What is Sandbox?

What can be a sandbox? A playing platform for individuals where one can create or
test something of his/her own customization without hampering others work.
Similarly, Sandbox in Oracle Cloud Applications is a discriminate and separate
environment, where you can do your configuration work and testing.
Why Sandbox?
It allows customizations in a segregated manner that is isolated from the application in
the mainline code as well as from other sandboxes (The mainline code is the source of
data and definitions used while creating a new sandbox). Thus it doesn’t impact other
users’ configuration and/or production environment.
It helps in avoiding the risk of conflicts in testing the application changes.
So it’s better to use sandboxes instead of making changes to the mainline code in the
application directly. Even users must use sandbox while doing any Functional Setup
in Oracle Fusion.
How to create a sandbox?
Step 1:
Click the Administration Menu. Then click on Manage Sandboxes.

Step 2:
Manage Sandboxes window will open. To create a new sandbox, click on Action then
on New or else directly click on add icon (+).
Step 3:
Create Sandbox window will open. Now you need to is to give a unique name
(mandatory) and description (not mandatory) to the sandbox. Then click on Save
and Close. Click on OK on the confirmation message window.

Step 4:
Now select your sandbox and click on Set as Active to activate your sandbox.
After following all the steps, the sandbox name displays at the top of the window
indicating that you are now working in the sandbox. Now you can customize your
application.
Other users can see what you have done only when you Publish your sandbox by
following the navigation given below. Once you publish your sandbox, the changes
will be applied to all the users of the application.
Administration Menu → Manage Sandboxes → Select Your Sandbox → Publish

Different Usage of Sandbox:

 Customization of Pages (To remove any option from the page if needed.)
 Customizing the Appearance of Application (To change the look of
instance by changing the theme, icon color etc.)
 Enabling DFF (There are some DFF for which users need to activate the
sandbox.)
 Customization of roles (Custom role can be attached to any of the custom
page. So user having such role will have access to that custom page only.)
 Add Application logo (To add or change the LOGO of application.)
Points to be noted:
 At a time only one sandbox can be active.
 The sandbox name is displayed in the global area once it is active for any
session.
 One should always log out from Oracle Cloud Applications and log in back
after activating a sandbox which helps to avoid conflicts by ensuring that the
cache is cleared.
 A sandbox remains active until one exit the sandbox, publish the sandbox,
delete the sandbox, or set another sandbox as active
  Before each patch or upgrade, publish or delete in the sandboxes. Due to
potential conflicts, outdated sandboxes might not be publishable. If the work is
incomplete, restart with a new sandbox
Example:
Here I have tried to change the logo using sandbox by following the navigation.
Navigator → More → Appearance (under Configuration) → Upload Logo → Apply

Introduction
In one of the previous article (link here) we have learnt about Sandbox (Definition, Usage and Impact) in
Oracle Fusion Applications. However, there are certain limitations with this and hence there is a new
enhanced feature named “Unified Sandbox” which is available starting Release 13 19C (optional feature),
the same feature becomes a delivered one starting 19D. In this article we would try to learn about Unified
Sandbox.
Unified Sandbox
With Unified Sandboxes, you can refresh your sandboxes to bring in the latest changes from the mainline
metadata to your sandboxes, and do many other new and versatile sandbox activities. You get a consistent
sandbox experience across all configuration tools and a more robust user interface with this feature.
With Unified Sandboxes, you can do these additional sandbox activities:
 Select the configuration tools to enable for your sandboxes while creating them.
 Enable all configuration tools in the same way using the Sandboxes UI. So you get a
consistent sandbox experience across tools.
 Restrict access to various sandbox activities for users. For example, you can specify these
access rights for your sandboxes:
 Full access
 Edit and preview access
 View only access
 
 View just your application changes without having other context layers hide your content.
 Test your changes in a preview mode that shows you exactly how your application changes
would appear in a published sandbox.
 Refresh and merge sandboxes with latest changes in mainline metadata from other published
sandboxes. After merging all changes, you can publish your sandbox.
 After opting in to the Unified Sandboxes feature, if you register your target environment in
your source environment, you can do these additional migration tasks using the Migration UI:
 
 Migrate your changes from the test environment to the target environment without
manually downloading and uploading the configuration set file.
 
