Sandbox and test discourse on host?

Product Support

AI-generated summary

The discussion revolves around setting up a sandbox environment for testing Discourse changes without affecting the main forum. Pad_Pors asks if a sandbox like discourse-sandbox is possible. Falco confirms it’s feasible by installing another instance, using a reverse proxy, or setting up multisite. Pad_Pors then asks how to make the database temporary, refreshing it every 24 hours. Blake suggests two methods: spinning up a new instance daily and swapping IPs, or restoring a backup of the database periodically.

1

Is it possible that we install a sandbox like discourse-sandbox?

something besides the main forum, that can be used to warm up people for usage as well as to test some of the changes before it affects the main forum?

2

Yes, just install another instance of Discourse elsewhere, in the same server behind a reverse proxy, or using multisite.

3

thanks, but how do I make the database temporary? so that every 24 hours or so, it gets refreshed.

4

There are probably several different ways to do this.

One way is to just spin up a new discourse instance every 24 hours and just swap the old ip with the new ip in the reverse proxy config, then delete the old discourse server.

Another way is to save a backup of the database and just re import that version of the db every 24 hours.