Toggle is a piece of software that allows users to switch between different modes, states or options. It is commonly used in technology, computing, programming and communications to give users the ability to easily change between different settings. In terms of UI, toggles are often used as sliders or buttons that display an on or off status for the user.
Toggles can be used in a variety of ways, such as showing or hiding certain elements of a page based on screen size, browser window or device type. They can also be used to control the visibility of navigation menus or sidebars on responsive websites to ensure that important content is visible to all visitors.
One of the most common uses for toggles in web applications is to manage responsiveness. Using toggles to show or hide nav menus and sidebars, for example, helps reduce clutter on smaller screens and improve the overall usability of a website.
In many cases, the toggle configuration is stored in static files and modified via these. However, this method becomes cumbersome when a system scales beyond a certain point. To overcome this, most organizations 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 form of admin UI which allows system operators, testers and product managers to view and modify the feature flag configuration.
When creating a toggle it is important to include clearly defined On and Off labels which communicate what the toggle is affecting. These should be localized appropriately and should use visual cues, such as movement and color to avoid confusion. In addition, a toggle should have an associated handler that reacts to changes in its state.
Savvy teams view the Feature Toggles in their codebase as inventory which comes with a carrying cost and seek to keep this inventory low. To accomplish this, they take a proactive approach to remove feature flags that are no longer required. Some teams will add a task to the team’s backlog or create a sprint goal for toggle removal. Others may even go as far as to put “expiration dates” on their toggles to enforce this.
In some instances, such as with a Champagne Brunch or Permissioning Toggle, the decision about which route to take must be made on a request-by-request basis and thus require a Dynamic Flag. As such, these types of toggles will generally be long-lived compared to other categories of Feature Toggles. For this reason it is especially important to place a high emphasis on the implementation quality of these long-lived toggles.
