TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Versions
• Releases
• Environments
  • Adding a Variable
  • Adding an Environment
• Creating an Environment Pipeline
• Deploying a Release Across the Pipeline
• Example: Creating a Pipeline and Deploying a Release
• Maintenance Mode 
  • Setting Up the Maintenance Page
  • Creating a New Release with Maintenance Support
  • Enabling Maintenance Mode in the Selected Environment

The Release management page allows you to control the process of deploying updates across various environments. The Release management page consists of three main sections:

• Versions
• Releases
• Environment

This article provides an overview of these sections, as well as the instructions for creating an environment pipeline and deploying a release.

Versions

The Versions section provides a list of all the app versions. Here, you can view the details of the current version, along with a chronological list of all previous versions of the app.
 

For each version, you can view the following details:

• Date: The date and time the version was created. If multiple versions are created in quick succession, they will be grouped together.
• Version #: The unique number for each version.
• Author: The person who made the changes for the version.
• Changes: A brief description of what changes were made.
• Label: A specific label or name for the version. 

For each version listed, you have two primary actions:

• Restore: Reverts the app to the selected version.
• Publish: Publishes the selected version, making it active for deployment.

The Current version is displayed at the top of the screen, showing the most recent version and its details with the option to publish it live.

Releases

The Releases section lists official releases of the project, including past and planned releases. You can click on any release to view details about its deployment.

Under Environment Pipelines, you can view the deployment pipeline, reflecting how a release moves through different environments:

• Blue: Ready to be deployed
• Green: Successfully deployed
• Yellow: Blocked. The release is blocked and cannot be deployed in the cases when the current deployed release is newer, or the environment is missing a required environment variable or workflow connection. For more details on why the release is blocked, check the Environment Details section in the right-hand panel.
• Gray: Unavailable or inactive. These environments will become available after the deployment of a prerequisite environment.

Environments

The Environments section displays the environments where the app is configured to be deployed. This is also where you can add a new environment or manage the existing ones.

By default, there is a Draft environment that serves as an interim space for development, where you can make changes and immediately test them. Also, this is where you can configure variables that will appear across all custom environments. 

Adding a Variable

To add a variable:

1. Go to the Draft environment and click the Add new variable button.
2. In the dialog window that opens, specify the Name and Value of the variable. 
3. Click Add.
   
   

The created variable will be visible in all custom environments. However, its value is set for each environment individually in the settings of the environment. You can click on the variable in the list to view the different values assigned to it across various environments.

Note: Environment variables do not appear directly in the App Studio interface. Instead, the system passes an identifier to the UI, which can be passed into an External Data Source. This allows secure variables, such as passwords, to be set and used without being exposed in the UI. When the External Data Source is evaluated, the identifier is automatically replaced with the corresponding variable value.

Adding an Environment

To add a new environment:

1. Navigate to the Environments section on the left-hand side. 
2. Click on the plus (+) icon next to the Environments heading.
   
   
3. Enter a name for the environment.
4. Next, configure various settings:
   Environment Variables: Set the values of the environment variables if there are any.
   Permissions: Add users who can create workspaces, view analytics, or list the IP addresses or hostnames allowed to load the App.
   Workflow Connections: Add workflow connections for the environment.
   App Auth: Force all logged in users in this environment to re-authenticate.
   Maintenance: No configuration available upon environment creation. For details on the Maintenance feature, see the Maintenance mode section.
5. Prerequisite Environment: In the Deployment Flow section, select an existing environment from the dropdown if this environment should only be deployed after another environment.
6. Analytics Enabled: Toggle this setting to enable or disable analytics for the environment.

To edit an existing environment, simply select it from the list in the Environments section.

Creating an Environment Pipeline

An environment pipeline allows you to define the flow which a release passes before reaching production.

To create an environment pipeline, follow the steps:

1. Create multiple environments: For details on how to create an environment, see the Environments section above.

2. Set up the environment pipeline: For each environment, select a Prerequisite Environment, which ensures the environment is deployed only after its prerequisite.

You can track the progress of a specific release through the pipeline by checking the Releases section.

Deploying a Release Across the Pipeline

Once the environments and pipeline are set up, you can deploy a release:

1. Navigate to the Versions section and locate the version you want to publish. 
2. Click the Publish button for that version. You will be redirected to the release details page.
3. Update the name for the release.
4. Deploy the release to the first environment in the pipeline. The environment that is ready for deployment is highlighted in blue and displays the Deploy button.
   
5. Once the deployment is successful, the environment will turn green, and the next environment in line will become blue, indicating it is available for deployment.
   

Example: Creating a Pipeline and Deploying a Release

In this example, we will deploy the Spacecraft Search app across three environments: Development (Dev), User Acceptance Testing (UAT), and Production (Prod). Here’s how you would create the pipeline and deploy the release.

Step 1: Create environments

Create three environments: Dev, UAT, and Prod. Set their environment variables and permissions.

Step 2: Set up the environment pipeline

1. For UAT, set Dev as the prerequisite environment.
   
2. For Prod, set UAT as the prerequisite.
   

Step 3: Deploy the release

1. Navigate to the Versions page.
2. Locate the release you want to publish and click Publish. This creates a new release in the Releases section.
3. From the Releases section, first publish the release to the Dev environment by clicking the Deploy button.
   
4. Once successfully deployed, proceed to deploy it to UAT and finally Prod.
   

Maintenance Mode 

The Maintenance tab on the Release Management page allows you to set the app into Maintenance mode, where users see a message indicating the app is temporarily unavailable, instead of the usual app interface.

Setting the app into Maintenance mode involves three main steps:

1. Setting up the Maintenance page
2. Creating a new release with maintenance support
3. Enabling the Maintenance mode

Setting Up the Maintenance Page

To use Maintenance mode, you must first create a Maintenance page. This page can be configured with most standard components available for app pages, except for the Navigation component.

To add a Maintenance page:

1. Navigate to Design Editor > Explorer.
2. Right-click on the App to bring up a context menu.
3. Click Add maintenance page.
   
4. Design and configure the Maintenance page as you would any other page.
   
   Note: The Maintenance page may be visible to unauthenticated users on Public Apps, so ensure it does not contain sensitive information.

Creating a New Release with Maintenance Support

Once the Maintenance page is added, create a new release of the app. Apply this release to the environment where you want to enable maintenance. For details on how to create and deploy a release, check the Deploying a Release Across the Pipeline section.

Enabling Maintenance Mode in the Selected Environment

After the release has been deployed, you can enable the Maintenance mode. 

To enable Maintenance mode:

1. In Release Management, select the environment.
2. Open the Maintenance tab. 
3. Under Maintenance Management, toggle the Active option to activate Maintenance mode.
   
   If the toggle is not visible, it means that the active release does not have Maintenance enabled. Please follow the on-screen instructions, or refer back to this article to ensure you haven't missed any steps.

Note: Activate Maintenance mode before shutting down backend services to allow active users to complete their work. Users who are already active in the application will not be affected by the activation of Maintenance mode unless they switch workspaces or refresh the browser page. It’s important to notify users in advance of activating Maintenance mode to reduce the number of active users at that time. 

Notification to users should be managed outside of the application using the most suitable communication method.