June 2018 Summaries

In May, Algolia opened their new offices in Paris and hosted a Test in Production Meetup where Mikael Krief, DevOps Technical Manager at Cellenza and Microsoft MVP, discussed using feature flags to plan testing in production. Feature flags allow developers to encapsulate their work within features that can be activated or deactivated as needed without redeploying the entire application. This approach helps manage branches more effectively and allows for real-time control over users' access to specific features directly in production. Mikael shared how Cellenza used LaunchDarkly, a cloud-based feature flag management system, to implement feature flags within their Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) extension. They utilized Azure functions to call the SDK of LaunchDarkly and manipulate feature flags for users. The benefits of this approach include faster feedback from users, easier experimentation with new features, and the ability to quickly disable problematic features without redeploying the entire application.

Atlassian's Jira Software has integrated with LaunchDarkly, allowing teams to connect their software development tracking with feature releases. The new integration streamlines workflows for developers using both platforms and provides shared visibility into the development process. Users can now initiate flag creation in LaunchDarkly from a Jira issue, connect existing flags to Jira issues, and view current flag statuses directly within Jira Issues. This collaboration between Atlassian's Jira Software team and LaunchDarkly aims to enhance user experience by incorporating feature flag information into development workflows.

In May, Test in Production Meetup was held in Paris, hosted by Algolia. Xavier Grand, a Senior Engineer at Algolia, discussed how his team tests when they have 4500 customers across 16 regions and handle 14 billion queries per month. He emphasized the importance of testing in production without compromising availability. The talk covered why teams should test in production, how to do it properly, and specific practices at Algolia. Xavier highlighted that software design and infrastructure are crucial for successful testing in production. He also discussed progressive deployment strategies and monitoring tools used by his team.

In May, a Test in Production Meetup was hosted at Algolia offices in Paris, France. Aurélian Didier, Lead Back-end Engineer at Workwell.io, shared how his team enables customers to integrate their own services into the Workwell web and mobile apps, and manage testing across these services. The company aims to provide a centralized platform for various corporate services while maintaining security and efficiency. They have automated processes to ship multiple times a day and involve clients in the testing process to ensure quality and scalability.

LaunchDarkly introduces tagging for Projects and Environments, allowing users to group resources together with ease. This feature enhances custom roles by providing granular access control to specific team members. Users can now create a resource that allows certain actions on all feature flags within specified tags, improving collaboration and reducing the risk of accidental changes in software development. To get started, visit the Account Settings panel and refer to the official documentation or check out their post on tagging if new to this feature.

LaunchDarkly introduces two new features to reduce data volume and improve efficiency in feature flags. Summary Events condense multiple flag evaluation results into a compact summary, reducing data by 10x. Detailed information is automatically sent for A/B testing or when using the Analytics Data Stream (ADS). The redesigned Debugger allows users to view real-time flag evaluations and toggle detailed event information on a per-flag basis. Users can start using Summary Events by updating their SDKs to meet minimum version requirements.