Sandbox
Sandbox in Zoho People
What is the sandbox feature in Zoho People?
The Sandbox feature provides a secure virtual environment for Sandbox administrators to test and experiment with changes in forms, settings, workflows, and data without affecting organization's live data. This allows them to thoroughly evaluate and adjust changes, ensuring that all modifications meet the desired outcomes before being deployed to the production environment. This capability minimizes risks and enhances the overall efficiency of implementing changes to their organizational account.
How can sandbox feature be used and who is it for?
The Sandbox environment is accessible to the Super administrators and the users who have been added by them as Sandbox Users. Sandbox environment is available in Operations > Data Administration > Sandbox page. The Sandbox is where changes are first implemented and tested. Once the sandbox administrator is confident in these changes, they can push the required modifications directly to the production environment (live organization).
This feature is available only with the Enterprise plan of Zoho People.
Read about sandbox feature restrictions.
Read about sandbox feature restrictions.
Setting up and using a sandbox environment
Only Super administrator can create a Sandbox environment for your organization.
- To setup the sandbox environment, go to Operations > Data Administration > Sandbox
- Click on Create Sandbox to begin
- Now enter the basic details, choose a sandbox creation type. Read the note below for details about the sandbox types. For this example, we will be selecting the Configuration + Data Sandbox type
Configuration Sandbox: The sandbox will only be configurations-only, meaning it will replicate settings and forms without any of the actual live data. This is when you just want to test and configure changes.
Configuration + Data Sandbox: The sandbox will replicate settings, forms, and the first 30 records from the selected forms (not the entire organization’s data). This allows you to test configurations and see how they affect data similar to your live account.
- In Sandbox Users, click Add User to add employees to the sandbox environment for testing purposes. By default, all added users are assigned the Team Member role. You can change their permissions to Administrator in User Access Control within the sandbox environment.
For example, if you add a user with Administrator permissions in the live environment, they will be assigned the Team Member role by default in the sandbox. - Finally click Create and allow some time for the sandbox creation process to complete. A loading screen should be displayed for few minutes.
- The sandbox environment is now created. Click on Access Sandbox to proceed.
In the Sandbox screen, you have options to add users, deactivate sandbox, and check stats on changes implemented via this sandbox. You also have a drop-down to change between:
Change Tracker - Display changes made in the sandbox environment.
Deployment Logs - Display changes pushed live successfully from the sandbox environment.
Change Tracker - Display changes made in the sandbox environment.
Deployment Logs - Display changes pushed live successfully from the sandbox environment.
- Once you click Access Sandbox, you will moved to a new tab which will be your sandbox environment. For this example, let us try making some changes to the Leave form by making the "Reason For Leave" option as mandatory. To do this, we go to Settings > Leave > Extended Service > Select "Leave" form > Select "Reason for Leave" field and make it mandatory. (Similarly you can make any other settings, form-level, or automation changes)
Sandbox environments will display this marker for identificaiton:
- Now that the changes are complete, let us exit the sandbox environment and move back to the previous tab. Now head to Operations > Data Administration > Sandbox once again
- Now in the change tracker screen, use the checkboxes to select the changes you wish to move to the live environment and click Deploy to Production Environment button. A pop-up requiring confirmation will also appear. Once confirmed, the changes made in sandbox environment will now be merged with the live environment. (In this particular use case, "Reason for leave" field is now mandatory for all users).
Restrictions in Sandbox Environment
Restricted actions in sandbox org:
- Custom actions
- Document downloads
- Links
- All actions associated with Organization Structure are restricted, this includes:
- Enabling or disabling the "Organization Structure" feature.
- Adding, updating, or deleting legal entities, business units, divisions.
- Modifying the existing organization structure.
- Tagging or untagging with organization structure entities.
- From Address related restrictions:
- Within Settings > Manage Accounts > Organization Setup > From Addresses
the following actions are restricted in the sandbox environment:
- Adding a new "From Address" (both direct verification and CAPTCHA verification methods).
- Editing an existing "From Address".
- Deleting a "From Address".
- Changing the default "From Address".
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