Introduction

What are Galaxy Remote Workstations? (RWS)

Before releasing the code changes for the themes on production, developers have to work on the features or fix bugs, and then the QA team checks everything works as expected.

1 - Dev team works on a feature

they need somewhere to do code changes without risking to break production

Dev Workstation

2 - QA team checks everything works

needs a space as close as possible as production to test features

QA Workstation

3 - The change is released on production 🎉

The places to development and then to QA are called "Workstation". In our case they are "remote" because there is no need to install anything locally.

People often call them "preprod platforms" or "staging platforms"

Each Remote Workstation has its own backoffice to be able to code and test changes.

• Dev team: each developer has their own "workstation" where they can edit the code of the theme and test changes on websites

• QA team: usually work on a "preprod" or "staging" platforms where they can review many code changes. These environments are often shared.

I am a QA team member

You will work on a "staging" or "preprod" platforms: this is where the dev team puts their change once they finish them and you can review everything works accordingly.

You can import websites from production if you need to check an existing website, or you can start from zero and create new websites.

I am a dev team member

When we talk about a "Remote Workstation", there are 2 parts:

Backoffice

Each RWS has its own backoffice to see websites

accessible by everyone except customers

Sandbox

This is where the code for themes is stored, and you compile code.

accessible only by the owner of the RWS

Backoffice:

• You have access to your own backoffice, where you can import websites from production if you need to work on a fix, or you can start from zero and create new websites.

Remote Sandbox:

• Connect with SSH to your sandbox where you will be able to clone your themes and edit them

🐥Getting started

Why remote workstations?

No more painful local installations and updates, you only need to create an SSH key, setup your IDE to connect to the sandbox and you're ready to go!

You can easily share the link to your workstation with a teammate to ask for help or show your current work.

Creating a new workstation in less than 10 minutes All our workstations are created from the backoffice with an automated process. No more hours of manually creating and maintaining our old "dev environments", everything is done by clicking on 3 buttons, and a new working environment is generated. Seamless updates 2 days after each Galaxy Platform Release, we update the fleet of Galaxy Remote Workstations, so you work on the latest version of Galaxy

Those remote workstations can be recognized with their URL:

https://tc.CUSTOM_ALIAS_HERE.tc.exo7d.us 

For example, the alias tc-websupport will give the URL https://tc.tc-websupport.tc.exo7d.us

Please note that a workstation is individual to a developer, the main owner.

It is possible to add additional ssh keys in the backoffice (this is only handled by xo7 for now) but the workstation should remain individual.

Multiple people should not code on the same workstation, or you risk overriding files.