With EchoVideo, a sandbox can be created secondary to your main institution. The sandbox and your main institution both reside in your production region.

What is a sandbox?

An EchoVideo sandbox is a separate, isolated, and unique institution in your production region designed to allow you to test new features, workflows, or integrations without affecting your main institution or the work of others. The concept is derived from the idea of a children's sandbox, where one can play and experiment freely within defined boundaries. If something goes wrong or does not work as expected, no worries! Your main institution is unchanged. 

Why use a sandbox?

An EchoVideo sandbox institution allows you to play with new and beta EchoVideo features in a separate, secure institution without affecting your main institution. The sandbox helps you identify which features to enable in your main institution. You can experiment with toggling different features on and off and identify how they affect your institution.

The sandbox institution also allows you to identify and replicate issues or bugs that users have reported in your main institution. An EchoVideo sandbox institution allows you and the EchoVideo support team to troubleshoot any issues without affecting the main institution.

Key characteristics and purposes of a sandbox

1. Isolation: It is isolated from your main institution to ensure that experiments, configuration, or testing do not impact live integrations or data. This isolation helps in minimizing risks.
2. Experimentation and Testing: Use your sandbox to experiment with new features, configurations, or updates. You can also test the impact of changes on the system's performance and functionality in a controlled manner.
3. Learning and Training: Sandboxes serve as excellent training grounds for new admins, IT staff, or those learning new technologies, allowing them to get hands-on experience without the risk of affecting the main institution.
4. Security: By allowing new integrations and user permissions to be tested in a sandbox, institutions can ensure that security vulnerabilities can be identified and addressed before they reach the main institution.

Limitations and items to note

1. Changes and updates made within the sandbox cannot be 'pushed' into the main institution. Updates will need to be replicated within the main institution when desired.
2. Newly released features become available in both the sandbox and main institution at the same time as both environments reside in your production region.

Accessing sandboxes

How to set up a sandbox

Contact your EchoVideo Customer Success representative to learn more about how to obtain a sandbox for your institution.

Logging into a sandbox

1. If you are currently logged into your main institution, click your user profile image located in the top-right corner of EchoVideo, then click Logout.
2. Start the normal process of logging into EchoVideo by entering your email address.
   
3. Use the Institution Selector to choose your sandbox institution.
   
   • The name of your sandbox is your main institution name, appended with "- Dev" or "- Sandbox".