{ "uuid": [ { "value": "86c57486-ce6b-45ae-b953-2f15ae8cf0cb" } ], "langcode": [ { "value": "en" } ], "type": [ { "target_id": "daily_email", "target_type": "node_type", "target_uuid": "8bde1f2f-eef9-4f2d-ae9c-96921f8193d7" } ], "revision_timestamp": [ { "value": "2025-05-11T09:00:30+00:00" } ], "revision_uid": [ { "target_type": "user", "target_uuid": "b8966985-d4b2-42a7-a319-2e94ccfbb849" } ], "revision_log": [], "status": [ { "value": true } ], "uid": [ { "target_type": "user", "target_uuid": "b8966985-d4b2-42a7-a319-2e94ccfbb849" } ], "title": [ { "value": "Feature flags enable continuous integration\n" } ], "created": [ { "value": "2023-09-28T00:00:00+00:00" } ], "changed": [ { "value": "2025-05-11T09:00:30+00:00" } ], "promote": [ { "value": false } ], "sticky": [ { "value": false } ], "default_langcode": [ { "value": true } ], "revision_translation_affected": [ { "value": true } ], "path": [ { "alias": "\/daily\/2023\/09\/28\/feature-flags-enable-continuous-integration", "langcode": "en" } ], "body": [ { "value": "\n
I was recently working on a feature over a few mob programming sessions.<\/p>\n\n
After the session, we implemented part of the feature but couldn't merge it as it wasn't complete.<\/p>\n\n
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
The commit prevented me from following continuous integration - where everyone commits and pushes their code a minimum of once daily.<\/p>\n\n
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
If I'd made a temporary branch, it would be outdated and behind other changes to our mainline branch.<\/p>\n\n
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
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
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
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 ", "format": "full_html", "processed": "\n
I was recently working on a feature over a few mob programming sessions.<\/p>\n\n
After the session, we implemented part of the feature but couldn't merge it as it wasn't complete.<\/p>\n\n
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
The commit prevented me from following continuous integration - where everyone commits and pushes their code a minimum of once daily.<\/p>\n\n
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
If I'd made a temporary branch, it would be outdated and behind other changes to our mainline branch.<\/p>\n\n
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
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
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
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 ", "summary": null } ] }