A toggle is a switch or button that can be pressed or clicked to change between two states or modes. It is commonly used in technology, computing, programming, and communications to provide users a way to control settings or options that affect the functionality of a system or device.
A web page can include toggles that hide or show content, such as article links and spoiler buttons. This is useful for protecting sensitive information from non-logged-in users.
The term toggle is also used to refer to a piece of software that allows users to switch between different features or modes. This kind of toggle is often implemented in user interfaces to allow users to tailor their experience and make the application more convenient for them. For example, a video chat app might offer the option to toggle between streaming and map views of a live camera feed.
In software development, the concept of a toggle is based on a Boolean variable that stores a value. The toggle is activated by an event or action, such as a button click, and the current state of the variable is determined by checking whether the toggle is active.
Toggle switches are often designed to look like sliders and use visual cues (color, movement) to avoid confusion. This helps to ensure that they are cognitively accessible for users. However, it is important to keep in mind that the color of a toggle cannot be relied upon to convey its state. For example, a toggle switch that uses green as the on position may be confusing for people with red/green color blindness. Therefore, a best practice is to use high-contrast colors and provide a clear explanation of the toggle’s state to help mitigate any potential issues.
Some software developers use toggles to implement A/B testing and similar experimental processes that would otherwise need to be handled on code branches using more traditional waterfall development methodologies. This method allows developers to release features while they are still in progress without having to wait for the entire feature to be ready to be merged into trunk code.
Another benefit of toggles is that they are a simple and lightweight way to implement features that impact the front end of an application. This can be beneficial to the performance of production because it decreases the number of database queries that need to be executed. However, if too many toggles exist in the main flow of the software, this can lead to unnecessary traffic. To counter this, it is recommended that developers clean up toggles frequently and never have more than a few toggles existing in the main flow at any given time. Additionally, if a toggle has to be fetched from the database, it should be cached to avoid any additional reads and thereby minimize impact on performance. This is called a toggle-friendly architecture.