Feature Toggle libraries for .NET
The idea of "Feature Toggles" is described in detail by Martin Fowler. Essentially these give you the ability to enable/disable parts of your application via configuration.
<appSettings>
<add key="Feature.Toggle1" value="True"/>
</appSettings>
And then within your code, check the config value to enable the feature:
if (bool.Parse(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["Feature.Toggle1"]))
{
}
Ideally you'd make that check a bit more robust, but you get the idea!
Alternatively, you might want to use one of these libraries that implement feature toggling. I searched for .NET feature toggle libraries and found these four. Coincidentally they are all hosted on GitHub, and all but nToggle are available as NuGet packages.
NFeature
https://github.com/benaston/NFeature
NFeature requires you to create an enum which defines all the feature toggles. It then generates extension methods such that you can check the config setting for a feature. Features are configured through a custom section in the .config file. Features can optionally be configured to depend on other features, and to have availability times set.
<configSections>
<section name="features" type="NFeature.Configuration.FeatureConfigurationSection`1[[NFeatureTest2.Feature, NFeatureTest2]], NFeature.Configuration" />
</configSections>
<features>
<add name="MyFeature" state="Enabled" />
<add name="MyOtherFeature" state="Previewable" />
<!-- will only be available to users who meet the feature-preview criteria -->
<add name="MyOtherOtherFeature" state="Disabled" />
</features>
public enum Feature
{
MyFeature,
MyOtherFeature,
MyOtherOtherFeature,
}
...
if ( Feature.MyFeature.IsAvailable( featureManifest ) )
{
//do some cool stuff
}
NFeature appears to be actively maintained with recent commits.
FeatureToggle
https://github.com/jason-roberts/FeatureToggle
FeatureToggle provides base classes from which you inherit for each feature toggle you want to implement. These toggles are configured in the <appSettings/>
section in the .config file.
<appSettings>
<add key="FeatureToggle.MyAwesomeFeature" value="false" />
</appSettings>
public class MyAwesomeFeature : SimpleFeatureToggle {}
...
if (!MyAwesomeFeature.FeatureEnabled)
{
// code to disable stuff (e.g. UI buttons, etc)
}
FeatureToggle also has support for WPF and Windows Phone apps.
It is actively maintained with recent commits.
FeatureSwitcher
https://github.com/mexx/FeatureSwitcher
In FeatureSwitcher, toggles are created by implementing the IFeature interface. You then use the Feature<> generic class to test whether a particular toggle is enabled.
Toggles are configured in the .config file via custom sections.
<configSections>
<sectionGroup name="featureSwitcher" type="FeatureSwitcher.Configuration.SectionGroup, FeatureSwitcher.Configuration">
<section name="default" type="FeatureSwitcher.Configuration.DefaultSection, FeatureSwitcher.Configuration"/>
<section name="features" type="FeatureSwitcher.Configuration.FeaturesSection, FeatureSwitcher.Configuration"/>
</sectionGroup>
</configSections>
<featureSwitcher>
<default featuresEnabled="true"/>
<features>
<feature name="FeatureSwitcher.Examples.BlueBackground" enabled="true"/>
</features>
</featureSwitcher>
class BlueBackground : IFeature {}
...
if (Feature<Sample>.Is().Enabled)
{
}
FeatureSwitcher is actively maintained with recent commits.
nToggle
https://github.com/SteveMoyer/nToggle
nToggle uses a custom section in the .config file. The examples given show usage with a WebForms app, though it should work with all kinds of applications.
<configSections>
<section
name="nToggle"
type="nToggle.Configuration.ToggleConfigurationSection"
allowLocation="true"
allowDefinition="Everywhere"
/>
</configSections>
<nToggle>
<toggles>
<add name="TestFeatureOn" value="True"/>
<add name="TestFeatureOff" value="False"/>
</toggles>
</nToggle>
<%@ Register assembly="nToggle" namespace="nToggle" tagprefix="nToggle" %>
<nToggle:WebFeatureToggle ID="FeatureToggle1" EnabledBy="TestFeatureOff" runat="server" >
<span id="enabledby"> Feature Turned Off</span>
</nToggle:WebFeatureToggle>
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
WebFeatureToggle1.RunActionWhenEnabled(CodeToRunIfEnabled);
}
protected void CodeToRunIfEnabled()
{
//your code
}
nToggle has not been updated for 7 months at time of writing.
Categories: .NET