feature_setting

This gem introduces the concept of "features" and "settings" to your Rails app. It provides an easy way to define such features and settings with default values right in your code and will persist them in the database.

• a feature is a key that can either be enabled or disabled
• a setting is a key that has a value (of type String, Fixnum, Float, Array, or Hash)

In practice, features can be used to switch certain functionality in your code on or off. This can be used to roll out functionality without the need to deploy. Settings are very flexible in that they can hold any value. The possibilities are endless. They should not be used to store application secrets, such as tokens, passwords, and keys. Those type of settings should rather be stored in environment variables using tools like https://github.com/bkeepers/dotenv.

Both, features and settings are configured in your code with default values. They can then be updated at any time in the Rails console and persist in the database.

# using features:
if Feature.caching_enabled?
  # do this
else
  # do that
end

# using settings:
if Setting.error_threshold > 500
    # do this
end

if Setting.allowed_users.include?(current_user)
  # to that
end

Installation

Add the gem to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'feature_setting'

Now run the feature_setting installation:

$ rails generate feature_setting:install

This generates a migration file. To run this migration:

$ rake db:migrate

The next step is to define your Feature and/or Setting classes.

Usage

Features

To create a new Feature class, inherit a class from FeatureSetting::Feature (if using a gem version prior to 1.2.0 use FeatureSetting::FsFeature). Then define your features in a hash called FEATURES and call init_features!.

class Features < FeatureSetting::Feature
  FEATURES = {
    newfeature: true
  }

  init_features!
end

Note: You can call init_features!(true) to remove any existing features that are not defined anymore

For each key you have defined, a class method keyname_enabled? is generated. You can now do the following:

Features.newfeature_enabled? # => true
Features.disable!(:newfeature)
Features.newfeature_enabled? # => false
Features.enable!(:newfeature)
Features.newfeature_enabled? # => true

Or you can use these shortcuts:

Features.enable_newfeature!
Features.disable_newfeature!

Default values for features are defined in your class and current values are persisted in the database.

Settings

To create a new Setting class, inherit a class from FeatureSetting::Setting (if using a gem version prior to 1.2.0 use FeatureSetting::FsSetting). Then define your settings in a hash called SETTINGS and call init_settings!. The following example shows the setup and some possible definitions.

class Settings < FeatureSetting::Setting
  SETTINGS = {
    setting_one:   12300,
    setting_two:   'some string',
    setting_three: %w(one two three),
    setting_four:  ENV['SETTING_FOUR'],
    setting_five:  { key1: 'value1', key2: 'value2' }
    setting_six:   true
  }

  init_settings!
end

Note: You can call init_settings!(true) to remove any existing settings that are not defined anymore

You can now do the following:

Settings.setting_one # => 12300
Settings.setting_one = 2000
Settings.setting_one # => 2000

NEW IN VERSION 1.6: Hashes values can be updated individually and will not overwrite the entire hash:

Settings.setting_five = { key1: 'another_value' }
=> setting_five:  { key1: 'another_value', key2: 'value2' }

Settings.setting_five = { key3: 'value3' }
=> setting_five:  { key1: 'another_value', key2: 'value2', key3: 'value3' }

Default values for settings are defined in your class and current values are persisted in the database.

Settings support the following datatypes:

Boolean
String
Integer
Float
Symbol
Array
Hash

Advanced Features

Settings and features can be reset to their default values as configured in your class definition:

Features.reset_features!
Settings.reset_settings!

Display all defined keys:

Features.defined_features
Settings.defined_settings

Cache settings or features:

Features.cache_features!
Settings.cache_settings!

Note that a simple call to Features.init_features! or Settings.init_settings! respectively will remove caching.

You can create as many Setting or Feature classes as you desire. Here are some examples:

SearchSettings.levenshtein_distance
TestFeatures.experimental_search_enabled?

Contributing

1. Fork it (https://github.com/indrode/feature_setting/fork)
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create a new Pull Request

Notes:

• Contributions without tests won't be accepted.
• Please don't update the gem version.

License

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 Indro De (http://indrode.com)

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.