CloudBees Feature Management

CloudBees Feature Management is an advanced feature flagging solution that lets your development teams quickly build and deploy applications without compromising on safety. By providing a gradual release mechanism and a simple way to define target audiences, CloudBees Feature Management allows developers and product managers to optimize feature releases and customize the user experience. CloudBees Feature Management gives teams control over features that are in staging, production, or any environment in the deployment pipeline.

March 10, 2023: Notification feature removed

You can no longer subscribe to receive notifications to your CloudBees Feature Management account email whenever a flag is updated in any environment.

October 13, 2022: NEW capability: Nested target group statements

Target groups can now be configured with one or more nested statements for more complex logic, to provide additional control over the audience groups that receive the released feature. Nested target group statements can be configured with an and to match all, or an or to match any conditions.

Nested target group statements can be dependent upon another target group. Options that create circular dependencies are removed from the list and cannot be selected.

Refer to Target groups for more information.

October 11, 2022: NEW features: Subscribe and UI updates

You can now subscribe to receive notifications to your CloudBees Feature Management account email whenever a flag is updated in any environment. Email notifications to a subscriber include the following information:

  • Timestamp of the request or change

  • Team member who requested or made the change

  • Acceptance/rejection of requested changes

  • Additions, modifications, and removal of target groups

  • Deployment percentage changes

  • Deployment rules changes

A new flag header with icons enables easy access to Subscribe, Hide, Clone, and Clean up actions for a flag.

Refer to Environments and Deleting feature flags for more information.

October 5, 2022: UI update for Creating a flag

A redesigned UI for flag creation includes the ability to add labels when creating a flag.

Refer to Creating feature flags for more information.

September 21, 2022 UI update for Jira tasks

You can connect Jira issues to any flag, which is especially helpful for flag cleanup tasks. Jira issues are now displayed in a separate tab next to flag Settings. Previously, Jira tasks were on the flag Cleanup screen.

Refer to Managing flags with Jira for more information.

September 9, 2022 NEW feature: filtering by flag type

You can now filter flags by Boolean, String, and/or Number flag types. Flag type filtering adds to existing filtering by Status, Label, Namespace, Flag group, and Configuration. Filtering enables you to efficiently search for specific flags.

Refer to Filtering Flags for more information.

August 12, 2022 Documentation enhancement for contacting CloudBees Support

CloudBees Feature Management documentation has been updated to provide easier access to submit a product request.

If you have any product or security requests, or need access to support information, you can contact CloudBees Support using the following methods:

August 11, 2022 NEW feature: nested flag configuration condition statements, and terminology update

Flags can now be configured with one or more nested statements for more complex logic and additional control over how your features are released. Nested statements can be configured with an and to match all, or an or to match any conditions.

The Audience tab has been renamed Configuration.

Refer to Configuring flags for release for more information.

July 8, 2022 NEW video demos

Video demonstration widgets have been added to the right navigation menu for the following documentation pages:

July 7, 2022 NEW capability: Split percentage arrow controls

Split flag configurations now have arrow controls to more easily configure a split percentage.

Refer to Configuring a split release for more information.

June 29, 2022 NEW page: Flag impressions

Added a new documentation page describing an existing capability.

CloudBees Feature Management flag impressions allow you to visualize and analyze your feature flag configuration data. Impressions are captured by adding the impressionHandler to each installed SDK, and displayed in the flag’s Impressions tab.

Every time a flag is evaluated, that evaluation is counted as an impression. The CloudBees Feature Management impression handler evaluates a combination of the number of times the flag configuration is accessed by visitors, and the flag value that is displayed.

Refer to Flag impressions to learn more.

June 17, 2022 Multiplatform feature flags UI and documentation update

Platform Management controls have been updated in the CloudBees Feature Management UI. Steps to enable multiplatform feature flags have also been updated. Refer to Using multiplatform feature flags for more information.

June 9, 2022: Enabling secret mode documentation enhancement

Added additional information about how enabling secret mode protects against flags being created or modified by unauthorized parties. Refer to Enabling secret mode for more information.

June 7, 2022: Installing SDK documentation enhancement

The Installing SDK Introduction now includes privacy information, and describes the difference between client-side and server-side SDKs. Refer to SDK installation for more information.

May 20, 2022: European Union (EU) hosting has been removed

EU hosting was a completely separated DNS (eu-app.rollout.io). EU customers using app.rollout.io are not affected. EU hosting was only available using JavaScript, .NET, and Java SDKs.

