The goal of software development workflows is geared toward releasing new features and updates, which can sometimes cause issues if not handled correctly. In my opinion, using feature flags has proven to be essential in situations like these. You can use them to easily deploy new features, and if there are bugs you can quickly turn a feature off, then turned it on again when they have been fixed without having to redeploy the app.
By now, you’re probably well-acquainted with the suite of useful feature flag tools offered by ConfigCat. In case you aren't, ConfigCat is a developer-centric feature flag service with unlimited team size, awesome support, and a reasonable price tag. Let's play it safe and discuss 3 cool things that ConfigCat allows you to do – which we bet you didn’t know about! I’ll cover:
Let’s get started!
Autumn of 2021 saw the release of the newest .NET version, .NET6. This new release brought some updates that could potentially make a developer’s life easier, such as improved performance and a simpler development process. With less code to write and productivity tools like hot reloading, the new .NET was quickly adopted by developers all over the world.
Even before the new release, .NET had a wide range of utilities and has risen to become of the most popular frameworks available. Whether you’re migrating from an older version or just getting started on a new project, you may be wondering what feature management solutions are available to you. I wondered as well, so in this tutorial, I’ll go over one of the best - using feature flags.
If you’ve been reading about feature flags then I’m sure you’re convinced of the power and value they provide. Since development is mostly a team effort, you may be wondering how to manage a feature flag within a team, regardless of size, so one developer’s work doesn’t affect another’s. Well, in this article, we discuss exactly this issue and offer two solutions, depending on the size of your team.
Let's say your team has developed a new feature update and is planning to release it to the public. There can be some uncertainty and risk because it is hard to predict how users will react to the change. Will the new update have a negative impact and drive users away from the app? The best way to know for sure is to adopt an A/B testing approach by releasing it to a subset of users to measure its impact prior to making a full deployment. This gives you enough room to uncover bugs and refine the feature without disrupting the experience for everyone.
Picture this: You’ve added a new feature to your software, linked it to a feature flag, and deployed it to production. Now, you’d like to enable this feature for a subset of your users to get their feedback before you take the leap and roll it out to everyone.
But who gets to see this new feature first? How do you choose the first user segment? How do you use feature flag rules to target them?
Good to know: Feature flags let you launch new features and change your software configuration without (re)deploying code.
Let’s look at some typical real-world examples of how you can do canary releases using ConfigCat.
When it comes to smooth deployment and roll-out of new features in software products, feature flags play a critical role. Across software development workflows like agile, they are becoming essential. I have found that using them drastically reduced the risk of adversely affecting user experience since they enable me to quickly disable a new feature if unintentional bugs are discovered.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past two years, chances are you’re well-acquainted with today’s hybrid work environment and the tools that come with the territory. Platforms such as Jira, Trello and Slack are well established as tools that enable high-level remote collaboration and task management. ConfigCat provides straightforward integrations with Jira, Trello, and Slack that allow for higher visibility and easier, more convenient feature flag management. In this blog, I’ll go through these feature flag devices one by one, outlining their functionality and how to integrate them.
Knowing up front whether a new feature will improve or worsen user experience can be a challenging decision. If we don't adopt the proper mechanisms and processes to test new features we stand a high risk of introducing new bugs. By incorporating A/B testing into our feature release workflow, we can minimize these situations by testing the new feature with a small sample of users before deploying it.
Softwares and libraries often evolve to include new features, security patches, bug fixes, and refactorings. When software evolves, it may introduce breaking changes (BCs) in its API, breaking the previous contract or compatibility with its clients.
Semantic Versioning (SemVer) is a specification for assigning version numbers to software to communicate the degree of change between software releases and updates. However, it turned out the world was missing a proper semantic version library for C++, so we implemented one.