15 posts tagged with "ConfigCat"

Instead of relying on assumptions to decide which variation of a piece of software is better, you can let your users guide the decision through a controlled experiment. A/B testing involves splitting your user base into separate groups, where each group experiences a unique variation of a product or feature. By measuring the performance of each variation, you can determine which one works better.

To conduct such a test, you need a tool that helps you split your users into groups and display the appropriate variation for each group. Feature flags are an ideal tool for this. Let's walk through the process of conducting such an experiment in an Elixir app.

Let's say you've heard about the benefits of using feature flags for gradual feature rollouts, and you're ready to adopt them in your organization. The next step would be deciding whether to "build or buy."

If you choose to develop your feature flagging tool, you'll need to figure out how to make it fetch, evaluate, and manage feature flags. If you want to use a third-party tool, you might have to learn and unlearn different APIs as you search for the right one.

Challenges like these inspired the creation of OpenFeature, a CNCF (Cloud Native Computing Foundation) project that aims to standardize feature flagging.

Experimentation is key to successful product development, helping businesses innovate and stay competitive by testing and refining ideas. User actions like page views, clicks, and scrolls provide valuable data about what works and what doesn't. To improve products, businesses need tools that make it easy to understand this data. Using feature flags with analytics tools is a great approach. ConfigCat and Mixpanel, when used together, help businesses roll out new features smoothly and gain important insights for making better decisions.

In the ever-evolving world of software development, the ability to create personalized and dynamic user experiences is paramount. This article explores how InfluxDB, a prominent time-series database solution, leveraged ConfigCat's feature flags to enhance their Cloud 2 user testing processes. The insights shared in this article are based on a video presentation by Gavin Cabbage from InfluxDB.

With the constant growing digitalization, our lives are continually enhanced by innovative features that simplify daily tasks. Central to this seamless integration of new functionalities is the concept of feature flagging—a powerful tool that allows developers to effortlessly toggle software components on or off.

This flexibility enables modifications without the need to redeploy or risk breaking the entire software infrastructure, offering tailored experiences to specific clients, regions, or user groups. Feature flags extend beyond mere software development, unlocking a plethora of versatile applications across various domains.

However, the utility of feature flags is primarily intended for temporary use and demands a strategic approach for their retirement. Hence, understanding the nuances of feature flag retirement is essential in maintaining an efficient and clean codebase.

Docker is a platform that enables developers to build apps and run them in mini virtual machines called containers. As a result, developers can just focus on writing code without needing to set up or configure an environment for running that code. Docker also allows easy application sharing because its environment is abstracted away from the host machine. This allows the containerized application to run on any host machine Docker is installed on. Developers can extend the functionality of Docker's desktop application with extensions. But the goodness doesn't stop there. You can use feature flags to control smaller feature components of these extensions without rebuilding and updating them.

As a front-end developer, I spend most of my time writing code and developing front-end applications. Several months ago, I wondered what it would be like to run a tech startup. It turns out that I spend my spare time writing blog articles for such a company. Meet ConfigCat, a thriving tech startup that offers a cloud-hosted feature flagging solution to other tech companies.

Most importantly, I was curious to know how the company was created and the secret behind its success, as well as how they are able to handle high-end user demands while delivering a seamless feature flagging solution. To answer these questions, I decided to conduct an online interview with the core engineering team to satisfy my curiosity and to share what I found with you, the reader.

We're thrilled to announce important updates to our Service Level Agreement (SLA) concerning uptime commitments.

Since we always want to increase the quality of our service, we've revisited and enhanced our SLA terms to reflect these goals more than ever before.

Ever since the dawn of feature releases, feature flags have become the de facto standard for managing and controlling features in software applications. Many software development methodologies these days such as agile, are heavily focused on releasing continuous updates and features. In addition, a few companies have based their entire business around serving clients a cloud-based feature flagging solution. But in limited bandwidth situations or when you need to optimize the performance of your client-facing applications making API requests may not be ideal. This can be handled by implementing a process called caching with the help of a popular tool called Redis.

The primary goal of many software companies today is to keep end users engaged with their software by releasing new features and updates. This is made possible via a mechanism known as feature flagging. As software applications grow and scale to the ever-increasing demand for new features, another problem arises. It is easy to lose track of where we use feature flags throughout our code. This results in forgetting to remove them when their features have been fully implemented and deployed. How do we fix this?