Auto operation

The auto operation feature handles the manipulation of feature flag configurations on your behalf. It executes specific operations automatically based on the conditions set by the user.

To access the auto operation page on the Bucketeer dashboard, select the Feature Flags tab, choose the desired flag, and click on its name. Select the Auto Ops Rules tab at the top of the new page. You can check the active and completed operations on the Auto Ops Rules page.

How auto operation works

The auto operation feature consists of two key elements:

• Operation: An operation refers to an action that impacts a feature flag. Each action is linked to one or more triggering conditions. When a condition is met, the associated operation's action is executed. Currently, Bucketeer supports two types of operations:

  • Enable: This operation type enables the chosen flag.
  • Kill Switch: This operation type disables the chosen flag.

• Condition: A condition specifies the circumstances under which the operation is triggered. Multiple conditions can be associated with a single killing operation. On the other hand, only one condition can be related to enabling a feature. It's important to note that the corresponding operation is triggered if any conditions are satisfied.

Based on the operations and condition the auto operation works as:

1. The server monitors the specified conditions.
2. When a condition is met, the corresponding operation is executed.
3. After enabling or disabling the associated flag, the triggered operation's status changes from active to complete.
4. The operation is moved from the Active to the Completed panel, indicating that it has been executed.

Conditions

The following conditions are available for defining auto operations:

1. Schedule: This condition evaluates whether the specified date and time have been reached. You must always use a future date and time to schedule the operation. It is useful, for example, to release a feature at a specific date and time or to turn off a beta feature after a certain period.

Limit of schedule conditions

You can only have two active operations based on schedule conditions. One will define when to enable and the other when to kill the flag.

2. Event Rate: This condition triggers the operation based on the event rate reaching a specified threshold. The event rate is only available for killing operations. It allows you to automatically turn off a flag if it is causing a high error rate or turn it off once enough data has been collected for analysis.

Below, you will find a description of the configuration options for setting up the event rate condition:

• Variation: The specific variation observed by the target user.
• Goal: The goal used to calculate the event rate. Each time the goal is reached, the counter of goal events will increase.
• Condition: The comparison operator used to assess the event rate. The available options are greater than or equal to (>=) or smaller than or equal to (<=).
• Percentage: The threshold for the event rate.
• Minimum Count: Minimum number of occurrences required for the condition to be enabled.

How the event rate is calculated

The event rate is calculated using the following formula:

Event Rate = (Unique Counter of Goal Events) / (Unique Counter of Evaluation Events)

Refer to the Experiments and Evaluate results sections for a better understanding of the user count of goals and evaluations.

Setting up auto operation

Configuring auto operations is a straightforward process. Follow these steps:

1. Go to the Auto Ops Rules page.
2. Click the Add operation button.
3. The operation setting panel will appear. Choose the desired operation. For this example, the Enable option was selected.
4. Set up the desired condition. For the Enable operation, only the Schedule is available.
5. Click the Create Operation button to create the auto operation rule. The image below summarizes the configuration described in the previous steps.

When the scheduled time arrives, the feature flag will be automatically enabled.