Try a version in a test copy

A test copy is a copy of your application that sits beside production. It has its own data, so you and your staff can try a new version, click around and add records without touching what your customers see. You can open as many as you like, and each one lasts until you close it.

Using one is optional. You can always release a version straight to production instead (see Release a version). A test copy is for when you'd like to see a change working first.

Test copies are on Releases, under Test copies. An owner, an admin or an editor can open one and release into it.

Open a test copy with a version

1. Open Releases and go to Test copies.
2. Type a name for the copy in the box, for example new-price-list. Use lower-case letters, numbers and single hyphens, up to 48 characters.
3. Press Try 0.5.0 in a new test copy (the button names your newest approved version).

This opens the copy and releases the version into it in one step. A card for it appears, headed Test copy new-price-list, and the release shows in History as it happens, just as a release to production does.

If the button isn't there, the screen says why. There may be no approved version yet, or your role may not allow it.

Try it out

A new test copy runs on made-up data: realistic-looking records that Divvent makes up to match your application, so the copy has something in it from the start. None of it is real.

The copy has its own sign-in, separate from production. Signing in to production does not sign you in to the test copy. The first time a version is released into it, the card may say who the copy was handed to, in the same way as production. See Release a version.

Release a newer version into it

When you approve another change, the test copy's card offers Release 0.6.0 to new-price-list. It is a click, with nothing to type, because a test copy is never production. If something goes wrong, the card also has Roll back to 0.5.0 (naming the version before), which works on the test copy alone and never touches production. See Roll back a release.

Promote it to production

When you're happy with what you tried, press Promote new-price-list to production on the copy's card, after typing prod in the box.

Promoting puts exactly what you tried onto production. It is not rebuilt, so what runs in production is what you tested. Only the version goes across: production keeps its own data, and the made-up data in the test copy stays there.

Only an owner or an admin can promote, because it changes production. If production is already running what is in the copy, or nothing has been released into the copy yet, the card says so instead of offering the button.

Close it

When you've finished with a test copy, close it with Close new-price-list.

While a version is running in the copy, you can't close it yourself yet. The card says so, and our team takes the copy down first. Ask us, and it closes once that is done. A test copy whose first release did not finish can be closed straight away.

Try it with a copy of production's data

Sometimes made-up data is not enough, and you want to see a new version against your real records. A test copy can be seeded from production: everything in the test copy is replaced with a copy of production's data.

• It is an owner's decision. Other roles see "Copying production's real data into a test copy is an owner's decision."
• It is done by our team, when an owner asks. Nothing on the screen starts it. Where seeding is allowed, the copy's card says "Ask Divvent to seed it from production".
• The copy stays in the UK/EU region, inside your application's own hosting. It never passes through Divvent's own systems, and our team never reads it.
• Release a version into the copy first. Seeding copies data into the copy; it doesn't set the copy up. If the version you're trying changes how data is stored, it is released into the copy again afterwards, so you see that change run over your real records. That is often the reason to seed at all.
• Sign-ins don't come across. Anybody trying the seeded copy signs in to it separately.
• It only goes one way. Production's data can be copied into a test copy, never out of one, and never from one test copy into another.

When seeding is refused

Seeding is refused for applications about children or about health, for applications marked as highly regulated, and for any application that keeps records about children's personal details or about health. Copying that kind of record into a second place doubles the places it could leak from. For these applications, test copies run on made-up data only. You can't have a copy of the real data masked for testing yet.

When seeding is refused, the test copy's card says "Runs on made-up data." followed by the reason.

Who can do what

| | Owner | Admin | Editor | |---|:-:|:-:|:-:| | Open a test copy, release into it, roll it back, close it | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Promote a test copy to production | Yes | Yes | | | Ask for a test copy to be seeded from production | Yes | | |

Finance approvers and viewers can see test copies but change nothing.