Managing beta testers in Django

Sometimes you want to show a user a different feature. Or you want to test it in the production environment without affecting the other users. Or you have a group of beta testers for which you rely on early feedback to improve your app. Below is how to do this using django-waffle.

Install django-waffle

Install the waffle package by running:

pip install django-waffle

Open your app's settings.py and:

1. add waffle to INSTALLED_APPS.
2. add waffle.middleware.WaffleMiddleware to MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES.

And you're ready to go.

Create the beta testers group

Note: If you want to reuse an already existing group, just note its id for the next step.

Open a shell with:

./manage.py shell

and create a user group (adjust the first line if you use another group Model other than the one from django.contrib.auth):

1. from django.contrib.auth.models import Group
2. group = Group()
3. group.name = 'Beta testers'
4. group.save()
5. group.id

Note the id of the new group for the next step.

Create a flag

Note: you can also do this on the admin site.

Reusing the previous shell:

1. from waffle.models import Flag
2. flag = Flag()
3. flag.name = 'new_feature'
4. flag.group = 72 # replace 72 by the id from the previous step
5. flag.save()

Use a flag in templates

Now that you have everything setup, it's time to use the flags in the code.

If you want to show a difference in a template, just add the waffle_tags and use the flag as you'd use an if:

{% flag flag_name %}
Flag is active!
  {% else %}
Flag is inactive!
  {% endflag %}

Use a flag in views

If you want to switch between different codes in views, just import waffle at the beggining of the file and then protect the differences with:

if waffle.flag_is_active(request, 'new_feature'):
    # Behavior if flag is active.
else:
    # Behavior if flag is inactive.

Final notes

Don't overuse flags. Flags can be changed at runtime, so, for testing, you should test all the possible combinations. That adds a maintenance cost (in time and resources). As a rule of thumb I try to keep flags to a maximum of three at any point in time in a project.

Flags can also be used for phased roll-outs in Django. Check the documentation for that use case.

See the rest of the documentation at http://waffle.readthedocs.org/en/

Happy coding!