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A toggle is a switch that can be set to one of two states (either ON or OFF). It’s used in everyday technology in everything from phones and tablets to laptops and desktop computers. You can also find toggles in the software world, where they’re often used to change settings and options.

There are several different types of toggles, and each has its own use cases. For example, dropdowns are great for selecting items from a larger list, while radio buttons are used to select from a smaller group of options. Toggles are a powerful alternative to these form elements because they’re dynamic, take up less screen space, and can change states on the fly.

When designing a toggle, it’s important to keep in mind that it needs to be action-oriented and answer a binary question. This makes them a very useful tool for completing any task because they can quickly change the state of a feature. It’s a good idea to limit the number of toggles in any given application, however. Managing large numbers of toggles can be difficult, especially when they overlap. This can lead to confusion for users and be a nightmare to debug weeks or months down the road.

Using feature toggles allows you to develop and test new features without impacting existing code in your production environment. In contrast, if you used older waterfall development models, your team would need to create and merge a code branch before it could be deployed into production. This can be a major delay, which can impact your ability to meet deadlines and deliver value to your customers.

The easiest way to implement a toggle is to define a variable that represents its state (either Boolean or integer). When the user clicks the toggle, the variable’s state changes from one state to the other. When the toggle is clicked again, it returns to its previous state.

Another option for implementing a toggle is to use an existing function that sets its state based on other conditions. For example, a web server may have an nginx module that can set a specific header based on the request URL. The toggle can be triggered to change the nginx module’s state by using the nginx module’s callback function when the user clicks the toggle.

Using static files to manage toggle configuration becomes cumbersome at certain scales. To address this, many organizations move toggle configuration into some sort of centralized store, usually an existing app DB. Some systems even build out a management UI to allow product managers, operations engineers and testers to view and modify these toggle flags and their configuration.