[JENKINS-69853] User experimental flags #7299

Wadeck · 2022-10-22T23:04:17Z

This feature proposal adds the possibility to have sort of feature flag per users. The idea behind this is to accelerate the new UI / design work without having to wait for full approval from the community. Publishing something in beta, hidden behind a "user experimental flag" will let the authors to build on top of their previous steps to finalize their feature before the "actual" release.

📷 Screenshots 📷

With some dummy flags

Without any flags

Testing done

Local instance running with some dummy flag classes (like you can see in the screenshot).
Also running the test cases to check the different situations.

Proposed changelog entries

Introduce user experimental flags.

Proposed upgrade guidelines

N/A

Submitter checklist

The Jira issue, if it exists, is well-described.
The changelog entries and upgrade guidelines are appropriate for the audience affected by the change (users or developers, depending on the change) and are in the imperative mood (see examples).
- Fill in the Proposed upgrade guidelines section only if there are breaking changes or changes that may require extra steps from users during upgrade.
There is automated testing or an explanation as to why this change has no tests.
New public classes, fields, and methods are annotated with @Restricted or have @since TODO Javadocs, as appropriate.
New deprecations are annotated with @Deprecated(since = "TODO") or @Deprecated(forRemoval = true, since = "TODO"), if applicable.
[n/a] New or substantially changed JavaScript is not defined inline and does not call eval to ease future introduction of Content Security Policy (CSP) directives (see documentation).
[n/a] For dependency updates, there are links to external changelogs and, if possible, full differentials.
For new APIs and extension points, there is a link to at least one consumer.
⚠️ No extension points so far, the idea is to let the UX SIG team implementing the flags.

Desired reviewers

@daniel-beck + @basil for the feature flag topic
@timja + @janfaracik + @NotMyFault for the usage of the feature in UI PRs

Maintainer checklist

Before the changes are marked as ready-for-merge:

There are at least two (2) approvals for the pull request and no outstanding requests for change.
Conversations in the pull request are over, or it is explicit that a reviewer is not blocking the change.
Changelog entries in the pull request title and/or Proposed changelog entries are accurate, human-readable, and in the imperative mood.
Proper changelog labels are set so that the changelog can be generated automatically.
If the change needs additional upgrade steps from users, the upgrade-guide-needed label is set and there is a Proposed upgrade guidelines section in the pull request title (see example).
If it would make sense to backport the change to LTS, a Jira issue must exist, be a Bug or Improvement, and be labeled as lts-candidate to be considered (see query).

timja

Cool concept

timja · 2022-10-23T07:28:42Z

.../main/resources/jenkins/model/experimentalflags/BooleanUserExperimentalFlag/flagConfig.jelly

+
+<?jelly escape-by-default='true'?>
+<j:jelly xmlns:j="jelly:core" xmlns:f="/lib/form">
+    <select class="jenkins-select__input" name="[${it.flagKey}]">


I think https://weekly.ci.jenkins.io/design-library/ToggleSwitch/ would be a more appropriate control

The problem with the ToggleSwitch (AFAICT) is that it has only two states.
Having the "default" is important from my PoV so that we can let people decide to "go back" to default.
Huge inspiration from chrome://flags

What is the default state? (i.e. does this need to be shown visually, in the description or should we simplify with just two states)

The default value in the dropdown is "Default". It means that the user does accept the value provided in the code of the flag (getDefaultValue).

My idea is that we introduce a new feature, we start with disabled by default, so interested users can enable the behavior. During that period, the author can continue improving their feature (without having to wait too much). Then after some months, one can move the feature to be enabled by default. At that moment, the users could decide to rollback by using Disabled.

In parallel, a user who decide that the feature is interesting they can enabled it in advance and when the feature default behavior will be changed, there is no impact for them.

With the different behavior we can see there, we can gather telemetry to determine if the feature is something the community wants.

I want to be able to see data about adoption instead of just having the opinion from loud users (often either very happy or very unhappy).

I mean how does the user know what the default state is? 'Default' doesn't imply what the default actually is.

Yes that looks good

Could the "(default)" be added as prefix or suffix of the default entry instead of adding one just for that?

I would say that putting the "help" the closer to where it is used seems better (yeah talking about some pixels :D)

After a quick discussion with Hervé (due to my misunderstanding of his argument), I think I forgot to mention the most important argument about the tristate.
As I would like to introduce telemetry on the flags to ease the data gathering, having the "default" option is a way to have a "no vote" / "blank vote" in terms of adoption of the feature.

Make perfect sense to have a third default state in that case indeed, I missed that requirement in your previous comment.

