwall/src/main/java/com/superwall/uniffi/cel/ folder.

The library exposes a single function currently: fn evaluate_with_context(definition: String, ctx: HostContext) -> String

This function takes in a JSON containing the variables to be used and the expression to evaluate and returns the result. The JSON is required to be in shape of ExecutionContext, which is defined as:

{
  "variables": {
    // Map of variables that can be used in the expression
    // The key is the variable name, and the value is the variable value wrapped together with a type discriminator
    "map" : {
      "foo": {"type": "int", "value": 100},
      "some_property": {"type": "string", "value": "true"},
      "numbers": {
        "type" : "list",
        "value" : [
          {"type": "int", "value": 1},
          {"type": "int", "value": 2},
          {"type": "int", "value": 3}
        ]
      }
    }
  },
  // Host-exposed functions for computed properties
  "computed": {
    "daysSince": [{"type": "string", "value": "event_name"}],
    "some_property": []
  },
  // Host-exposed functions for device properties  
  "device": {
    "daysSince": [{"type": "string", "value": "event_name"}],
    "batteryLevel": []
  },
  // The Superscript expression to evaluate
  "expression": "device.daysSince(\"app_launch\") > 3.0 && computed.some_property == true"
}

Key Features

Null-Safe Evaluation

The library automatically transforms expressions to be null-safe:

• Property access: obj.property becomes has(obj.property) ? obj.property : null
• Function calls: device.function() becomes hasFn("device.function") ? device.function() : false

Built-in Functions

Supported functions are defined in the SUPPORTED_FUNCTIONS constant:

• maybe - Null coalescing operator
• toString, toBool, toInt, toFloat - Type conversion extension functions
• has - Checks if a property exists
• hasFn - Checks if a function is available

Host Integration

The HostContext provides async callbacks to resolve dynamic properties:

• computed_property(name, args, callback) - For computed functions
• device_property(name, args, callback) - For device functions

Results are returned as JSON-serialized PassableValue objects.

Variable Normalization

The library automatically normalizes string values to their appropriate types:

• "true"/"false" → Bool
• Numeric strings → Int/UInt/Float
• Works recursively on nested objects and arrays

Documentation

For a detailed explanation of the expression evaluation process, see interpretation-flow.md.

iOS

To use the library in your iOS application, you need to:

1. Make the build script executable:

• chmod +x ./build_ios.sh

2. Run the build script:

• ./build_ios.sh

3. Get the resulting XCframework from the ./target/xcframeworks/ folder and add it to your iOS project together with generated swift files from ./target/ios

This should give you a HostContext protocol:

public protocol HostContextProtocol : AnyObject {
    func computedProperty(name: String, args: String, callback: ResultCallback)
    func deviceProperty(name: String, args: String, callback: ResultCallback)
}

And a evaluateWithContext method you can invoke:

public func evaluateWithContext(definition: String, context: HostContext) -> String

Updating

When updating the library, you need to pay attention to uniffi bindings and ensure they match the signature of the library functions. While it is tempting to migrate the library to use uniffi for the entire library, we still need to use JSON for the input and output since UniFFI does not support recursive enums yet (such as PassableValue). For that, track this issue for updates.