 Move only new changes from the source environment to the target environment.
 
Sandbox Usage
You typically use sandboxes for either of these purposes:
 Test-Only: You can make application changes using test-only sandboxes, which you don't
want to publish to the mainline code.
 Publish: Once satisfied with the application changes made in the test-only sandbox, you can
replicate these changes in a sandbox that you want to publish. And then publish your changes to the
mainline code. This sandbox type is also known as the integration sandbox, because teams working
in parallel use this sandbox as the final staging point before publication to the mainline code.
Note: Before each patch or upgrade, publish or delete your sandboxes. If you haven't yet completed your
work, restart with a new sandbox.
 
Supported Sandbox Operations
Sandboxes support the following operations:
 
Operation Description
Type
Create Creates a new Sandbox
Activate Only one sandbox can be active at a time.
Delete Delete a sandbox only when the sandbox is no longer needed, the sandbox is outdated, or
its related integration sandbox has been published to the mainline metadata.
Publish Publish a sandbox using extreme caution. Once a sandbox has been published, all existing
sandboxes derived from the same mainline metadata are now invalid. There is no rollback
operation for published sandboxes.
Download Coordinate this operation with the main administrator user, before publishing a sandbox,
All as a way of performing a backup of current sandbox changes. This backup can be shared
with Oracle Support Services, should you encounter a scenario that you cannot resolve.
Exit Exit the sandbox
 
 You must first sign out and then sign back into your application when you perform the following
operations:
 
 Activating a sandbox.
 Exiting a sandbox.
 Publishing a sandbox.
 
Importing Sandboxes
 
Don't import sandboxes. This operation is reserved for Oracle internal development only.
 
Enable Unified Sandbox feature
 
To use Unified Sandboxes instead of the default sandboxes, opt in to the Unified Sandboxes feature.
Before you start, consider these points:
 
Make sure you totally understand what it means to opt in to the feature and what impact that would have.
 When you use Application Composer in your Unified Sandbox, an object can only be edited in
a   any one sandbox in the environment at a time.
 
 You can't deploy your flexfields to a sandbox after you opt in to Unified Sandboxes. You must
deploy them directly to the mainline environment.
In the Offerings work area, enable the Unified Sandboxes feature:
 Functional Area: Application Extensions
 Feature: Unified Sandboxes
 

 
Create and Activate Unified Sandbox
 
To make changes to the application, you must first store the changes in an active sandbox. You can either
create a sandbox or select an existing one, and make it active. You must activate the configuration tools
you want to use in your sandbox. If you plan to use Page Composer in your sandbox and need to edit
pages at any layer, not just Site, create a separate sandbox just for using this tool.
 
Note: You can create up to 20 sandboxes. But, you can increase this limit using the Maximum Number of
Sandboxes profile option. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, use the Manage Applications Core
Administrator Profile Values task in the Application Extensions functional area.
 
Follow these steps to create and activate sandboxes for most configuration tools. For flexfields, use
the Manage Descriptive Flexfields task or the Manage Extensible Flexfields task instead.
 
 Click Navigator > Configuration > Sandboxes.
 On the Sandboxes page, click Create Sandbox.
 Enter a name and description for your sandbox.
 In the All Tools section, select the tools you want to activate for this sandbox. The context
layers for all selected tools are set as Site by default. So the changes you make using these tools
affect all users.
 If you select Page Composer, you can click the Edit Sandbox Context icon and change the
context layer from Site to another layer, for example External. You can find the Edit Sandbox
Context icon in the Support Context column.
 Click Create to just create the sandbox, or Create and Enter to enter or activate the sandbox
after creating it.
Note: If you want to use other tools along with Page Composer in your sandbox, don't change the context
layer for Page Composer, even though you can. That's because all tools except Page Composer support
only a single context layer, Site. If you change the context layer for Page Composer from Site to any other
layer, you can't activate those tools in the same sandbox.

Here are a few things to know about activating tools in your sandbox.
 
 If you try to use a configuration tool in a sandbox without activating the tool in it, you get a
message prompting you to activate the tool. You can add more tools to your sandbox later also.
 To create and manage saved searches and make UI adjustments (for example, change a table's
column width) just for yourself, you must leave your sandbox before making these changes. But if
you want to make these changes for others too, then make the changes with Page Composer open,
in which case you also must be in a sandbox.
 
