Magentrix Sandbox Portal
What is a Magentrix Sandbox Portal?
A Magentrix Sandbox Portal is a separate testing environment that functions identically to your production portal. It serves as a safe space for administrators to test configurations, develop customizations, and validate changes before deploying them to your live production environment.
Recommended Administrator Workflow
Best Practice: Test First, Deploy Second
- Make structural changes and customizations in your Sandbox environment
- Test thoroughly to ensure functionality works as expected
- Request deployment of approved changes to Production
- Manually recreate content and user-specific configurations in Production
This workflow minimizes risk to your live environment and ensures changes work properly before affecting real users.
What Can Be Deployed from Sandbox to Production
The following structural changes can be packaged and deployed by the Magentrix team:
- Custom objects and fields
- Workflows and automation rules
- Custom code and applications
- System configuration changes
What Must Be Manually Recreated
The following elements cannot be transferred and must be manually recreated in Production:
- User Management: Security roles, user accounts, and user permissions
- User Data: All user-generated content and activity data
- Learning Content: Courses and training materials
- Content: Engagement Pages and FAQ articles
- Themes and Branding: Visual themes, branding elements, and styling
- Custom Hub Configurations: Not supported in Sandbox environments
Email Communications in Sandbox
Automatic Protection: Magentrix disables all email communications in Sandbox environments by default as our standard practice. This prevents accidental emails to real users during testing.
What This Includes:
- User activation emails
- Workflow notification emails
- Automated system emails
- Custom email triggers
This ensures your testing activities won't impact real users or partners.
Sandbox Environment Limitations
Custom Hubs Not Supported: Custom Hubs are not available in Sandbox environments. If your production portal uses Custom Hubs, you'll need to test hub-specific functionality directly in your production environment or work with Magentrix support for alternative testing approaches.
Creating and Managing Your Sandbox
Purchasing a Sandbox
Sandbox environments are available as an optional add-on. Contact your account manager for pricing information, or open a support ticket to be connected with the accounts team.
Cloning Production to Sandbox
You can request a fresh clone of your production portal into your Sandbox environment at any time. This is useful when:
- You want to test against current production data
- Your Sandbox has become significantly different from Production
- You're starting a major development project
To request cloning: Contact Magentrix support with your cloning request.
Deploying Changes to Production
Requesting Deployment
When you're ready to move tested changes from Sandbox to Production:
- Contact Magentrix support with your deployment request
- Provide details about what changes you want deployed
- The support team will handle the technical deployment process
- Manually recreate any content, users, or configurations that cannot be packaged
Deployment Timeline
Work with the support team to schedule deployments during appropriate maintenance windows to minimize impact on your live users.
Best Practices for Sandbox Usage
Regular Testing: Use your Sandbox for all significant changes before implementing in Production
Documentation: Keep track of what changes you make in Sandbox so you can accurately recreate manual elements in Production
User Training: Use Sandbox to train internal staff on new features before rolling them out to external users
Change Management: Establish internal processes for who can make Sandbox changes and how deployment requests are approved
Fresh Cloning: Periodically clone Production to Sandbox to ensure you're testing against current data and configurations