What is Salesforce Sandbox?

The production environment of the development process is an essential entity. Usually, the development team prefers to create a copy of this environment for testing and development purposes, which is called a sandbox.

A Salesforce sandbox is like a safe testing environment that imitates your organization’s production environment. You can copy the data in a sandbox as well, depending on its type. It allows the development team to code and test the product according to the requirements and adjust it to suit the standards of the organization.

In the following sections, we will explore the different types of sandboxes and the process of creation.  

What is a Sandbox?

Sandbox in Salesforce is a development and testing environment that is mainly used for testing purposes, and it is also used to change or modify existing code or functionalities. It is an isolated replica of your company’s production setup. Your live data and logged-in users are in your production environment.

The metadata (objects, fields, page layouts, etc.) of your production organization will always be included in a Salesforce sandbox; however, the data (account records, contact records, files, etc.) of your production organization may or may not be included.

Different Types of Sandbox in Salesforce

To help different organizations with their unique development requirements, there are four different types of Sandbox in Salesforce.

1. Developer Sandbox

The developer sandbox is the primary Sandbox available in Salesforce. It can be used by individual developers or small development teams only to code and test in a configured environment.

It copies and imitates the applications and information of the production environment but are limited to 200 MB of sample data. They can only be refreshed once per day. 

2. Developer Pro Sandbox

The developer pro sandbox is a level-up of the developer sandbox in Salesforce. In addition to copying the reports, dashboards, price books, products, apps, and customizations, it also copies some of the product data from production. It has a storage of up to 1 GB, and you can refresh it once per day.

3. Partial Copy

The partial copy sandbox can be seen as an extension of the developer pro. It includes all of your organization’s data and specific data from your production. You can define this selection using a sandbox template. Under Setup, it contains all of your metadata along with the reports, dashboards, price books, goods, apps, and customizations.

Partial Data sandboxes can also hold your organization’s standard and custom object records, documents, and attachments, up to 5 GB of data, and a limit of 10,000 records per chosen object, as specified by your sandbox template. You can refresh a Partial Data sandbox every 5 days.

4. Full Copy Sandbox

Complete sandbox copies include all of your production organization’s data, including documents, attachments, and records for both standard and custom objects. Every 29 days, a full sandbox can be refreshed.

You may manage the dimensions and contents of each Sandbox by using sandbox templates, which let you select which items and information to replicate in your Sandbox. Only Partial Data or Full sandboxes can use sandbox templates.

How to Create a Production org in Salesforce?

Here are the steps below to create a Production org:

1. Go to Salesforce.com and create a free trial account.
2. Check your mail inbox, and click on Verify Account. You will receive a verification code and enter it on the newly opened page.
3. After this, a new page will open to set the password and answer the security question.
4. You will finally log into Production org.

How to Create a Sandbox from Production org?

Here below are the steps:

1. Go to the Setup in production org.
2. Search Sandboxes in the Quick Find box.
3. Click on the New button.
4. Enter Name, Description, and Select Create From.
5. Select the type of Sandbox.
6. Click on Next.
7. Enter Apex Class and Click on the Create button.

Salesforce Sandbox Templates

As the name suggests, a Salesforce Sandbox Template is a customization feature that allows you to create your Sandbox as per your requirements. They are available for use with only Full or Partial Copy Sandbox in Salesforce. You can select specific object data, be it standard or custom while creating the sandbox template. 

The object schema in your Salesforce org defines relationships that the sandbox template editor understands. Since certain things are necessary for any organization, they are included even before you make any selections.

The editor makes sure to include the required objects when you select items to copy. Select an object in the Object table to see which associated objects are needed by it. The Required Objects column shows the required objects.  

How to Create or Edit Sandbox Templates

Here is a step-by-step process to create or edit your Sandbox Template in Salesforce:

1. From Setup, enter Sandboxes in the Quick Find box, select Sandboxes, and then click the Sandbox Templates tab.
2. Click New Sandbox Template or click Edit next to an existing template you want to modify.
3. Enter a name and description for the sandbox template.
4. To add objects to the template, select the checkbox for each object you want from the available Objects list.
5. To remove objects from the template, deselect the checkbox for the object in the Available Objects list.
6. Click Save.

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