Working Mechanism of Refresh and Merge Processes
 
Sandbox changes are refreshed and merged when two different users make changes to the same file using
two different sandboxes. Let's look at an example. Suppose your manager creates a sandbox named
Sandbox1 and you create another sandbox named Sandbox2. Your manager then makes a change to a file
using Sandbox1 and publishes it to the mainline environment. Now if you make changes to the same file
and refresh Sandbox2, all changes published in the mainline environment are merged into Sandbox2.
What if both you and your manager entered different values to the same attribute of the file? In that case,
the value that your manager entered using Sandbox1 persists because Sandbox1 is published to the
mainline metadata. To bring back the changes that you made in Sandbox2, you need to reenter the
sandbox and make the changes again.
 
Application Changes that can or can’t be merged
 
If two users are working on two different sandboxes (say Sandbox1 and Sandbox2) at the same time then
there are some changes which will be merged in Sandbox2 considering Sandbox1 is already published.
To bring the changes made to second sandbox (Sandbox2 which is unpublished one) we would need to
create another sandbox make the changes and publish it.
 
Tools used Application Changes Merging (Allowed /
Disallowed)
 Application Composer and Changes in business objects and their
Configure Business Objects related fields
Data Security Changes in Data Security

Lookups Changes in Lookups

User Interface Text UI Text Changes

Messages Changes to messages, such as warning

messages and information messages
Appearance Changes to appearance of the application

Manage Service Mappings Changes in pricing configuration

Page Composer Changes to Page Content

Page Template Composer Changes to Global Page Template

Page Integration New Pages Created

Options to Open Configuration Tools in Unified Sandboxes

 
In Unified Sandboxes, after activating the configuration tools, you can also use shortcuts to quickly open
some of these tools and make your changes. But you can't open all tools from there. In which case, you
can get to those tools using regular navigation.
Use Shortcuts in Sandboxes
 
After you activate a sandbox, all tools activated in it are listed on the sandbox bar and the Sandbox
Details page. You can open these tools from either of these locations:
 The Tools drop-down button on the sandbox bar above the global header
 The Active Tools section of the Sandbox Detail: <Sandbox Name> page
In this list, you may notice that some tools are available, while others, for example, Lookups and
Messages are grayed out. You can click the available tools to open them directly from the Sandboxes UI.
Use Regular Navigation
 
This table lists the regular navigation options to open all tools that you can activate in your sandboxes. It
also indicates whether you can open the tools from the Sandboxes UI.
Tool Name Can Open using Regular Navigation
the Sandboxes UI
Application Yes Click Navigator > Application Composer.
Composer
Configure Yes Click Navigator > Business Objects
Business Objects
Appearance Yes Click Navigator > Appearance.
Manage Service No Click Navigator > Pricing Administration, and then on the
Mappings Tasks panel tab, click Manage Service Mappings.
Page Integration Yes Click Navigator > Page Integration.
Structure Yes Click Navigator > Structure.
Lookups No In the Setup and Maintenance work area, use the lookup tasks,
such as:
Manage Standard Lookups, Manage Common Lookups,
Manage Set Enabled Lookups
User Interface Yes Click Navigator > User Interface Text.
Text
Messages No In the Setup and Maintenance work area, use the messages
tasks, such as:
Manage Messages, Manage Messages for General Ledger
Data Security No Click Navigator > Security Console, and then click the
Administrator tab, and click Manage Database Resources.
Page Composer Yes Click your user image or name in the global header and
select Edit Pages under Administration.
Global Page No Click your user image or name in the global header and
Template select Edit Global Page Template under Administration.
 
Resolving Conflicts in Unified Sandboxes
When you're in a sandbox, if other users publish their sandboxes, you get refresh notifications on the
sandbox bar above the global header. At this time, it's a good practice to refresh your sandbox. When you
refresh, all changes published in the mainline environment are brought into your sandbox. You get
sandbox merge conflicts in the merge log when different users change a specific file using different
sandboxes. If the changes are made to different files, they're automatically merged, and aren't even
reported in the merge log.
Note: In some configuration tools, for example Application Composer, an object gets automatically
locked when you create it or modify it in a sandbox. So in such cases, an object can only be edited in any
one sandbox at a time. If the sandbox is published or deleted, the lock is removed.
You must resolve all conflicts flagged in the merge log so that you can publish your sandbox. To review
the merge log, on the Sandbox Detail: <Sandbox Name> page, click the Merge Log tab. The log displays
details about the sandbox merge statuses. Let's understand what these statuses mean and how we can
resolve the sandbox merge conflicts based on their statuses.

