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Diffstat (limited to 'doc/development/feature_flags/development.md')
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/development/feature_flags/development.md | 46 |
1 files changed, 46 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/doc/development/feature_flags/development.md b/doc/development/feature_flags/development.md index dd732a08c72..0cdfa3e68d7 100644 --- a/doc/development/feature_flags/development.md +++ b/doc/development/feature_flags/development.md @@ -66,6 +66,13 @@ Feature.disabled?(:my_ops_flag, project, type: :ops) push_frontend_feature_flag(:my_ops_flag, project, type: :ops) ``` +### `experiment` type + +`experiment` feature flags are used for A/B testing on GitLab.com. + +An `experiment` feature flag should conform to the same standards as a `development` feature flag, +although the interface has some differences. More information can be found in the [experiment guide](../experiment_guide/index.md). + ## Feature flag definition and validation > [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/229161) in GitLab 13.3. @@ -321,6 +328,28 @@ Feature.enabled?(:feature_flag, group) Feature.enabled?(:feature_flag, user) ``` +#### Selectively disable by actor + +By default you cannot selectively disable a feature flag by actor. + +```shell +# This will not work how you would expect. +/chatops run feature set some_feature true +/chatops run feature set --project=gitlab-org/gitlab some_feature false +``` + +However, if you add two feature flags, you can write your conditional statement in such a way that the equivalent selective disable is possible. + +```ruby +Feature.enabled?(:a_feature, project) && Feature.disabled?(:a_feature_override, project) +``` + +```shell +# This will enable a feature flag globally, except for gitlab-org/gitlab +/chatops run feature set a_feature true +/chatops run feature set --project=gitlab-org/gitlab a_feature_override true +``` + ### Enable additional objects as actors To use feature gates based on actors, the model needs to respond to @@ -398,6 +427,9 @@ to ensure the feature works properly. When using the testing environment, all feature flags are enabled by default. +WARNING: +This does not apply to end-to-end (QA) tests, which [do not disable feature flags by default](#end-to-end-qa-tests). There is a different [process for using feature flags in end-to-end tests](../testing_guide/end_to_end/feature_flags.md). + To disable a feature flag in a test, use the `stub_feature_flags` helper. For example, to globally disable the `ci_live_trace` feature flag in a test: @@ -545,3 +577,17 @@ a mode that is used by `production` and `development`. You should use this mode only when you really want to tests aspects of Flipper with how it interacts with `ActiveRecord`. + +### End-to-end (QA) tests + +Toggling feature flags works differently in end-to-end (QA) tests. The end-to-end test framework does not have direct access to +Rails or the database, so it can't use Flipper. Instead, it uses [the public API](../../api/features.md#set-or-create-a-feature). Each end-to-end test can [enable or disable a feature flag during the test](../testing_guide/end_to_end/feature_flags.md). Alternatively, you can enable or disable a feature flag before one or more tests when you [run them from your GitLab repository's `qa` directory](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/tree/master/qa#running-tests-with-a-feature-flag-enabled-or-disabled), or if you [run the tests via GitLab QA](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-qa/-/blob/master/docs/what_tests_can_be_run.md#running-tests-with-a-feature-flag-enabled). + +[As noted above, feature flags are not enabled by default in end-to-end tests.](#feature-flags-in-tests) +This means that end-to-end tests will run with feature flags in the default state implemented in the source +code, or with the feature flag in its current state on the GitLab instance under test, unless the +test is written to enable/disable a feature flag explicitly. + +When a feature flag is changed on Staging or on GitLab.com, a Slack message will be posted to the `#qa-staging` or `#qa-production` channels to inform +the pipeline triage DRI so that they can more easily determine if any failures are related to a feature flag change. However, if you are working on a change you can +help to avoid unexpected failures by [confirming that the end-to-end tests pass with a feature flag enabled.](../testing_guide/end_to_end/feature_flags.md#confirming-that-end-to-end-tests-pass-with-a-feature-flag-enabled) |