Gearset's sandbox seeding & compliance templates let you save and re-use the configuration for repeatable deployments. This saves you time when setting up and gives you confidence that the same configuration is used every time. Templates can be used with sandbox seeding, in-place masking and data deployment.
What benefits do I get from templates?
Templates bring the usual benefits of automating a process:
It's harder to make mistakes through human error
It saves you time by letting you specify the configuration once and re-use it
It gives you confidence that the deployment will be the same every time
It allows you to share your configuration with your team
This means that you can spend less time configuring, and focus on testing and releasing new features.
Creating a new template
A template can be created for sandbox seeding, in-place masking and data deployment, once the job has been configured or run.
Once you've configured a data deployment, you're able to save the configuration for that deployment as a new template by selecting Save template and friendly name...
This option is available on the last stage of your configuration (just before you select DEPLOY DATA to execute the deployment). You can also save the configuration after you have run the job.
After you click on Save template and friendly name..., below pop-up window will show up allowing you to give name to your template (top field), and give name to your deployment (bottom field):
If you started from a template, you have the option to create a new template or update the template.
Using a template
On the Configure and deploy data page, you can select a template from the Deployment templates table. This table will list your most recently updated templates. When you click on a template it will open a window, where you can select the orgs and proceed. Alternatively if the template you want to use is not listed, click View all templates.
You'll see a list of all of your team's saved templates. To use a template, select the template, choose your source and target, and click Use this template.
Limitations of templates
In some cases, objects or fields from the template may not exist. This could happen if:
you created a template for a set of orgs, and you're now using the same template on different orgs.
the metadata used in the template configuration has changed, e.g. a field used for filtering has been deleted.
When Gearset can't use the full configuration from the template, it will apply as much of the template's configuration as possible. Please be aware that:
Objects or fields in the template that don't exist in the target org won't be included.
The automations to be disabled won't be included in the template.
For data deployment templates:
If external ID fields in the template don't exist, Gearset will default to the same field it would use if you weren't using a template.
If the template was created with
don't deploy set as a deployment method against related objects, this will switch to create new records if "don't deploy" is not a valid option for the chosen orgs.Validation rules won't be included in the template either.
Managing sandbox seeding & compliance templates
You can rename, edit or delete any templates that you've created. This can be done in the manage templates page.
If you're not a team owner, you won't be able to rename, edit or delete templates created by other members of your team.
Do you have any other questions we haven't covered in this article? Feel free to let us know in the in-app chat.