Unqork Promotions Order

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Overview

Promotion advances your applications and Data Collections from their current environment level to another. Promoting an application or Data Collection overwrites any previous versions in the next environment level. You can promote styles, groups, roles, applications, and translations individually or simultaneously.

TIP  To learn more about promoting applications, view our Promoting Applications article.

What You'll Learn

In this article, you'll learn about environment levels and promotions.

Environment Levels in Unqork

Environment levels in Unqork support each phase of the application development process. As customer applications advance through development, they generally pass through the following levels:

	Environment Level	Description	Codebase
1	Staging	Where Unqork Creators Also known as Unqork Users, or Designer Users; is anyone who is inside the Unqork platform. configure applications. This non-production environment level hosts test data only. This level is where you prepare updates before promoting to QA for testing. Unqork hosts the Staging environment internally. Staging offers both a Designer and Express View interface.	Staging
2	Quality Assurance (QA)	Where Unqork Creators test and verify processes, artifacts, and ensure applications are built using best practices. This non-production environment level hosts test data only. Unqork hosts the QA environment internally. QA offers both a Designer and Express View interface.	QA
3	User Acceptance Testing (UAT)	Where the Creators and end-users End-users, also known as Express Users, are the individuals accessing an application through Express View. In most cases, end-users are the customers using the product. can view the latest build. Use this environment level to test your application's end-user experience. This non-production environment hosts test data only. Unqork hosts the UAT environment internally. UAT offers both a Designer and Express View interface.	UAT
4	Production	This is the live application and the only environment level where end-users can access it. This level is also the only environment to host live client data. IMPORTANT  Following SDLC best practices, development should never take place in Production.	Production

NOTE  Additional environments can also include Pre-Production (Pre-Prod) environment levels. Pre-Prod environments use the Production codebase. The progression order is Staging, QA, UAT, Pre-prod, and Production. Client leads decide the number of environments to use when developing a customer application.

TIP  To learn more about environment stages, including the release process for platform updates, visit our Software Development Life Cycle Processes article.

Promoting in Unqork

Creators Also known as Unqork Users, or Designer Users; is anyone who is inside the Unqork platform. build applications in the Staging environment and promote upwards. When promoting an application to another environment level, you must also promote all other attributes associated with that application. These attributes include roles, groups, styles, app elements, and all entry point modules and workflows.

IMPORTANT  To promote a module that is dependent on an entry point module, the entry point module must be promoted with it or before or it. If the entry point module is not promoted as well, the promotion fails.

It's a best practice to promote your applications using the Release Management Dashboard tool. This tool makes it easy to create releases with specific apps, modules, and Data Collections. Then, you can promote that release, monitor its progress, and view all of its relevant information.

TIP  To learn more about the Release Management Dashboard tool, view our Release Management Dashboard Tool article.

Reference the following table when promoting from one environment to the next. While you can promote the parts of your application in any order, we recommend the following order:

	Element	Can it be promoted?
1	Services	No. You must recreate services in the new environment. You’ll do this using Services Administration.
2	Managed Assets	No. You must download the asset from the original environment. Then, upload the asset to your new environment. You’ll do this using Managed Assets Administration.
3	PDF Templates	No. You must download your PDF templates from your current environment. Then, upload the PDF templates to your new environment. You’ll do this using PDF Template Administration.
4	Styles/Themes	Yes. You can promote styles individually that are included in Style Administration.
5	Groups	Yes. You can promote all groups that are included in Express Group Administration.
6	Roles	Yes. You can promote all roles that are included in Creator Role Administration and Express Role Administration.
7	Application and App Elements	Yes. You can promote your application and all app elements, including workflows, modules, and Data Collections.
8	Translations	Yes. You can promote translations by clicking the Promote Translations button in Environment Administration. IMPORTANT  It's a best practice to make configuration changes in your development and build environments. Occasionally, you'll make a quick fix in a higher environment. Make sure to promote the translation table before updating the module in the higher environment to avoid losing work. This is because a translated module is a copy of the original, created by the translation table. All copies of the module are promoted simultaneously. If you do not promote the table, the translated modules don't have a reference point and can break.
9	Global Variables	Partial. You cannot promote a variable's value, you'll create a new value specific to the new environment stage. You can promote a Global Variable's key, description, and Server-Side Only settings using Global Variables Administration. TIP  To learn more about promoting Global Variables, view our Global Variables Administration: Global Variable Promotion article.
10	Integration Jobs	No. Integration Jobs must be recreated and updated in the new environment. This is handled by Unqork’s Solutions team.

IMPORTANT  Be mindful of how promoting one application can affect other applications. Sometimes several applications in an environment share a style or group. Also, promoting an app overwrites any previous versions in the target environment. This includes parts of an app like styles, roles, and groups.