oliverdavies.uk/content/node.86c57486-ce6b-45ae-b953-2f15ae8cf0cb.json

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    "title": [
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            "value": "Feature flags enable continuous integration\n"
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            "value": "\n          <p>I was recently working on a feature over a few mob programming sessions.<\/p>\n\n<p>After the session, we implemented part of the feature but couldn't merge it as it wasn't complete.<\/p>\n\n<p>After working on other things that day, I'd need to rebase my local commits and push the last-but-one commit to the remote repository to keep the incomplete feature only in my local repository (I forgot a few times and almost pushed it accidentally).<\/p>\n\n<p>The commit prevented me from following continuous integration - where everyone commits and pushes their code a minimum of once daily.<\/p>\n\n<p>What if someone else wanted to look at that code between mob sessions? They couldn't, as it was only on my laptop.<\/p>\n\n<p>If I'd made a temporary branch, it would be outdated and behind other changes to our mainline branch.<\/p>\n\n<h2 id=\"feature-flags-to-the-rescue\">Feature flags to the rescue<\/h2>\n\n<p>As this commit was part of a larger change, it couldn't be merged, so we added a feature flag around it.<\/p>\n\n<p>The values were set to null and hidden by default, and populated by the new changes and displayed if the flag was enabled.<\/p>\n\n<h2 id=\"here%27s-the-thing\">Here's the thing<\/h2>\n\n<p>This meant we could safely push the commit, make the changes available to everyone and enable the feature on the environments we wanted - preventing it from showing on production.<\/p>\n\n<p>This allowed us to get back to our usual working practices, and I didn't need to worry about accidentally pushing the commit and prematurely showing our changes in production.<\/p>\n\n        ",
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            "processed": "\n          <p>I was recently working on a feature over a few mob programming sessions.<\/p>\n\n<p>After the session, we implemented part of the feature but couldn't merge it as it wasn't complete.<\/p>\n\n<p>After working on other things that day, I'd need to rebase my local commits and push the last-but-one commit to the remote repository to keep the incomplete feature only in my local repository (I forgot a few times and almost pushed it accidentally).<\/p>\n\n<p>The commit prevented me from following continuous integration - where everyone commits and pushes their code a minimum of once daily.<\/p>\n\n<p>What if someone else wanted to look at that code between mob sessions? They couldn't, as it was only on my laptop.<\/p>\n\n<p>If I'd made a temporary branch, it would be outdated and behind other changes to our mainline branch.<\/p>\n\n<h2 id=\"feature-flags-to-the-rescue\">Feature flags to the rescue<\/h2>\n\n<p>As this commit was part of a larger change, it couldn't be merged, so we added a feature flag around it.<\/p>\n\n<p>The values were set to null and hidden by default, and populated by the new changes and displayed if the flag was enabled.<\/p>\n\n<h2 id=\"here%27s-the-thing\">Here's the thing<\/h2>\n\n<p>This meant we could safely push the commit, make the changes available to everyone and enable the feature on the environments we wanted - preventing it from showing on production.<\/p>\n\n<p>This allowed us to get back to our usual working practices, and I didn't need to worry about accidentally pushing the commit and prematurely showing our changes in production.<\/p>\n\n        ",
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