How to manage beta testers in Django

Published: 02 Sep 2015

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.

Create the beta testers group

Open a shell with ./manage.py shell and create a user group:

from django.contrib.auth.models import Group
group = Group()
group.name = 'Beta testers'
group.save()
print(group.id)

Create a flag

Reusing the previous shell, create a feature flag:

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

Use a flag in templates

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

Use a flag in views

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