A toggle is a switch that can be set to one of two states, on or off. It’s a form of binary control often used in electronic devices or systems programming. The term can also be applied to a feature or setting that’s toggleable, like turning on and off an audio device’s volume.
The word toggle dates back to the 18th century. It was originally used to describe a pin passing transversely through an eye or loop in a rope, to bind it temporarily to another chain or rope in the same way. Later, it was extended to refer to any sort of fastener or toggle joint used in clothing and furniture production. Today, it’s most commonly used to describe a button that can be set to one of two positions: on or off.
Toggle has become a very popular word in software development. It’s an important term for anyone who builds applications because it describes a feature that can be turned on and off, or switched between on and off. Many modern web applications use toggles to allow users to customize the behavior of those apps and make them more personal.
Managing toggle configuration via static files becomes cumbersome at a certain scale. This is particularly true in larger organizations. To address this issue many teams move the toggle configuration into some type of centralized store, often an existing application DB. This is usually accompanied by the build-out of some kind of admin UI which allows system operators, testers and product managers to view and modify Features Flags and their toggle configuration.
When designing a toggle, the labels should clearly indicate what will happen when the control is flipped. Often these labels will be augmented with visual cues, such as movement and color to help avoid confusion. In addition, the color chosen for a toggle’s state should be carefully considered for both contrast and societal and cultural implications.
While it’s most important to test the toggle configuration which is expected to be live in production, it’s also wise to test a fall-back configuration where those toggles that are meant to be released are flipped Off. This will help prevent surprise regressions in future releases.
In general, toggles are best suited for adjusting system settings and preferences, such as the state of Airplane Mode. However, they can also be used for more dynamic decisions such as whether to expose a new feature to premium users or to offer an upgrade to existing users.
The Toggle API is a powerful tool that gives developers the ability to implement dynamically configurable components. While this capability can be useful in certain situations, it’s not appropriate for every application. When the Toggle API is misused, it can result in bugs that are difficult to track and fix. For this reason, it’s important to understand how the Toggle API works before using it in any application. In the case of unexpected bugs, it may be necessary to disable the Toggle API to fix the bug.