...rc/main/resources/jenkins/model/experimentalflags/UserExperimentalFlagsProperty/config.jelly

...in/resources/jenkins/model/experimentalflags/UserExperimentalFlagsProperty/config.properties

...rc/main/resources/jenkins/model/experimentalflags/UserExperimentalFlagsProperty/config.jelly

timja

Looking good (tested locally with some flags), do we need any documentation / guidance written for this?

.../resources/jenkins/model/experimentalflags/BooleanUserExperimentalFlag/flagConfig.properties

core/src/main/resources/jenkins/model/experimentalflags/Messages.properties

...rc/main/resources/jenkins/model/experimentalflags/UserExperimentalFlagsProperty/config.jelly

Wadeck · 2022-11-04T13:49:17Z

do we need any documentation / guidance written for this?

TBH I do not know.
It's expected to be used by only a few people at this point, the API is not really complicated, so not sure it's worth the effort.

NotMyFault · 2022-11-06T09:57:59Z

It's expected to be used by only a few people at this point, the API is not really complicated, so not sure it's worth the effort.

We could add a small paragraph to the design library outlining how to use this feature, could be useful I guess.

uhafner

Wouldn't it make more sense to call it feature flag? The idea behind this concept is not only relevant to UI changes.

Wadeck · 2022-11-09T14:22:29Z

The idea behind this concept is not only relevant to UI changes.

This PR is only about user related flags. I was not able to find a non-UI feature that could be managed by users. For example, notification preference is not a flag, but more a settings. If you have examples of non-UI stuff, please tell me :))

In my mind, the "general" feature flag is more about enabling a particular feature to spread smoothly within an audience.

If you want to use equivalent that are for non-user feature, you already can use the SystemProperties (that we heavily use for security corrections with escape hatches)

timja

Good for now I think, we can adjust it as needed anyway.

timja · 2023-03-01T19:55:04Z

/label ready-for-merge

This PR is now ready for merge, after ~24 hours, we will merge it if there's no negative feedback.

Thanks!

timja · 2023-05-06T09:59:32Z

.../main/resources/jenkins/model/experimentalflags/BooleanUserExperimentalFlag/flagConfig.jelly

+    <select class="jenkins-select__input" name="[${it.flagKey}]">
+        <f:option selected="${flagValue == null}" value="">
+            <j:if test="${it.getDefaultValue() == true}">${%Default_True}</j:if>
+            <j:if test="${it.getDefaultValue() == false}">${%Default_False}</j:if>


https://issues.jenkins.io/browse/JENKINS-71211

doesn't fit on mac 13" screen

[JENKINS-69853] User experimental flags

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timja reviewed Oct 23, 2022

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timja added web-ui The PR includes WebUI changes which may need special expertise rfe For changelog: Minor enhancement. use `major-rfe` for changes to be highlighted labels Oct 23, 2022

NotMyFault self-requested a review October 24, 2022 21:36

Applying feedbacks from Tim

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Wadeck commented Oct 28, 2022

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...rc/main/resources/jenkins/model/experimentalflags/UserExperimentalFlagsProperty/config.jelly Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

timja reviewed Oct 31, 2022

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Wadeck added 3 commits November 4, 2022 12:43

Improve default wording + padding + title

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Remove the "UI"

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Correct Spotbugs

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Merge branch 'master' into JENKINS-69853_user_ff

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NotMyFault requested review from daniel-beck, basil and janfaracik November 6, 2022 09:58

uhafner reviewed Nov 9, 2022

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timja approved these changes Jan 1, 2023

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timja requested a review from a team January 2, 2023 18:07

basil removed their request for review February 3, 2023 15:38

NotMyFault approved these changes Mar 1, 2023

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comment-ops-bot bot added the ready-for-merge The PR is ready to go, and it will be merged soon if there is no negative feedback label Mar 1, 2023

timja added 2 commits March 10, 2023 22:04

Merge branch 'master' into JENKINS-69853_user_ff

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Merge branch 'master' into JENKINS-69853_user_ff

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NotMyFault merged commit af09d67 into jenkinsci:master Mar 12, 2023

timja reviewed May 6, 2023

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[JENKINS-69853] User experimental flags #7299

[JENKINS-69853] User experimental flags #7299

Wadeck commented Oct 22, 2022 •

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[JENKINS-69853] User experimental flags #7299

[JENKINS-69853] User experimental flags #7299

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Wadeck commented Oct 22, 2022 • edited by NotMyFault Loading

With some dummy flags

Without any flags

Testing done

Proposed changelog entries

Proposed upgrade guidelines

Submitter checklist

Desired reviewers

Maintainer checklist

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Wadeck commented Oct 22, 2022 •

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