Salesforce Sandboxes are the test spaces for developers to try out new things such as objects, fields, workflow processes, and page layouts without any changes in the existing configuration.

Salesforce sandbox contains all the configuration, customization, apps, and metadata a developer has made to the production environment. Sandbox types can even include some of the production data sometimes. As a result, developers can perform any task without any risk of harm to the configuration.

How To Use Sandboxes

The uses of Sandboxes depend on the developers and their needs, but the following are some of the expected benefits.

Learning

Suppose an organization has a new team member who is still learning Salesforce administration and development. In that case, the team lead can insist on practicing in their own sandbox, not harming the existing configuration by any human error.

Training

New users can practice in a safe environment without the risk of making mistakes or entering incorrect data. If the Salesforce license type provides a partial copy of full copy Sandboxes, these are ideal for training.

Development

If developers or admins need to make any changes and improvements to the production, the changes should be done in the sandbox first and then copied to show after completion. For example, various sandboxes may be used to develop new features, like development, interaction testing, quality assurance, and user acceptance testing. When the new feature is developed and tested, then it is moved from one environment to another.

Experiment

When a developer wants to try a new app in the AppExchange, a Sandbox platform is a perfect place to do this. Developers can try the free AppExchange apps installed into a sandbox for this purpose. Likewise, if developers want to try new automation, the sandbox is the perfect solution. designed

Different Sandbox Types

The number of Sandboxes that developers can have depends on the type of Salesforce license. However, Sandbox functionalities are not applicable within a free Developer Salesforce org.

There are mainly four types of Sandboxes with various features.

Developer Sandbox
Developer Pro Sandbox
Partial Copy Sandbox
Full Sandbox

Developer Sandbox

It is created for development and testing purposes in a remote environment. It contains the metadata of an organization.

Developer Pro Sandbox

This sandbox can adopt a larger data set than a developer sandbox. It is used to manage the development and quality assurance functions for testing and training.

Partial Copy Sandbox

A partial copy sandbox is generally used as a testing environment. This environment contains the metadata and a sample of the production org’s data. This sandbox is mainly used for user acceptance testing, integration testing, and training.

Full Sandbox

This sandbox is also used as a testing environment. Only this sandbox supports performance testing, load testing, and staging. A full sandbox is a copy of the production org that includes all the data( object records and attachments, metadata).

The developer and Developer Pro sandboxes could be refreshed as per the developers’ needs. The partial copy is every five days, and the full Sandbox is once in 29 days.

So this was an overview of the Salesforce Sandboxes. If you have any further queries, please feel free to take a consultation call with the Salesforce experts of CloudVandana, the registered Salesforce Partner.