May 10, 2022: New flag cleanup tools and improvements

CloudBees Feature Management Flag cleanup helps you determine when it is safe to delete your unused and outdated flags by recommending cleanup tasks and providing quick access to task locations. You can now view your level of permissions, the flag status, and turn targeting off for all environments directly from the cleanup screen.

Flag cleanup now enables you to:

  • Turn targeting off from within the cleanup screen for each environment.

  • Verify that you have full access to all environments for flag deletion.

  • View flag status for each environment.

  • Search relevant GitHub repositories to remove any flag code references.

  • View the status of all required and recommended flag deletion tasks.

Refer to Deleting feature flags to learn more about how flag cleanup can help you maintain cleaner code, reduce technical debt, and safely delete flags.

May 4, 2022: Audit log documentation enhancement

Approval request information is captured in the audit log. Refer to Audit log for more information.

May 1, 2022: Account information documentation enhancement

Updated instructions for changing your password and deleting your account. Refer to Managing user accounts for more information.

April 27, 2022: Boolean flag scheduled release bug fix

Corrected an issue that prevented incremental releases from decreasing the release percentage over time.

April 26, 2022: Approval requests for flag configuration changes

Approval request functionality is now enabled for all users. Administrators now have the option to submit flag configuration changes for approval, and read-only users can author and submit changes to be approved by an admin. Refer to Requesting approval for flag configurations for more information.

April 19, 2022: Enable secret mode documentation update

Enabling secret mode instructions have been updated. Refer to Enabling secret mode for more information.

April 4, 2022: NEW demo videos added documentation pages

March 25, 2022: Slack integration documentation enhancement

Added steps to revoke Slack’s authorization. Refer to Integrating CloudBees Feature Management with Slack for more information.

March 18, 2022: New Microsoft Teams integration

The CloudBees Feature Management integration with Microsoft Teams sends messages directly to your subscribed Teams channels to notify you of any changes within your app.

Sending messages directly to Teams provides the following benefits:

  • No need to switch between different tools to be alerted when changes are made to applications and feature flags.

  • Real time notification of changes to applications and flags.

  • Quickly open CloudBees Feature Management applications from within Microsoft Teams to manage flag changes.

With this integration, you can create one or more notifications to be posted to any Teams channel that you have access to. You can configure notifications to report on changes to all environments or only specific environments.

For more information, refer to Integrating with Microsoft Teams.

March 11, 2022: New regenerate API user access token capability

API user access tokens can now be regenerated. When a new token is regenerated, the previous access token is revoked. Any action taken on a revoked access token is rejected. For more information, refer to Authentication.

February 24, 2022: New flag cleanup capability

Feature flags that are no longer used in any environment can now be safely deleted using the Cleanup screen.

Flag cleanup helps you determine when it is safe to delete your unused, outdated, and fully deployed flags by recommending cleanup tasks and quick access links to task locations.

You can optionally integrate with Jira and configure additional cleanup tasks. Refer to Integrating with Jira for more information.

A flag is safe to delete when the following is achieved:

  • (Required) Targeting is off.

  • (Recommended) Flags status is inactive.

  • (Recommended) Any Jira tasks are completed.

Refer to Deleting feature flags for more information.

February 16, 2022: New time scheduling capability

Boolean flag changes now include time zone scheduling by hour and minute. The related Audit log, webhook, and Slack notifications now also include date and time. Refer to Scheduling a feature release for more information.

January 24, 2022: New Jenkins integration capabilities

Previously released as a Preview feature, downloading and installing the CloudBees Feature Management Jenkins plugin is now fully supported.

The Jenkins plugin adds a build step that downloads flag configurations for a given CloudBees Feature Management environment, allowing you to compare the environment with previous builds, and more quickly determine if a feature flag was the cause of build failure. The step can either be added to a freestyle project, or as a declarative pipeline step.

The snippet generator allows you to generate snippets that can be added to your Jenkins declarative pipeline builds.

The Freestyle approach uses the CloudBees Feature Management Jenkins plugin as a part of build steps within the Jenkins continuous integration workflows.

Once installed, the CloudBees Feature Management Jenkins plugin is managed in the Jenkins Plugin Manager. Deleting the plugin removes the binary from your Jenkins Home.

Each approach integrates with CloudBees Feature Management via the REST API to fetch the flag configurations at build-time. For more information, refer to Integrating with Jenkins.

Events for each approach are logged in the CloudBees Feature Management Audit log. For more information, refer to the CloudBees Feature Management Audit log documentation.

January 19, 2022: New role: application admin

Organization users can now be granted the app admin role. Application admins can manage application permissions and access levels for any environment in the application.

Organization admins are automatically granted application-level admin privileges to all applications in the organization.

