diff --git a/src/content/daily-email/2023-09-28.md b/src/content/daily-email/2023-09-28.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..33060eefe --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/daily-email/2023-09-28.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: > + Feature flags enable continuous integration +pubDate: 2023-09-28 +permalink: > + archive/2023/09/28/feature-flags-enable-continuous-integration +tags: + - software-development + - git + - continuous-integration + - feature-flags +--- + +I was recently working on a feature over a few mob programming sessions. + +After the session, we implemented part of the feature but couldn't merge it as it wasn't complete. + +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). + +The commit prevented me from following continuous integration - where everyone commits and pushes their code a minimum of once daily. + +What if someone else wanted to look at that code between mob sessions? They couldn't, as it was only on my laptop. + +If I'd made a temporary branch, it would be outdated and behind other changes to our mainline branch. + +## Feature flags to the rescue + +As this commit was part of a larger change, it couldn't be merged, so we added a feature flag around it. + +The values were set to null and hidden by default, and populated by the new changes and displayed if the flag was enabled. + +## Here's the thing + +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. + +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.