Sandbox

A Sandbox is a separate environment where you can test and debug the features you develop for your Zoho Books 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 features. 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.

Scenario: Zylker is an online retail store that processes over 10,000 invoices daily. They used to manage their business processes manually before moving to Zoho Books.Patricia, Zylker’s CEO, wanted to use the automation capabilities of Zoho Books to streamline their operations. However, she was hesitant since they deal with large enterprises and even a small mistake could cost their business big losses. To address her concerns, Zylker’s developers suggested using the Sandbox feature in Zoho Books. This feature allows them to create an isolated environment where they can test their customization and automation configurations safely without affecting their business operations.

Note:

This feature is only available in certain plans of Zoho Books. Visit the pricing page to check if it’s available in your current plan.
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: It is the organization that your users use to carry out their day-to-day business tasks.
Sandbox Organization: It is the organization in which your users will test their changes.
Components: The changes you make in the 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 of the page.
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.

A sandbox will be created. You can use it to test the features you’re building for your organization.

The New Sandbox page. Enter the sandbox's Name and Description and select the users who can access it.

Open a Sandbox

Here’s how you can open a sandbox:

Go to Settings in the top right corner of the page.
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.

The Sandbox List page. hover over the required sandbox and click Go to Sandbox to open the sandbox organization.

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 Books.

The following are the components supported in the sandbox organization:

Custom Fields
Custom Buttons
Related Lists
Custom Modules
Custom Views
Connections
Workflow Rules
Workflow Actions (Email Alerts, In-app Notifications, Custom Functions, Field Updates, and Webhooks)
Schedules
Incoming Webhooks
Web Tabs
PDF Templates
Signals

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.

Click Sandbox Changes on the left sidebar to view the changes made in the sandbox organization.

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 button.
Select Mark as Reviewed from the dropdown.

The Unreviewed Components tab. To mark a component as reviwed, hover over it, click the More button, and select Mark as Reviewed.

Mark a Component as Unreviewed

If you accidentally marked a component as reviewed, you can undo it. Here’s how:

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 button.
Select Mark as Unreviewed from the dropdown.

The Reviewed Components tab. To mark a reviewed component as unreviwed, hover over it, click the More button, and select Mark as Unreviewed

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

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.
Click Settings in the top right corner of the page.
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.

The Changes tab of a sandbox. To deploy components to the production organization, click Deploy Changes in the top right corner.

Enter the Description and 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.
Click Settings in the top right corner of the page.
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.

The Deployment Logs tab of a sandbox. You can a view a log of all the changes deployed from the sandbox to the production organization here.

Other Actions for Production Organization

Edit a Sandbox

To edit a sandbox:

Go to the production organization.
Click Settings in the top right corner of the page.
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 button.
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 unreviewed components will be deleted.

Here’s how you can rebuild a sandbox:

Go to the production organization.
Click Settings in the top right corner of the page.
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.

The Sandbox List tab of a sandbox. To rebuild a sandbox, 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.
Click Settings in the top right corner of the page.
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 button.
Select Mark as Inactive from the dropdown.

The Sandbox List tab of a sandbox. To mark a sandbox as inactive, hover it, click the More button and click Mark as Inactive.

Mark a Sandbox as Active

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

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

The Sandbox List tab of a sandbox. To mark an inactive sandbox as active, hover it, click the More button and click Mark as Active.

Delete a Sandbox

Here’s how you can delete a sandbox:

Go to the production organization.
Click Settings in the top right corner of the page.
Click Sandbox under Developer & Data.
In the Sandbox List tab, hover over the sandbox you want to delete and click the More button.
Select Delete from the dropdown.

The Sandbox List tab of a sandbox. To delete a sandbox, hover it, click the More button and click Delete.

Click Confirm in the pop-up that appears.

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