The Environments page lists all your development mode applications in the Applications column. Apps that have the Changes Available status are ready to be published to Stage. This status appears when there have been changes in the app that have not been published to Stage environment yet.

Steps to publish to Stage:

1. Navigate to the Environments under Deploy section.

   

2. Click Publish button in the top-right corner and choose Publish to stage option.

   

3. In the Select Apps pages, select the apps that have to be published to Stage. You can publish upto three apps at once.

   

4. In the Staging page the list of all changes that have been made will be displayed.

   

   Note:​​​​​

   • You can choose multiple components from the list of changes and only the selected components' changes will be published. If there is a change in any of the components but the component is not selected, that change will not be published. You can use the search bar to find and select specific components if and when the list is long. 
     
   • Double-clicking a component displays the changes with markers - Added, Modified, and Deleted. Added means a new change has been added, Modified means an existing component has been modified, and Deleted means a component has been deleted.
   • You can also add apps to be published on this screen by clicking the + icon. An App can be added only if there are any changes to the app.
     
   • If any of the selected component have a dependency on another component within the same app (for example, related using lookup), then the dependent components will be automatically selected.
   • If any of the selected apps have a dependent app (for example, related using lookup to another app), a prompt will appear to select the dependent app. If user does not have access to any of the selected apps, they will not be able to proceed.
5. Now select the components, including the forms field and reports in the apps, that should be published to Stage environment. Click on Proceed.

   

   • A dependency is a relationship where one or more components must exist for another component to exist and function properly. It is possible that the components that you selected above have dependency on other components which are present within the app or with another app.
   • Assume a Submit New Complaint form in Vendor management app contains a lookup field linking to the Add Vendor form within the same app. Thus a dependency exists between the two. Now if Submit New Complaint is selected in the above step 5, then the Add Vendor will be auto-selected and should be published for the component to work properly.

     

   • Assume a Submit New Complaint form in Vendor management app contains a lookup field linking to the Add Employee form in Employee Management app. Thus a dependency exists between the two. Now if Submit New Complaint form is selected in the above step 5, then the Employee Management app should also be added and published for the component to work properly. A prompt will displayed to select the dependent app.

     

6. Next the Version Details page will be displayed. Each package of apps and their changes which are being published at one instance is called as a Version. In this page you can specify details for the version.

   

   • Specify a Title and Description for the version.
   • Select Version type. Major type changes version 1 to 2, and Minor type changes version 1 to 1.1. Minor versions like 1.2 when pushed to Major type are rounded, in this case to 2.
   • Select users to send email notifications. The admins and developers of the application are listed here, and a maximum of three users can be selected.
7. Before the changes are published, a few validations are performed to ensure the publishing process is successful.
   • Duplicate records - To check if a field with the "No duplicate values" property contains duplicate values in the Stage environment. Example: Let's say an application is published to Stage, and during testing we add a few duplicate values to a field. At this point the field can accept duplicate values because the "No duplicate values" property is not selected yet. However, we then edit the app and select the property field "No duplicate values" and publish the change to Stage again. This can create a conflict, as the field already contains duplicate values, but now has a property which restricts duplicate values. In this case, we first have to remove the duplicate values and then click Validate to be able to proceed.
     
   • Max field length - To check if the field value exceeds the specified max length in Stage environment. Example: Let's say an application having a form containing the single line field , with Max field length configured as 10, is published to Stage. During testing we enter values with length of 10 to a single line field. However, we then edit the app and configure "Character Maximum" property with 5 as limit and publish the change to Stage again. This can create a conflict, as the field already contains longer values, but now has a property which restricts length to 5. In this case, we first have to remove the values that exceed the limit and then click Validate to be able to proceed.
   • Data Loss - This is a warning that appears when a component is deleted and this change is published to Stage. This is to alert users that this will also remove any related data when the change is published. Example: Let's say an application is published to Stage, and during testing we add entries in a form. We then edit the app and delete the form and publish this change to Stage again. This will result in the deletion of all the entries made to the form during the earlier testing.
   • Permission - This is a warning that appears when a profile or a role has been deleted and this change is published to Stage. The warning informs users that the deleted profile or role is mapped to the new one, as specified during the deletion.
   • Post Publish - This informs users that the publishing process may take additional time when encryption or formula field changes are made that result in consuming more time besides the publishing time.
   • Click Publish.
8. The publishing process will be initiated.

   

9. In the environments page, the status of the application under Stage section will be Publish in progress.

   

10. Once the publishing process is complete, the Stage version of the app will be listed.

    

Locking mechanism during Publish

User collision scenarios

Publish to Stage status messages

Related Links

• Understand Environments
• Adding apps to environment
• Publish to production
• Environment locking mechanism