Experiments

Here's how to hide a feature behind a flag that can be changed from the chrome://flags page in Chrome, or with a command line flag. We'll use an example from the following revision 84971 which hides the compact navigation bar behind such a flag.

• First, you need to add a string for your command line switch. For example: chrome_switches.h & chrome_switches.cc
• Then you need strings to be displayed on the chrome://flags page for the name and description of your experiment. For example, the two strings with IDs starting with IDS_FLAGS_ENABLE in: generated_resources.grd
• And then add all this info to a new entry in the Experiments array. For example: about_flags.cc
  • The first string (e.g., "compact-navigation") is an identifier for the preference that will be saved in the user profile based on the settings chosen by the user on the chrome://flags page.
  • The the resource IDs for the name and description strings.
  • Then which OS should expose it.
  • And finally, the access to the command line flag, using one of the following macros:
  • SINGLE_VALUE_TYPE_AND_VALUE, SINGLE_VALUE_TYPE, or MULTI_VALUE_TYPE.
• And finally, use the CommandLine::ForCurrentProcess()->HasSwitch(<your flag>) to check its state. For example: tab_menu_model.cc uses it to decide whether we show the Hide toolbar option in the tab contextual menu or not.