The RingCentral developer sandbox environment has been with the RingCentral platform since the beginning. We created it for one primary reason: to better manage the risks of developers creating and deploying applications to our customers. Since, we have worked diligently to enhance the security and operational integrity of our platform.
- We have an incredibly flexible rate limiting system that can be tailored to the unique needs of each individual application operating on the platform.
- We also have an application monitoring system that looks for applications that appear to be experiencing difficulties, and automatically contacts developers to let them know and to help them resolve the problem.
- We have tools for developers to not only monitor API traffic their applications generate, but also help them resolve errors that occur by pointing them to knowledge base articles and documentation specific to the errors they encounter.
- Finally, applications within our App Gallery go through a review process before they are published and promoted to customers.
As a result of these programs, the original need for sandbox has diminished. Plus, with the introduction of the new Developer plan, we now have a much more robust option for developers who value having a second account in which to segregate their development activities from their day-to-day operations within their primary account.
Therefore, we feel the time is right to bid farewell to the sandbox environment and retire it at the end of this year.
We recognize that some developers have come to rely on sandbox and have incorporated sandbox into their development practices. For these developers, rest assured that we are committed to helping you make this transition successfully by the end of 2024 when sandbox will be turned off.
Key to making this transition successfully is planning. Here are answers to some of the questions we expect many developers to have as they embark on the process of migrating away from sandbox.
I am a RingEX customer, am I required to make this change?
We first want to make sure customers understand that the use of a segregated environment like sandbox is completely optional on our platform and that no customer is required to purchase or make use of a secondary developer account in order to call our APIs. Every RingCentral customer has access to our APIs and can build applications using their primary RingEX account.
Some customers however rely on sandbox to keep the phone calls they make and the test data they generate while building an application completely segregated from their primary account. Customers for whom this is a requirement will need to purchase a second development account and then to migrate sandbox operations to that account.
How do I acquire a second development account to replace my sandbox account?
Customers needing to migrate from sandbox to a second development environment can acquire a development account via a simple online registration process.
Everyone signing up for a development account will be required to enter payment information. Your credit card will not be charged until the end of your 30-day free trial. The trial can be canceled at any time.
I am an ISV partner, how will I be impacted by the loss of the Developer sandbox?
If you are an ISV partner currently operating an application in use by RingCentral customers, you will need to complete the following tasks during this transition:
- Wait until your existing account has been upgraded to a free trial of our new API development tier, or until you have been provided a development tier by other means.
- Migrate any data your developers rely upon in the sandbox environment to your new development account.
- Update your applications to direct all API calls to platform.ringcentral.com and to use production app credentials exclusively. You may now use your new account for both development and testing.
- Login to the Developer Console and provide us with valid payment information to ensure your account is not canceled at the end of your free trial.
Any app profiles you have published to the RingCentral App Gallery will not be impacted by this change.
How do I successfully migrate away from the Developer sandbox?
If you are a RingEX customer who has elected to acquire a RingCentral developer account to complement your primary RingEX account, or if you are an ISV partner who will lose access to sandbox, here is what you will need to do to migrate.
First, ask yourself this fundamental question: Is there any data I or my developers need that currently resides in the sandbox account I actively rely upon? Here are some of the types of data you may need to retain:
- Users, extensions, and phone numbers. You may have apps or scripts that login using specific credentials, or rely on certain extensions to be present in order to run a set of tests or develop an application.
- Account configurations. You may have IVR phone trees, call queues, or call handling rules which are used by developers to test various scenarios and use cases.
- Test data. You may have populated RingCentral with test data that your applications rely on being in place for unit or other automated tests to function properly.
If you have data similar to the above, these extensions, configurations, and test data will need to be copied from the sandbox environment and into your new RingCentral development account. We apologize, but there is no way to fully automate this process.
When you are done with the data migration, you will need to make these additional changes to complete the migration process:
- Update your applications to direct all API calls to platform.ringcentral.com, as the sandbox URL of platform.devtest.ringcentral.com will be going away.
- Ensure your applications’ client IDs and secrets are utilizing your production app credentials exclusively.
If you have questions, or feel this process is especially burdensome for you, we encourage you to reach out to our Developer Support team for advice and/or help on making this process easier for you.
Will any applications currently operating in my account be impacted by this change?
No application operating in our production environment will be impacted by the changes related to the decommissioning of sandbox. Your production app credentials (Client ID and Secret), and your App Gallery profiles will all remain unchanged.
How long does my company have to complete the migration process?
In October, we will begin removing references to the sandbox environment from our documentation, and our Developer Console. But even as these references are removed, the sandbox environment will remain available until December 31, 2024.
What has happened to the graduation process? Do my apps have access to production today?
The graduation process was retired in March of 2024. All applications have been granted production credentials and can call APIs in our production environment.
What should I do if I have questions, or run into problems while migrating?
We want to help every developer make this transition successfully. We recommend the following resources to ask questions and seek answers: