Development Applications

Learn about the different environments available through Beefree SDK and how to get started to with each.

Development Applications

Development applications are available with any Beefree SDK paid plan.

What is a Development Application?

A development application is a child application that is linked to your parent application within the Beefree SDK console. The purpose of these child applications is to create development, QA, or any other type of applications that you can merge your application’s changes to prior to pushing them to production. This empowers you to test new features, even on a higher plan, within a controlled environment prior to releasing them to your application’s end users.

How to Create a Development Application

You can create a development application within your Beefree SDK console. Prior to creating a development application, ensure you have a paid plan with Beefree SDK. Development applications are only available on paid plans.

To create a development application, take the following steps:

1. Log in to your Beefree SDK Developer Console

1. Create a new application

Note: This creates a production environment for your application.

1. Navigate to your dashboard where the new application is located

2. Click the + next to Add a development instance

1. Type in the name of your development application, for example “development environment” or “QA environment”

1. Click Create

2. View the new development application available in your Beefree SDK dashboard

Beefree SDK Console Dashboard with an Example QA Environment Development Application

Benefits of Development Applications

There are multiple benefits to utilizing development applications. A few of these benefits are the following:

• Merge and test changes to your application prior to releasing them to your end users.

• Create an environment for different contributors in your development cycle, for example QA Engineers, frontend developers, backend developers, and so on.

• Access next tier Beefree SDK features in your development applications.

• Create as many child development applications linked to your parent production environment as you’d like.

Important Considerations

Consider the information outlined in this section when working with development applications.

Testing next-tier features in your development application

Beefree SDK lets you explore higher-tier features in your development environment for testing purposes. However, these features cannot be deployed to production unless they are included in your current subscription plan.

To use higher-tier features in production, you must upgrade to the appropriate plan.

Development apps inherit the same plan that your production app is on. If you wish to test features that are available on a higher plan, go the application details and click “CHANGE PLAN” in the upper right.

Usage-based fees on development applications

While setting up a development application is a feature on paid plans, please note that usage-based fees still apply. If, in your development application, you're using any of the Beefree SDK features that generate usage-based fees, that usage will count towards your plan's monthly allotment. You'll be charged usage-based fees if your usage (across production and development applications) exceeds your plan's allotment. Learn more about usage-based fees. You can view usage statistics for your development applications by logging into the Beefree SDK Developer Console, locating the development application you are working with, and looking at the Statistics widget on the application details page.