"value":"\n <p>I recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oliverdavies.uk\/daily\/2024\/12\/18\/self-hosting-podcast\">switched to self hosting<\/a> the MP3 files for the episodes of the Beyond Blocks podcast.<\/p>\n\n<p>The first step was to upload the files, followed by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oliverdavies.uk\/daily\/2024\/12\/19\/working-iteratively\">updating the player<\/a> on the episode pages to use the HTML audio element.<\/p>\n\n<p>As I didn't want the player to switch immediately, I wrapped the new code in a feature flag (or feature toggle) to keep the original player active.<\/p>\n\n<p>Later, I could swap the player by enabling the feature flag.<\/p>\n\n<h2 id=\"how-i-did-it\">How I did it<\/h2>\n\n<p>Feature flagging is a straight forward concept.<\/p>\n\n<p>You isolate the code you want to be togglable within a conditional - i.e. an <code>if<\/code> statement - that you can easily change in the future.<\/p>\n\n<p>My website built with Sculpin, so I can add <code>self_host_podcast_episodes: false<\/code> to my sculpin_site.yml file.<\/p>\n\n<p>This will be available as <code>site.self_host_podcast_episodes<\/code> and I can use this in my code to show the appropriate player.<\/p>\n\n<p>Something like:<\/p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"twig\">{% if site.self_host_podcast_episodes %}\n Show the new player.\n{% else %}\n Show the old player.\n{% endif %}<\/code><\/pre>\n\n<h2 id=\"here%27s-the-thing\">Here's the thing<\/h2>\n\n<p>I like feature flags as you can separate deploying a feature from releasing it.<\/p>\n\n<p>The code can be deployed but not active until the feature is enabled.<\/p>\n\n<p>It's easy to enable, and easy to revert if needed.<\/p>\n\n<p>In Drupal applications, I use the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drupal.org\/project\/feature_toggle\">Feature Toggle module<\/a>, so I can toggle feature flags by logging in and updating a checkbox.<\/p>\n\n<p>I also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drupal.org\/project\/feature_toggle_twig\">wrote a module<\/a> with a Twig function so I can check if a feature toggle is enabled directly in a Twig template - the same as I'm doing in Sculpin.<\/p>\n\n ",
"format":"full_html",
"processed":"\n <p>I recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oliverdavies.uk\/daily\/2024\/12\/18\/self-hosting-podcast\">switched to self hosting<\/a> the MP3 files for the episodes of the Beyond Blocks podcast.<\/p>\n\n<p>The first step was to upload the files, followed by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oliverdavies.uk\/daily\/2024\/12\/19\/working-iteratively\">updating the player<\/a> on the episode pages to use the HTML audio element.<\/p>\n\n<p>As I didn't want the player to switch immediately, I wrapped the new code in a feature flag (or feature toggle) to keep the original player active.<\/p>\n\n<p>Later, I could swap the player by enabling the feature flag.<\/p>\n\n<h2 id=\"how-i-did-it\">How I did it<\/h2>\n\n<p>Feature flagging is a straight forward concept.<\/p>\n\n<p>You isolate the code you want to be togglable within a conditional - i.e. an <code>if<\/code> statement - that you can easily change in the future.<\/p>\n\n<p>My website built with Sculpin, so I can add <code>self_host_podcast_episodes: false<\/code> to my sculpin_site.yml file.<\/p>\n\n<p>This will be available as <code>site.self_host_podcast_episodes<\/code> and I can use this in my code to show the appropriate player.<\/p>\n\n<p>Something like:<\/p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"twig\">{% if site.self_host_podcast_episodes %}\n Show the new player.\n{% else %}\n Show the old player.\n{% endif %}<\/code><\/pre>\n\n<h2 id=\"here%27s-the-thing\">Here's the thing<\/h2>\n\n<p>I like feature flags as you can separate deploying a feature from releasing it.<\/p>\n\n<p>The code can be deployed but not active until the feature is enabled.<\/p>\n\n<p>It's easy to enable, and easy to revert if needed.<\/p>\n\n<p>In Drupal applications, I use the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drupal.org\/project\/feature_toggle\">Feature Toggle module<\/a>, so I can toggle feature flags by logging in and updating a checkbox.<\/p>\n\n<p>I also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drupal.org\/project\/feature_toggle_twig\">wrote a module<\/a> with a Twig function so I can check if a feature toggle is enabled directly in a Twig template - the same as I'm doing in Sculpin.<\/p>\n\n ",