For more information, refer to Managing organizations and permissions.

January 19, 2022: New Slack integration capability

The CloudBees Feature Management Slack integration sends real time notifications directly to your subscribed Slack channels to inform you and your teams of any changes within your app.

With this integration, you can can create one or more notifications to be posted to any Slack channel that you are subscribed to.

Configure notifications to report on changes to all environments or specify a specific environment.

Sending messages directly to Slack provides the following benefits:

  • No need to switch between different tools to be alerted when changes are made to applications and feature flags.

  • Real time notification of changes to applications and flags.

  • Quickly open CloudBees Feature Management applications from within Slack to manage flag changes.

Use the slash command /flags to interact with the Slack command menu and make changes to your subscriptions from within the subscribed Slack channel.

For more information, refer to Integrating with Slack.

November 3, 2021: New organization selection capability

The new organization selection capability allows a single user to become a member of multiple organizations.

Users can now access any organization that they are a member of from the account menu without signing out. A separate username and password is no longer required.

For more information, refer to Managing teams and permissions.

September 28, 2021: New Jenkins integration capability

Jenkins integration is a Preview feature.

The CloudBees Feature Management Jenkins plugin allows users to create, update, or delete feature flag configurations as a part of build steps within the continuous integration workflows.

The plugin communicates via the REST API to enable the required task for a feature flag configuration to be automated within Jenkins.

For more information, refer to Integrating with Jenkins.

September 6, 2021: New European Union (EU) hosting capability

CloudBees Feature Management customers now have the option to host data on CloudBees servers located in Ireland. By providing both EU and US servers, this capability can increase speed, reliability, security, and privacy, as well as support regulatory and business compliance requirements designated to the respective user locations.

With EU hosting enabled, the following data related to CloudBees Feature Management is stored on EU servers:

  • Applications

  • Environments

  • Flags

  • Target groups

  • Audit logs

EU hosting is currently only available using JavaScript, .NET, and Java SDKs.

August 26, 2021: New proxy capability for CloudBees Feature Management

Applications using the CloudBees Feature Management service do so through one of the CloudBees Feature Management SDKs.

The SDKs need to connect across the public internet to the CloudBees Feature Management service for multiple reasons, for example, to get feature flag configurations and to upload impression data. This can be a problem for application code running inside a closed/secured network, where direct access to the public internet is blocked, such as for security reasons.

To help with this, CloudBees Feature Management provides a proxy created specifically to allow application code, using one of the CloudBees Feature Management SDKs, to proxy all network traffic to the CloudBees Feature Management backend services.

For more information, refer to A proxy for CloudBees Feature Management.

August 18, 2021: New approval request capability

In many cases feature flags change the production environment or other regulated environments. By default, flag changes do not require a review or an approval within the tool before they are released.

Approval requests for CloudBees Feature Management provide the ability for changes to be reviewed and approved before they are implemented. This capability allows companies that require a higher level of governance to enforce change management policies and to stay compliant with SOC and SOX requirements.

Approval requests also provide the ability for read-only users to create a new feature flag for the default audience and submit it for approval. This is possible because flag changes do not go live without approval from an Admin, or a colleague with write permissions.

For more information, refer to Approval requests.

June 1, 2021: New webhook capability

Webhook capability

Webhooks, also referred to as user-defined HTTP callbacks, allow you to create real-time notifications that are triggered when an event happens in CloudBees Feature Management.

Webhooks can be configured to listen to events within a specific environment or all environments. For more information, refer to Configuring webhooks in CloudBees Feature Management.

April 14, 2021: Updates to feature flags in environments dashboard

  • Added feature flags status to the Environments overview

  • Bug fixes and general performance improvements, including resolving issues for user management

February 26, 2021: Updates to REST API, filtering

  • Added filtering to the Environments overview

  • Added Delete Flag and Patch Flag for the REST API

  • Bug fixes and general performance improvements, including resolving issues for user management

February 3, 2021: .Net SDK V5.0.1

Released .Net SDK V5.0.1. Refer to the .Net changelog for details.

January 20, 2021: Updates to REST API, UI improvements, bug fixes

  • Added Flags to the REST API

  • Improved backward compatibility for the REST API

  • Added the Create Flag button on the Flags overview screen

  • Added the sortable Flag Create column to the Flags overview screen

  • Updates to the REST API documentation

  • Bug fixes and UI improvements

January 5, 2021: .Net SDK V5

Released .Net SDK V5. Refer to the .Net changelog for details.

December 23, 2020: PHP V4.7.4

Released PHP SDK V4.7.4. Refer to the PHP changelog for details.