Merge Status Icon What It Means How to resolve Merge Conflicts

Automatically Auto Merge Different users changed These changes are merged automatically.
Merged Content different attributes of the
same file using different
sandboxes.
Resolvable Resolvable Different users changed These changes can be merged to the
Conflicts the same attribute of the mainline environment. On merging, the
same file using different changes in the mainline environment
sandboxes. overwrites your sandbox changes. So
review the merge actions and accept or
reject them.
 If you accept, you can later redo
any changes that were overwritten
and then publish your sandbox.
 If you reject, your sandbox
 remains untouched, but you still
need to accept a merge before you
publish your sandbox.
Unresolvable Unresolvabl Different users changed Do any of these tasks:
Conflicts e files in different  Undo your sandbox changes.
sandboxes, but the merge  In your sandbox, make the
conflicts can't be same change, which the other user
automatically resolved. made in the published sandbox, and
try to resolve the conflict.
 Create another sandbox and
make your changes in that one.
 
Object Locking in Application Composer
The automatic object locking ability in Application Composer avoids the risk of conflicts between
multiple users working on objects in parallel and prevents any sandbox merge conflicts that may arise
when different users change a specific object using different sandboxes.
Application Composer automatically places a lock on a business object when you create or modify it in a
unified sandbox. The locked object displays a lock icon next to its object name in Application Composer's
object navigation tree. A gold lock indicates that the object is locked in the current sandbox. A gray lock
indicates that the object is locked in a different sandbox. Hover over a locked object's name in the
navigation tree to display the name of the sandbox that holds the lock.
Application Composer displays and enforces object locks across all unified sandboxes. You can only edit
a locked object in the sandbox that holds the lock. For example if the Service Request object is modified
in Sandbox A, only Sandbox A holds the lock and anyone using Sandbox A can modify Service Request.
Any other sandbox displays a gray lock on Service Request in Application Composer, and prevents users
from modifying it.
The lock status of objects changes each time you publish or delete a sandbox, or when a new object lock
is established. Collapse and then expand Application Composer's object tree to update the lock status of
all objects. Any action that causes the object tree to be refreshed will update the lock status, including
when you exit and reenter a sandbox, or refresh a sandbox. If an object is locked and that lock is not yet
visible in the current sandbox, a new lock is not allowed to be placed on that object and an error message
appears while saving the changes.
Best Practices for Preventing Object Locking
Here are some tips on how you can prevent or work around object locking:
 Plan your object model and user interface configurations, and divide the work to prevent two
users requiring the same object or objects locked.
 Name sandboxes clearly with appropriate names or initials, so when a lock is in place, it's easy
to identify who to contact to release the lock from the sandbox holding the lock.
 Perform configurations in smaller increments. Test and publish more frequently to prevent
holding locks.
 Delete test sandboxes created to try out new configurations after they are no longer needed to
prevent unnecessary locking.
Publish Unified Sandboxes
After you're done making changes to the application, publish the sandbox to make your changes available
to all users. You must have the Administer Sandbox (FND_ADMINISTER_SANDBOX_PRIV) privilege
to publish sandboxes. Remember, you can't make further changes in the sandbox once you publish it.
Before you start, do these tasks:
 Test or validate your changes in the sandbox in preview mode before actually publishing it. If
you made changes using Page Composer, don't forget to close it before testing. To preview your
 changes, click the Sandbox Mode drop-down button on the sandbox bar above the global header,
and select Preview as if Published (Context: All).
 Resolve all conflicts flagged in the merge log of your sandbox.
To publish a sandbox:
1. Click Navigator > Configuration > Sandboxes.
2. On the Sandboxes page, click the name of the sandbox you want to publish.
3. Click Publish.
4. Click Continue to Publish. The sandbox is published to the mainline metadata.
5. Click Done.