# Feature Toggles and the Unleash Framework for Continuous Deployment

DevFeed: [Feature Toggles and the Unleash Framework for Continuous Deployment](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/unleash-your-features-gradually-32014.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://tech.finn.no2017/03/10/unleash-your-features-gradually/>)

Author: Ivar Conradi Østhus

Published: 2017-03-10T16:58:36Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Finn.no](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/finn-no.md>)

Topics: [Continuous Deployment (CD)](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/continuous-deployment.md>), [CI/CD](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cicd.md>), [Open Source](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/open-source.md>), [Framework](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/framework.md>), [Software](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/software.md>), [Software as a service](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/saas.md>)

Tags: [continuous-deployment](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/continuous-deployment.md>), [deployment](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/deployment.md>), [framework](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/framework.md>), [open-source](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/open-source.md>), [software](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/software.md>)

## AI overview

This article explains how feature toggles separate deploying code to production from releasing features to users. It presents Unleash, an open source framework that supports user-specific activation strategies and describes how feature toggles helped FINN integrate unfinished features earlier while avoiding long-running feature branches.

## Source excerpt

FINN.no is the largest online marketplace in Norway, and we take continuous deployment seriously. We are about one hundred developers deploying new code to production 978 times each week. That is 978 / 100 = 9.78 deployments to production per developer every week. In order to get to these numbers and still keep it under control, we have had to both change our development process and establish the right set of tools. In this article we introduce feature toggles and how this technique has contributed to our continuous deployment success. We will also present Unleash, an open source framework we created to support feature toggles at an enterprise scale. Unleash allows us to enable features for specific users via the activation strategies concept. Unleash is already set up and in use by multiple teams within Schibsted, including FINN, SPT Payment, and Knocker. Unleash is now also available as a Software-as-a-Service offering, making it much easier for anyone to adopt. Check it out at unleash-hosted.com Number of production deploys in "week 50" Feature Toggles 'Feature toggles' is a simple technique to separate the process of putting new code into production from the process of releasing new features to our users. In its simplest form a feature toggle is just a "if" statement in the code, guarding the new feature: if (unleash.isEnabled("AwesomeFeature")) { //magic new feature code } else { //old boring stuff } The fastest way to get started with feature toggles in your project is to use a plain old properties file. This allows you to integrate unfinished features to the master branch and hide them from users in production. A simple plain properties files was exactly how we started playing with the features toggles in FINN. We realised that feature toggles enabled us to move faster, because we were able to integrate new and unfinished features to the master branch early. This also avoids long-running feature branches that tend to be harder to merge. We learned the hard wa