A toggle is a switch that has two positions — on and off. It’s the same concept as your keyboard’s Caps Lock and Num Lock keys. Similarly, it’s common for software to offer users the ability to turn on or off functions via toggles.
Toggles allow for fast and easy feature experimentation within a continuous development workflow. By enabling a feature with a toggle and limiting the audience it’s available to, your product team can validate its performance and user experience without having to roll it out across the entire user base. Additionally, using a toggle as a circuit breaker can be an effective way to maintain stability during periods of high latency.
In the 18th century, the word toggle was a term for pin passed through an eye of a rope to hold it in place (similar to a rocker switch). While not as obvious today, toggles are still used to describe both hardware and software switches that are initially off and can be turned on and off.
Visibility toggles allow owners of a world to hide sections and items from viewers. To use this feature, go to the presentation view of an article and hover over the section or item that can be hidden. An eye icon will appear, and if you click it, the section or item will become a bit opaque to indicate that it’s hidden. Clicking the eye icon again will disable it and make the section or item visible once more.
A toggle can also be an excellent control for situations that require immediate results, such as when a user updates their preferences or settings. Because of this, it’s important that toggle buttons are clear in their purpose and don’t rely on color alone to communicate meaning. In addition, the toggle should always have a clear label and be placed in a visible location to prevent cognitive overload.
As a rule, toggles should be created and managed on separate feature branches from the main branch in your source code management tool. This allows for easier merging and reconciliation during code deployment. It also makes it easier to roll out or back out features, even if those changes are only temporary. Additionally, it’s a good idea to send automatic PRs removing usage of toggles that have served their purpose. This will ensure that your product team has visibility into what’s being used, and it will help keep the number of toggles in the main branch down.
