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Sandbox

A Sandbox is a separate environment where you can test and debug the customizations and automations you develop for your Zoho Expense organization without affecting the organization in real-time.

Once you create a sandbox, a new organization with the sandbox name will be created. You can use this organization to test your changes. Any changes you make here will not affect your production organization until the changes are deployed. After testing and verifying that the changes are functioning properly, you can deploy them to the production organization.

Notes:

  • This feature is currently in Early Access. Write to us at support@zohoexpense.com to enable it for your organization.
  • You can only create one sandbox per organization. The sandbox organization will be automatically deleted if it is inactive for 120 days.

Terms to Remember

Before you begin creating a sandbox, read the following terms and their definitions as they are key to understanding how the feature works.

  • Production Organization: The organization your users use to carry out their day-to-day expense management tasks.
  • Sandbox Organization: The organization in which your users test their changes.
  • Components: The changes you make in the sandbox organization are called components. You need to deploy them to the production organization once they are reviewed.

Create a Sandbox

To create a sandbox in your organization:

  • Go to Settings in the top right corner.
  • Click Sandbox under Developer & Data.
  • Click + New Sandbox in the top right corner.
  • Enter the sandbox’s Name and provide a Description.
  • If you want the sandbox to be used only by specific users in your organization, click Select Users. Then, select the users who can access the sandbox.
  • Click Save.

The sandbox is created. You can use it to test the features you’re building for your organization.

Open a Sandbox

Here’s how you can open a sandbox:

  • Go to Settings in the top right corner.
  • Click Sandbox under Developer & Data.
  • In the Sandbox List tab, hover over the required sandbox and click Go to Sandbox. The sandbox organization will open in a new tab.

Add a Component

The changes you make in the sandbox organization are called components. Click the respective component mentioned below to learn how to create them in Zoho Expense.

The following are the components supported in the sandbox organization:

View Sandbox Changes

You can view all the changes made in the sandbox organization in one place. To view the changes:

  • Go to the sandbox organization.
  • Click Sandbox Changes on the left sidebar.

The components created in the sandbox organization will be listed in the Unreviewed Changes tab. Once you’ve verified the changes, you can mark them as reviewed, and they’ll be moved to the Reviewed Changes tab. When you deploy them, they’ll be available in the production organization for which the sandbox was created.

Mark a Component As Reviewed

When you create components in the sandbox organization, they’ll be added to the Unreviewed Changes tab in Sandbox Changes.

Once you’ve tested them, you need to move them to the Reviewed Changes tab. Only reviewed components can be deployed to the production organization.

To mark a component as reviewed:

  • Go to the sandbox organization.
  • Click Sandbox Changes on the left sidebar.
  • In the Unreviewed Components tab, hover over the component you want to mark as reviewed and click the More icon.
  • Select Mark as Reviewed from the dropdown.

Mark a Component As Unreviewed

If you accidentally marked a component as reviewed, you can undo it.

Note: If the reviewed component has been deployed to your production organization, you cannot mark it as unreviewed.

To mark a component as unreviewed:

  • Go to the sandbox organization.
  • Click Sandbox Changes on the left sidebar.
  • In the Reviewed Components tab, hover over the component you want to mark as unreviewed and click the More icon.
  • Select Mark as Unreviewed from the dropdown.

Deploy Components

Once you’ve marked components as reviewed in the sandbox organization, you need to deploy the components to use them in the production organization. Here’s how:

  • Go to the production organization.
  • Go to Settings in the top right corner.
  • Click Sandbox under Developer & Data.
  • Click the required sandbox in the Sandbox List tab.
  • Go to the Changes tab.
  • Select the components to be deployed and click Deploy Changes in the top right corner.
  • Enter the Description.
  • Click Deploy Changes.

Deployment Conflicts

Let’s say you initially deployed a few components to your production organization, but later deleted one of the components. The deleted component will still be available in the sandbox organization. If you make changes to this component and redeploy it to your production organization, it will cause a conflict. In such cases, the components with conflicts will not be deployed, while components without any conflicts will be deployed.

View Deployment Logs

You can view the logs of the changes deployed from a sandbox organization. Here’s how:

  • Go to the production organization.
  • Go to Settings in the top right corner.
  • Click Sandbox under Developer & Data.
  • In the Sandbox List tab, click the sandbox for which you want to view the logs.
  • Click the Deployment Logs tab.

Logs of all changes deployed from the sandbox will be available here. You can also filter the logs based on actions (created, updated, and deleted), the users who deployed the changes, and the date range.

Other Actions for Production Organization

Edit a Sandbox

To edit a sandbox:

  • Go to the production organization.
  • Go to Settings in the top right corner.
  • Click Sandbox under Developer & Data.
  • In the Sandbox List tab, hover over the sandbox for which you want to edit the details and click the More icon.
  • Select Edit from the dropdown.
  • Make the necessary changes and click Save.

Rebuild a Sandbox

When you create a sandbox, it automatically populates the components from your production organization into your sandbox organization. If you add components to your production organization after creating the sandbox, these components will not be available in the sandbox organization. To add them, you can rebuild the sandbox.

Warning: Once you rebuild a sandbox, all undeployed components will be deleted.

Here’s how you can rebuild a sandbox:

  • Go to the production organization.
  • Go to Settings in the top right corner.
  • Click Sandbox under Developer & Data.
  • In the Sandbox List tab, click the sandbox that you want to rebuild.
  • Click Rebuild Sandbox in the top right corner.
  • Check I understand that rebuilding the sandbox will delete all the undeployed components.
  • Click Rebuild.

Note: You can rebuild a sandbox once every 24 hours.

Mark a Sandbox As Inactive

If you no longer need a sandbox but you don’t want to delete it, you can mark it as inactive. Here’s how:

  • Go to the production organization.
  • Go to Settings in the top right corner.
  • Click Sandbox under Developer & Data.
  • In the Sandbox List tab, hover over the sandbox that you want to mark as inactive and click the More icon.
  • Select Mark as Inactive from the dropdown.

Mark a Sandbox As Active

You can mark an inactive sandbox as active. Here’s how:

  • Go to the production organization.
  • Go to Settings in the top right corner.
  • Click Sandbox under Developer & Data.
  • In the Sandbox List tab, hover over the inactive sandbox and click the More icon.
  • Select Mark as Active from the dropdown.

Delete a Sandbox

Here’s how you can delete a sandbox:

  • Go to the production organization.
  • Go to Settings in the top right corner.
  • Click Sandbox under Developer & Data.
  • In the Sandbox List tab, hover over the sandbox you want to delete and click the More icon.
  • Select Delete from the dropdown.
  • Click Confirm in the pop-up that appears.

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