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!
Example use case
Below you can find a pipeline that involves staging a website on a sandbox for review. The steps are as follows:
- Build application
- Stage application on sandbox
- Inform your team it's ready for review
- Confirm changes and kill sandbox
Here's how it looks split into actions:
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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:
- Terminal in which you can run commands
- Filesystem hosting the files uploaded to the sandbox
- Pipelines that involve sandbox actions
- Snapshots from which you can run restore the sandbox
- Setup options where you can add point URLs and update sandbox settings
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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:
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For example, selecting WordPress will install Apache with PHP in the chosen version, a MySQL database, and WordPress itself:
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Tags
Users are now able to tag their sandboxes with labels for easier identification. You can find this feature in the Setup tab:
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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:
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You can add however many folders you need and paint them with colors for easier recognition:
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That's it! Hope you like the update as much as we do. Now, back to work to meet the release deadline! 🤞
Jarek Dylewski
Customer Support
A journalist and an SEO specialist trying to find himself in the unforgiving world of coders. Gamer, a non-fiction literature fan and obsessive carnivore. Jarek uses his talents to convert the programming lingo into a cohesive and approachable narration.