A toggle lets people choose between a pair of opposing states, like on and off. Typically, toggles use a different appearance to indicate each state. Using a toggle enables teams to release new functionality for testing with a segment of their audience before full rollout, which helps reduce the risk that a feature will flop.
A feature toggle can also act as a circuit breaker in your application by enabling your team to validate how a new feature will be received by your user base before it is deployed. A common example of this is the ability to allow a small group of users to test out new payment functionality before rolling it out to the entire user base.
Many product teams choose to use feature toggles for experimentation by allowing them to activate features in a limited number of segments of their audience and then collecting feedback on the new functionality before it is released to all users. The ability to enable and disable new functionality via feature toggles enables rapid feedback cycles and accelerates the release cycle of your products.
When implementing feature toggles it is important that your team establishes protocols for gathering and analyzing the performance of each toggle. This information is essential in comprehending how toggles impact system performance and behavior. Moreover, this data can provide important insights into whether any problems exist that need to be remediated.
Toggle switches should be designed to clearly identify the setting, view, or content the switch controls and update its appearance based on its current state. This will help ensure that the toggle is easily understood by your audience. Moreover, the color of the toggle should be selected carefully considering both contrast and cultural implications. For example, the color red can be counterintuitive to some audiences because of its association with stop signs and traffic lights.
While most toggles are short-lived it is recommended that your team create a fallback configuration for them which is flipped off. This will prevent unexpected regressions in the event that a toggle is accidentally reverted to its old configuration. In addition, it is recommended that you test the toggle configuration which you expect to be live in production as well as any toggles you plan to release flipped off.
A toggle is used to change the status of a piece of code in your application, such as changing a button from green to red or adding an additional checkbox. Toggle configurations can be managed in a variety of ways depending on your product and engineering environment. However, some techniques to consider include storing feature toggles in version control and ensuring that toggles are only accessible by authorized individuals. Moreover, your team should implement security methods in order to safeguard against unauthorized changes that can result in security breaches. Finally, your team should regularly audit and review toggle usage to uncover anomalous activity that could potentially compromise the integrity of your application.
