Continuous Integration (CI) is a process by which new features and updates are continuously added to an application to keep it updated and secure. At the end of each cycle, the changes are deployed to end users. To prevent human errors, various automated tools are chained together to carry out this process. CircleCI is a broader tool that facilitates this, and it also provides an automated solution for managing your feature flags.
After using a certain tool, feature, or framework in expanding projects, things will start to look more complicated. You begin to wonder if everything is up to standards. Are things implemented correctly and are we following the best practices at the moment, so we have an easier time in the future? The short answer is probably not, because it's impossible.
Every project is different, and it requires an individual approach which will have to have some shortcuts. That being the case, each tool has a certain set of advice on what not to do. If followed, projects can avoid looming pitfalls.
Feature flags are an innovative way of feature management. By using it, you can flag the component and easily disable or enable a feature. This can be done without redeploying the application, and it can target specific clients, regions, or any other category needed.
Continuous Integration and Continuous Development/Deployment, most commonly abbreviated as CI/CD has changed and improved the way modern software is developed and shipped. When compared to traditional approaches which had a definite end, the CI/CD process is always ongoing with a strong emphasis on automation. As a result, new features and updates are steadily released to end users. This puts a huge overhead on developers and stakeholders to manage features efficiently. But, with the right feature management tool in place, this can be streamlined and simplified without much overhead, if any at all.
With the rise of cloud computing, Function as a Service (FaaS) services are becoming quite popular in the software industry. This is in part due to them not requiring the setup and implementation of a backend server to process and respond to data requests. This allows developers to focus on doing what they do best, writing better code.
By integrating such a service with feature flags, you can expand the way your functions work by toggling functionalities on or off and even rolling them back if anything goes wrong. Added to that, there is no limit on the number of feature flags you can implement, and they can be integrated into just about any language and framework out there.
It has become very common to use e-commerce websites to conduct shopping. Today, e-commerce is a large and competitive market with many options for consumers to choose from. Because of this, E-Commerce companies need to find ways to differentiate themselves and retain customers. One popular method that companies use to improve their website's performance and drive up sales is to conduct A/B testing.
By doing A/B tests, businesses can test different versions of their web pages and app features to see which ones perform best with their audience.
Feature flags have equipped software developers with the ability to seamlessly roll out and roll back new features with the click of a button.
Due to their design and architecture, feature flags can be adapted and integrated into many languages and frameworks. They can also be used with other technologies to enhance or add decoupled functionalities. Using them in a real-time 3D creation tool like Unreal Engine is no exception to this.
Software development workflows change over time, and they involve an organized plan of development tasks. Today, these tasks build up the software incrementally. The industry standard for tracking code changes is the source code management tool - Git. But, besides Git, there is another great thing that helps development teams. It is a feature management system. Read on to learn what a Feature Management System is, and its use in software development.
With a well-implemented feature flagging solution in place, your end users' experience should not be interrupted during feature rollouts. If unforeseen bugs are later discovered in the new feature, you should be able to easily roll it back without redeploying your application. In my opinion, feature flags are most useful in situations like these and are becoming quite popular in the software industry for releasing and controlling existing features throughout many applications. Because of their flexible nature, feature flags can be integrated and used alongside existing technologies to enhance day-to-day operations.
Before feature flags, releasing a new feature would require taking your application offline to make changes, then redeploying it. In addition, if you find bugs after the release, you'll have to start the process from scratch. Despite being a traditional approach, this won't serve your users and your business well today. A feature flagging solution allows you to release and even roll back features without downtime with just a few clicks.
Suppose you have two variations of a software product but you're not sure which one to deploy. The solution would be to conduct an A/B test in which you can release each variation to a small percentage of users. This would allow you to gather concrete evidence from real users to help you decide which variation is better without affecting your entire user base. This type of testing has proven to be useful by many software companies around the world to scale and streamline their products and services.
