Main Concepts
Feature Flag or Setting
A Setting is an essential bit of ConfigCat. It can be of multiple types like on/off switch (bool), number (int, double) or any text (string) your application requires to be modified without the need of a new deployment.
A Feature Flag is a Setting of type Bool.
Anatomy of a Feature Flag or Setting
| Properties | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | A human readable name that differentiates the Setting on the ConfigCat Dashboard. e.g., My Cool Feature enabled. |
| Key | A variable name within your code. e.g., isCoolFeatureEnabled. |
| Type | Type of information you'd like to keep in the Setting. e.g., On/Off Toggle, Text, Number |
| Value | The actual value of your Setting. e.g., true, false. Can be different in each environment. |
About Setting types
| Setting Kind | Setting Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| On/Off Toggle | Boolean | true/false, usually referenced as Feature Flag, Feature Toggle or Feature switch. |
| Text | String | Any string, max. 100000 characters, can't be empty. |
| Whole Number | Integer | Any whole number within the range of Int32. |
| Decimal Number | Double | Any decimal number within the range of double. |
Config
A Config is a collection of Settings. Configs help you organize settings around topics, or around your software components. A Config is like an online version of a traditional config file.
Environment
An environment in ConfigCat represents an environment in your development lifecycle (like production, staging, development etc.). Different environments have the same settings but can have different values.
Each environment-config pair has its own SDK Key which must be used to initialize the ConfigCat SDK within your application.
Product
A collection of Configs, Environments and Team members. A Product typically represents your application (or your service) and the people working on it. It might be a good idea to invite others to your Product to collaborate.
Organization
An Organization represents a collection of preferences that are valid for all the Products and Members who belong to an Organization. Like billing information, authentication rules or data privacy preferences.