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Feature flippers

Feature flippers allow enabling and disabling specific platform features dynamically. They can be controlled per platform, user group, or individual user - and even limited to specific contexts (such as courses).

Tip

For development, this also enables continuous deployment by deploying “unfinished” features, hidden behind such a flipper.

See below for explanations on managing feature flippers (creating a flipper and using it in the code).

Annotations

  • Experimental and temporary features intended for migration purposes or prototypical use.
  • Feature is programmatically enabled / disabled, typically part of a broader feature set, and is tied to a specific user.
  • Deprecated feature, which is planned to be removed.

List of features

account.login

Enable (native) platform login: This will enable password reset and shows the login form (with user / password input).

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

account.registration

Enable (native) platform registration: This will show the registration form and the respective button for the login form.

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

announcements

Enable accessing “global” announcements (admin- and user-facing pages) on the platform (including the start page) as well as publishing them via email.

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

Note

This is not referring to “targeted announcements”. See the admin_announcements feature below.

admin_announcements

Enable the new admin-only announcement overview (accessible via platform admin menu).

Scope: Group.administrators, Context.root

alternative_sections.create

Enables the ability to create alternative sections. This doesn’t affect existing alternative sections, these can be visited and edited without this flipper.

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

certificate_requirements

Display the certificate requirements on the course page.

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

course.access-group

Allow courses that are only accessible for certain user groups, usually coupled with SSO.

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

course.reactivated

This user has purchased a course reactivation for a specific course; items are fetched for this user (thus: overriding caching), in order to apply enforced submission deadlines.

Scope: User, Course

Info

The feature is set programmatically. Set the course_reactivation flipper to allow course reactivations for the platform.

course.required_items

Enable the admin interface for adding required items to a learning unit.

Scope: Group.administrators, Context.root

course_dashboard.show_cops_details

Display detailed CoPs statistics (at the course end and since the course end) on the course dashboard. Hidden by default until results are deemed reliable.

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

course_details.learning_goals

Display the learning goals on the course details page.

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

course_list

Enable the global course list.

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

Warning

Should be disabled on “headless” platforms that sit behind a custom portal.

course_rating

Enable the course rating widget on the course details pages.

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

course_reactivation

Enable course reactivation for the platform. Course reactivation can then be enabled individually per course via UI.

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

chatbot.prototype-2

Enable the chatbot prototype in the helpdesk widget.

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

Info

This requires the chatbot backend to be set up properly. Further configuration is required.

dashboard.course_recommendations

Enable the course recommendation widget on the user’s dashboard, showing courses for promotion (e.g., current or upcoming courses).

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

gamification

Enable gamification for the platform (e.g., XP in navigation and user badges in the discussion forum).

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

geo_ip_block

Block users from Russia and Belarus on the registration pages.

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

ical_feed

Enable the iCal feed for the user’s next (course) dates (button on the dashboard).

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

integration.external_booking

Enable integration with external booking tools for courses. This adds a JWT token to external registration URLs.

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

new_pinboard.phase-1.2

Enable the new pinboard prototype, i.e. a specific variant of the discussion forum.

Scope: User, Course (A/B tests)

open_mode

Enable the preview of video items for anonymous or non-enrolled users for items that are flagged for ‘open mode’ via the item settings.

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

Warning

Do not enable this feature for staging / testing systems.

password_change.remove_sessions

Log out users on other browsers when they change their password in the profile.

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

preview_graded_quiz_points

Display achieved score (not the results) for graded quizzes immediately after submission.

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

primary_email_suspended

Disable email notifications and show a warning for users where emails to the primary email bounced.

Scope: User, Context.root

Info

The feature is set programmatically.

proctoring

Enable proctoring for the platform. Proctoring can be enabled individually per course, there is a course-specific proctored setting.

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

Info

This feature requires further configuration. The following keys must be set in the config/secrets.yml file:

smowl_entity: my_entity
smowl_password: my_password
profile

Enable the user profile page.

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

Warning

Should be disabled on “headless” platforms that sit behind a custom portal.

quiz_recap

Enable the quiz recap feature in the course area.

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

records.exclude_birthdate

Hide notes / hints about the preference to display a user’s birthdate on records.

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

social_sharing.certificate

Enable social sharing for open badges on the certificates page.

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

time_effort

Enable time effort estimation shown in the item navigation and on the item page.

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

Info

This requires the time effort service to be set up for the platform.

time_effort.video_only

Enable time effort estimation shown in the item navigation and on the item page.

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

Info

This feature must be used in conjunction with the time_effort feature.

users.search_by_auth_uid

Allow admins to search users via authorization UID.

Scope: Group.administrators, Context.root

video_slide_thumbnails

Enable slide thumbnails in the video player.

Scope: Group.all_users, Context.root

Manage feature flippers

This section explains how to manage feature flippers for a platform.

Enable features

For enabling a specific feature - either locally or for a production system - a corresponding Feature record needs to be created via Rails console (account service):

AccountService::Feature.create!(
  name: 'feature_name',
  value: true,
  owner: User.find(user_id),
  context: Context.root      # or a specific (course) context
)

AccountService::Feature.create!(
  name: 'feature_name',
  value: true,
  owner: Group.all_users,    # or a any other group
  context: Context.root
)

This will enable the feature_name feature for the respective users in the given context.

The following global special groups can be used:

  • Group.active_users - all confirmed, non-archived users
  • Group.administrators - all members of the group xikolo.administrators
  • Group.affiliated_users - all active users with the affiliated flag
  • Group.all_users - all users (including anonymous, non-confirmed, archived)
  • Group.confirmed_users - all confirmed users (including archived)
  • Group.unconfirmed_users - all unconfirmed users (including anonymous)
  • Group.archived_users - all archived users

Feature owners

User.find('00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000')  # Query user by ID
User.query('jane.doe@example.com').first           # Query user by email

Group.find('00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000') # Query group by ID
Group.active_users                                 # Use a special group

Check features for the current user

When developing a feature, enabled features for a user can be checked as follows.

if current_user.feature?('feature_name')
  # Execute logic...
end

When running code in other services, such as in a cron job or background job and not for of spcific user, it may be necessary to check whether a feature is enabled for the platform. In this case, the anonymous session can be used to check for the status of the feature for all users:

Xikolo.api(:account).value!
      .rel(:session).get(id: 'anonymous', embed: 'features').value!

=> {"id"=>nil,
    "self_url"=>"http://localhost:3100/sessions/anonymous",
    "user_id"=>"02e4fdd9-23f3-45f5-ba45-95cbc41c42f0",
    "user_url"=>"http://localhost:3100/users/02e4fdd9-23f3-45f5-ba45-95cbc41c42f0",
    "user_agent"=>nil,
    "masqueraded"=>false,
    "interrupt"=>false,
    "interrupts"=>[],
    "features"=>{"for_everyone"=>"t"}}

Disable features

If you want to disable a specific feature that has been previously enabled, the corresponding Feature record needs to be destroyed.

AccountService::Feature.find_by!(name: 'feature_name', owner: User.find(user_id)).destroy!

Best practices

  1. Regularly review enabled features.
  2. Test new features before enabling them for all users.
  3. Maintain documentation of changes.