What is a Sandbox in Salesforce?

A sandbox replicates your business in a different setting that you may utilize for several activities like testing and training. Sandbox in Salesforce is a replica of the production environment. We can duplicate the production setup several times. It comes in handy when we need to extend an application's functionality when it is already running. The Salesforce production organization is cut off from sandboxes. Your actions within your sandboxes have no bearing on your Salesforce production organization. The idea of a child's sandbox, where the sand and toys are contained inside a tiny container or walled area so that the children can play securely, is where the term "sandbox" originates. When using the sandboxing approach, every software programme is given a "sandbox," which is a controlled, limited environment to run and execute code.

What does Sandbox in Salesforce do? How is it Useful?

Sandboxes for Salesforce increase your agility and lower your risks. By making it safer for you to make changes, they enable Salesforce administrators, citizen developers, and developers to make changes more quickly and simply. You may write code, create any configurations you like, make any modifications, or perform any integrations you want because it is separated from the production org.

Types of Sandboxes

There are multiple types of sandboxes, depending on their utility and function. They are different from one another in nature and in origin but are all connected to Salesforce. These are some of the most prominent types of sandboxes −

Developer Sandbox

A small quantity of file and data storage offered by developer sandboxes is sufficient for most development and testing workloads. Single developers are intended to code and test in developer sandbox settings. A Developer sandbox can have multiple people logged in and sharing it. However, its main use is to offer a space where modifications still in active development can be isolated until they are ready to be shared. All of your production organization’s metadata, or Setup data, is copied by developer sandboxes. This covers personalized settings, personalized object definitions, personalized Apex classes and triggers, personalized Visualforce pages, reports, dashboards, pricing books, and so forth.

Developer Pro Sandbox

The functionality offered by Developer Pro sandbox environments is the same as that of Developer sandbox environments types but with more file and data storage. You can utilize a Developer Pro sandbox for extra tasks like data load, integration testing, and user training because it can hold larger and more complete data sets, owing to the expanded storage.

Full Sandbox

Full sandbox environments are replicas of your entire production organization, complete with all its data, including standard and custom object records, documents, attachments, code, settings, etc. To ensure that your sandbox only contains the forms you require for testing or other operations, you can use a sandbox template to restrict the transferred data when creating a Complete sandbox. For instance, if sensitive or confidential information is not required for testing, you might omit it. Make a sandbox template that contains everything but sensitive information. The sandbox copy engine duplicates every record for the chosen objects in the template when a sandbox template is applied to a full sandbox.

Partial Sandbox

Copy in Part Salesforce sandbox types consists of all the information for your organization and a sample of the data for your production organization that you specify using a sandbox template. A sandbox template during construction is necessary to generate a Partial Copy sandbox. Like Developer and Developer Pro sandboxes, a Partial Copy sandbox is fundamentally a metadata replica of your production organization. The sandbox copy engine also extracts data from your production organization using a sandbox template.

The construction of Partial Copy sandboxes is handled by the sandbox copy engine using a unique copy method. The copy strategy understands the standard and customized object schema for your production organization’s production team. It is an extremely important strategy that is used in this process, helping the associations deal with their affairs better. The copy approach ensures that sample records keep valid associations as specified in your production organization’s standard and custom object schema.

Difference Between a Sandbox and a Pro Sandbox

The Pro sandbox's increased data storage capacity is the only distinction between the two. Otherwise, they are identical, and you can typically get by with only the basic Development sandbox. There are also full and partial sandboxes, which include your database configuration and some or all of the actual data. You can use either, depending on the situation and your requirement. If more room for storage is required, the Pro sandbox can be chosen over the normal sandbox.

Utilization of Sandbox

There are different spheres in which sandboxes can be used. Some of them can be −

Security

Security technologies sometimes use sandboxes to conduct research or find hostile digital entities. For instance, a security programmed might download and run software or browse websites to see what files get modified.

In the Running of Software

Programs let users run software they don't trust in a secure environment that can't harm their computers or access their personal information. To the software, a sandbox is a fully functional system, making it difficult to recognize that it is restricted to a virtual environment. 

Conclusion

Developers use sandboxes as part of their development process to build and test modifications for staging, performance testing, UAT, SIT, and other purposes. They promote developer productivity and teamwork during the development process when combined with scratch orgs and Salesforce DX's source-driven development. There is packaged development in sandboxes.