Sandbox Applications

Sandbox applications are available with any Beefree SDK paid plan.

  1. What is a Sandbox Application?
  2. How to Create a Sandbox Application
  3. Benefits of Sandbox Applications
  4. Important Considerations

What is a Sandbox Application?

A sandbox 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 application instances 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 paid plan) within a controlled environment prior to releasing them to your application’s end users. Sandbox applications do not count toward usage based fees; therefore, you can build and test in your sandbox applications freely.

How to Create a Sandbox Application

You can create a sandbox application within your Beefree SDK console. Prior to creating a sandbox application, ensure you have a paid plan with Beefree SDK. This will make the functionality accessible to you.

To create a sandbox application, take the following steps:

1. Log in to your Beefree SDK Developer Console

Beefree SDK Developer Console Log in Page Displaying E-mail and Password Fields

Beefree SDK Developer Console Log in Page

2. Create a new application

Note: This creates a production environment for your application.

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

4. Click the + next to Add a development instance

Beefree SDK Developer Console Dashboard Displaying an Example Application

Beefree SDK Developer Console Dashboard

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

Development Instance Creation Page with a Name Field for the New Instance

Development Instance Creation Page

6. Click Create

7. View the new sandbox application available in your Beefree SDK dashboard

New development instance is available as a child application to the parent application

Beefree SDK Developer Console Dashboard with Development Instance Created

Benefits of Sandbox Applications

There are multiple benefits to utilizing sandbox 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 sandbox applications without any additional costs
  • Create as many child sandbox applications linked to your parent production environment as you’d like

Important Considerations

While access to next tier Beefree SDK features in your sandbox applications is available to you, it is important to remember that you cannot push any next tier features in your sandbox application to your production environment. Your production environment should only include the features reflected in your current plan subscription. If you find that you would like to push a next tier feature from your sandbox application to your production application, you need to upgrade to the subscription plan that corresponds to those features.

Beefree SDK allows you to access next tier features within your sandbox application to test them out and see if they are a good fit for your application’s needs. However, it is important to consider that if you plan to push those features to your production environment, that you have the right subscription and permissions to do so.