Domo Sandbox

Intro

Domo Sandbox allows you to quickly and easily follow a development lifecycle for your Domo Dashboards and other objects. Giving you the ability to manage when Domo objects are shared to production. Ensuring a consistent and quality end-user experience.

Here are some terms you should know before using Domo Sandbox:

• Repository – The collection of objects that are being versioned. Over time, multiple versions of the selected objects will be stored. An example of what might be included is a Dashboard (including Cards, Beast Modes, Images, etc.)
• Version – A snapshot of a repository at a given point in time. A repository can have multiple versions.
• Commit – The action taken to store a new version. This results in a new snapshot of the Domo objects.
• Promote – The action taken to create or update the objects in the destination Domo instance. An example is to promote a Dashboard to production. This will create the Dashboard the first time it is promoted or will update the Dashboard on subsequent promote actions.
• Same Instance Promotion – Promoting a repository in the same instance that it was created. This is used when the ability to manage the versioning process in the same instance is desired.
• Source Instance – The location of the source objects. This will typically be a development or sandbox Domo instance.
• Destination Instance – The location where the objects will be updated. This will typically be a production instance.

Getting this feature

If you are interested in using this feature, please contact your Customer Success Manager (CSM).

Instance Configuration

Sandbox supports both cross instance and same instance promotion. If cross instance promotion is desired, please contact your Customer Success Manager to have an instance provisioned.

Instance Relationships

1. Navigate to Sandbox in Admin Settings.
2. Select Instances tab.
   
   
   
   
3. Click Invite Instance. Type in the destination Domo domain in the format domoinstance.domo.com. An optional alias can also be included. The alias will identify this instance by the friendly alias name in other areas of Sandbox.
   
   
   
   
4. Log in to the destination instance.
5. Select the Instances tab.
6. Select Incoming Invites and click Approve. Once approved, repositories can be shared with the destination instance and promoted.
   
   

Creating a Repository

1. Navigate to Sandbox in Admin Settings. Select the Repositories tab.
   
   
   
   
2. Click + New Repository.
3. Configure the repository by:
   1. Name the repository.
   2. Select the object type being versioned.
   3. Choose the objects to be included in the repository.
      
      

Commit Version

1. Navigate to Sandbox in Admin Settings in the source instance. Select the Repositories tab. This will display My Repositories.
   
   
   
   
2. Click the Commit button (or click more options menu and Commit).
3. Enter a description for the version that will be created. By default, the version will be allowed to be promoted. This can be unchecked to prevent this version from being immediately available for promotion.
   
   
   
   
4. Click Save. The process to capture and store the new version will be initiated at this point.

Manage Sharing of Repository

1. Navigate to Sandbox in Admin Settings in the source instance. Select the Repositories tab. This will display My Repositories.
2. Click the more options menu for the repository that should be shared and choose Manage Sharing.
   
   
   
   
3. To share the repository with a specific instance, choose Can Promote and then click Save to apply the change.
   
   
   
   
4. For same instance promotion, share the repository with the source instance by choosing Can Promote and then click Save to apply the change.

Promote Repository

1. Navigate to Sandbox in Admin Settings in the destination instance. Select the Repositories tab. Select Shared Repositories to see repositories that have been shared with the instance.
   
   
   
   
2. Click Promote on the repository.
   
   
   
   
3. Choose the version to be promoted. This will default to the most recent Committed Version.
4. Map dependencies. Depending on the object type of the repository, there may be different mapping requirements. The most common mapping that is required are data sources.
5. Apply advanced settings as necessary. Renaming/removing strings from object names is available primarily to facilitate same instance promotion, but can be used when promoting across instances.
6. Click Promote. This will initiate the process to either create the objects (on first promotion) or update the objects on subsequent promotions.

Sandbox Logs

1. Navigate to Sandbox in Admin Settings. Commit Logs are available in the source instance and Promote Logs are available in the destination instance.
2. Click the Logs tab.
   
   
   
   
3. By default, high-level Commit Logs are displayed. To view Promotion Logs, select Promote Logs. This view shows the commit or promote actions that have occurred.
4. Detailed logs for a specific commit or promote action are available by clicking View More. This view will provide the most detailed information about the commit or promotion that was executed.
   
   

FAQs

What Domo objects are supported?

Pages (includes subpages, Cards, Layouts, files, Apps, etc.), DataFlows, and Views. We plan to add additional objects over time and welcome feedback to help prioritize.

Are raw data sources supported?

Raw data is not currently supported within Sandbox. We do plan to support Connectors in the future.

Can I revert to a previous version of a Dashboard if necessary?

Yes, simply repeat the promotion process, but choose the desired version.

How long are versions stored and maintained?

Committed versions will be available and supported for one month from the date they are committed. It is entirely possible that committed versions older than one month will also work.

Are users in the Destination instance able to make changes to Cards/Dashboards promoted to them?

Yes, however, any changes they made will be overwritten on a subsequent promotion. If users would like to make changes, they should Save As the Card/Dashboard to another location and make changes there as these will be independent of the Sandbox Repository.

Are there unsupported items that will not be promoted?

Yes, there are a handful to be aware of:

• Pages:
  • Poll Cards
  • Links and Dynamic Summary Numbers in Notebook Cards
  • Annotations
  • Certifications
  • Page Ordering
  • Segments 

• Dataflows: 
  • Recursive DataFlows
  • Password-protected DataFlows
  • Writeback Tile DataFlows

How large can repositories be?

There is a limit of one thousand Cards within a repository. In general, there should be a repository for each Dashboard or group of DataFlows/Views.

What happens when a promotion is aborted?

The promotion progress is stopped. Any changes that have been made in the process will remain in place and not reverted.

Troubleshooting

Sandbox provides logging on commit and promote activity. The best place to start troubleshooting is to review the commit/promote logs for errors. This will often provide the necessary information to remedy an issue with a specific object.

Common areas to check

• Invalid Objects: A common issue is that the objects being committed are invalid. Examples:
  • Cards: Check all Drill Cards for column errors. Commonly caused by schema changes in the underlying DataSet.
  • Beast Modes: Invalid calculations can cause issues. Commonly caused by schema changes in the underlying DataSet.
  • These types of errors can cause other issues. Example: An invalid Drill Card can cause the entire Card to fail which may also cause the layout to fail. It is common for the root cause of layout issues to be an invalid Card or Beast Mode.
• Different Features between source and destination instance. Examples:
  • Advanced DataFlow functionality isn’t enabled in the destination will cause the DataFlows to be inaccessible or fail to promote successfully.
• Unsupported items: Most objects and functionality are supported through Sandbox, though there are a handful of items to be aware of that aren’t currently supported. (See FAQ section above.)

Requesting assistance

Email: support@domo.com

Include the following information:

• Instance(s) where behavior is occurring.
• Repository Name (if applicable.)
• Description of behavior.
• Screenshot and/or recording of behavior (if applicable.)
• Steps to recreate behavior (if known/applicable.)