Environments

An organization can run its processes in more than one environment: one where they do the real work, and one or more to try out changes first. A common setup is Production and Test.

Each environment keeps its own runs, its own trigger runs, its own collection items and counter values, and its own connection settings. A run in Test never touches what Production holds.

Production and test environments

An environment is either a test environment or not. Production is the first environment that is not a test environment, in the environments' order. What Spider holds without an environment, such as runs from before the organization had environments, counts as production's.

Choosing an environment

The Environment selector in the header chooses which environment the pages show:

Pick an environment to see its runs, triggers, tasks, collection items and counter values. Pick All environments to see those of every environment together. Lists then add a column, or a second line, with each row's environment.

The selector is coloured when it shows anything but production: orange for a test environment, and grey for All environments. So you can tell at a glance that you are not looking at the real work:

• It starts on production. If the organization has no production environment, it starts on All environments.
• Spider remembers your choice for each organization, in this browser, until you next sign in.
• A link can choose for you. A link with ?environment= in its address, such as the link from a trigger to its runs, switches the selector when you open it.
• It is not shown when the organization has only one environment, or when you may not see its environments.

What follows the selector

Page	What changes
Processes › Runs, and a definition's Runs	Only the runs of the selected environment.
Triggers	Only the triggers and trigger runs of the selected environment.
My Tasks	Only the tasks of the selected environment's runs.
Collections	The items of the selected environment. A shared collection has the same items in every environment, so it ignores the selector.
Counters	The values of the selected environment. With All environments, each environment gets a column of its own.
Dashboard	The run and process widgets, unless a widget was set to an environment of its own.

The runs that one run started (its Children) are always shown, whatever their environment. Process definitions, types and e-mail templates are the same in every environment.

Starting something in an environment

When you start a process run, add a trigger or add a collection item, its Environment field starts on the one selected in the header (on production, when that is All environments). You can pick another one there.

A draft never starts in production by itself. When you start a run of a definition's draft (Use draft version), the Environment field is left empty if the header shows production, and you pick the environment yourself. You can still pick production by hand.

Each trigger belongs to one environment. The runs it starts run there.

Connections

A connection, such as the login of a mailbox, holds its settings once for every environment, so Test can use a test mailbox. In Settings › Spider › Connections, the Environments column has a tag for each environment: green when the connection has its settings for that environment, orange when it has none yet. Click a tag to see or change that environment's settings. See Connections.

Managing environments

The organization's environments are in Settings › Spider › Environments. There you add an environment with Add environment, and give it:

• a Name;
• an Order: its place in the list, which also decides which environment is production;
• Test: This environment is a test-environment;
• a Description.

Changing an environment's order or its Test box can make another environment production. What counts as production's then moves with it. See Environments, in the page reference.