Sandboxes Beta: New design & features

October 14, 2021

Sandboxes Beta: New design & features

Sandboxes are virtual staging environments exclusive to Buddy. They allow you to preview websites on a specified server configuration directly from the application. The feature has been in beta for a while with the official release date scheduled at the end of this year.

As a part of the on-going Buddy v2.0 makeover, sandboxes also received a new coat of paint, a glimpse of what you may expect once we release the new pipelines in the nearest future. We also added a couple of features to the mix – read below for more details!

If you'd like to activate Sandboxes in your account and help us in testing, send the URL to your workspace to our live-chat, or drop a line to support@buddy.works.

Example use case

Below you can find a pipeline that involves staging a website on a sandbox for review. The steps are as follows:

  1. Build application
  2. Stage application on sandbox
  3. Inform your team it's ready for review
  4. Confirm changes and kill sandbox

Here's how it looks split into actions:

Sandbox pipelineSandbox pipeline

Pretty hefty, huh? Now, to the changes!

Update details

New design

The looks of sandboxes follow the direction of changes in our recent changes to Buddy – a more lightweight UI with more space for new features. Each sandbox share the same features, each of them transfered to the new UI:

  1. Terminal in which you can run commands
  2. Filesystem hosting the files uploaded to the sandbox
  3. Pipelines that involve sandbox actions
  4. Snapshots from which you can run restore the sandbox
  5. Setup options where you can add point URLs and update sandbox settings

Sandbox tabsSandbox tabs

Here's the configuration screen where you can define the details of your sandbox. You can see the playbook dropdown expanded with predefined server configurations:

Sandbox configurationSandbox configuration

For example, selecting WordPress will install Apache with PHP in the chosen version, a MySQL database, and WordPress itself:

Playbook configurationPlaybook configuration

Tags

Users are now able to tag their sandboxes with labels for easier identification. You can find this feature in the Setup tab:

Sandbox tagsSandbox tags

The option is also available from the hamburger menu at the top.

Folders

Sandbox folders work exactly the same as for projects and pipelines, allowing you to store sandbox servers according to a selected pattern. To add or manage a folder, click the three dots at the top when on the Sandboxes view:

Adding foldersAdding folders

You can add however many folders you need and paint them with colors for easier recognition:

Folder setupFolder setup

That's it! Hope you like the update as much as we do. Now, back to work to meet the release deadline! 🤞

If you'd like to activate Sandboxes in your account and help us in testing, send the URL to your workspace to the live-chat or drop a line to support@buddy.works.
Buddy is currently in the transition period in which every major view is being redesigned to better accommodate the ever-growing list of upcoming features. We've already updated navigation and released new projects, integrations, source code, and project settings views, with Pipelines securing the spot for the next Big Thing™️.

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Alexander Kus

Alexander Kus

Customer Success Manager

A story-teller and conversation-lover, Alexander decided to invest his skills to help his friends at Buddy transform the cold language of patch notes into exciting narratives. Also: an avid gamer, hip-hop DJ, Liverpool FC fan, absentminded husband, and the father of two.