Use Configuration Change Management

Configuration Change Management tracks configuration changes made in one SmartSimple environment and allows those changes to be reviewed and promoted to another environment. The steps below cover the full workflow, from initial setup through logging, exporting, and importing changes.

Who: Global administrators and teams managing and promoting changes across SmartSimple environments.

When to Use Configuration Change Management

Use Configuration Change Management to promote configuration changes across SmartSimple environments:

• Move changes from a development environment to a testing environment before deploying to production (for example, testing changes to custom fields to see how the changes to a grant application will look and work).
• Coordinate configuration work across a team where multiple administrators are logging changes against the same project.
• Review a package of changes and selectively promote individual items rather than promoting all changes at once.
• Narrow a large change log by user or date range to locate specific changes across a multi-administrator project.

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General Workflow

Configuration Change Management follows this general workflow:

1. A user selects a project in their personal settings to begin logging changes against that project.
2. The user makes configuration changes. All changes are logged against the selected project.
3. An administrator exports the project changes from the source environment.
4. An administrator imports and reviews the changes in the target environment, then promotes the selected changes.
5. To promote changes to a production environment, the administrator repeats the export and import process from the testing environment to production.

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Configure Configuration Change Management

Configuration Change Management requires initial setup in Global Settings before changes can be logged or promoted. Global administrator access is required.

Enable Configuration Change Management

To enable Configuration Change Management in your SmartSimple environment:

1. Click the System Administration gear in the upper navigation bar, and then select Global Settings.

2. Click the System tab.

   

    

3. Locate the Test to Production section, and then toggle Enable T2P on.

   

    

4. Click Save.

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Set Feature Permissions for Configuration Change Management

To set feature permissions for Configuration Change Management:

1. Click the System Administration gear in the upper navigation bar, select Global Settings, and then click the Security tab.

   

    

2. Click System Feature Permissions.

   

    

3. Click the Features tab.

   

    

4. Locate the Test to Production (T2P) drop-down menus, make the necessary edits, and then click Save.

   • Test to Production (T2P) - Access - from the drop-down menu, select the roles allowed to choose a project in their personal settings and log configuration changes against a project.
   • Test to Production (T2P) - Manager - from the drop-down menu, select the roles allowed to import and export configuration changes.

   

    

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Create a Project

To create a new project to record configuration changes:

1. Click the System Administration gear in the upper navigation bar, and then select Global Settings. Click the System tab.

   

    

2. Locate the Test to Production (T2P) section and click T2P Projects.

   

    

3. Click the New Project [+] button.

   

    

4. Add the applicable project information and click Save.
   • Name - name the project.
   • Description - add a description of the changes being tracked to this project.
   • Assigned Users - select the users allowed to log configuration changes against this project.
   • Status - Select In Progress from the drop-down menu to begin tracking changes. This makes the project available for selection in a user's personal settings.

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Configure Source Environment Export Settings

Export settings allow configuration changes to be transferred from the current environment to a target environment. Configure export settings in the source environment and import settings in the target environment at the same time. Keep both windows open during this process.

1. Click the System Administration gear in the upper navigation bar, and then select Global Settings. Click the System tab.

2. Locate the Test to Production (T2P) section and click T2P Export Settings.

   

    

3. Click the New T2P Export Settings [+] button to add a target export environment. Use the embedded instructions to complete setup for the target export environment.
4. Click Generate Key Pairs, and then click Save.
5. Copy the public key. The public key is required when setting up import settings in the target environment. Keep this window open.
6. Complete the import settings setup in the target environment before returning here. See Configure Import Settings below.
7. Toggle Activate on and click Save.

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Configure Target Environment Import Settings

Import settings allow configuration changes to be applied to the current environment from another environment. Complete these steps in the target import environment.

1. Click the System Administration gear in the upper navigation bar, and then select Global Settings. Click the System tab.

2. Click T2P Import Settings.

   

    

3. Click the New T2P Import Settings [+] button to add a target import environment. Use the embedded instructions to complete setup for the target import environment.
4. Toggle Activate on.
5. Click the edit pencil icon to paste the Public Key generated in the export settings of the source environment, and then click Save.
6. Return to the source environment and confirm the export settings are activated and saved. See Configure Source Environment Export Settings above.

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Log Configuration Changes

To log configuration changes against a project, select a project in your personal settings. All configuration changes made after selecting a project are logged against that project until the project is changed or logging is paused.

1. Click the User Menu in the upper navigation bar, and then select Personal Settings.

   

    

2. Click the Other tab.

   

    

3. Under T2P Project Assignment, select the project to log changes from the drop-down menu.

4. Click Save. An orange header appears at the top of the screen confirming that configuration changes are being logged in the selected project.

   

    

5. Make the desired configuration changes.

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Export Source Environment Configuration Changes

To export configuration changes from the source environment to a target environment:

1. Click the Menu icon in the upper navigation bar, and then select T2P.

   

    

2. Click the Export tab in the left menu.

   

    

3. Select the project to export from the drop-down menu in Projects.
4. Select the target environment from the drop-down menu in Export Name.

5. Click Search to display changes. Changes do not appear until Search is clicked.

   

    

6. Review the changes logged against the project.

7. (Optional) To include changes not logged against the current project, check the applicable rows under Not Logged For This Project Or Other Projects and click Move Changes to Current Project.

   

    

8. (Optional) Toggle Include Exported Changes on or off to show or hide changes that have already been exported.

   

    

9. (Optional) Select changes to Remove from Project or Delete on the Logged For This Project tab.

   

    

10. Click Export.

    

     

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Import and Promote Target Environment Configuration Changes

To import and promote configuration changes in the target environment:

1. Click the Menu icon in the upper navigation bar, and then select T2P.

   

    

2. Click the Import tab in the left menu.

   

    

3. Review the list of imported changes and their status.
4. For any package with a status of Promotable, click the View icon to review the changes in the package. Changes are compared against what is currently configured in the target environment. Only the differences are listed.
5. Click Promote to promote all changes.

6. (Optional) Check or uncheck individual changes to select which changes to promote, then click Promote.

   

    

7. Allow a few minutes for the promotion to process. The status updates to Promoted when complete.
8. Test the changes in the target environment.

9. (Optional) To promote the changes to the next environment, click Export for promoted packages on the Import tab to send the package forward.

   

    

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View Export and Import History

View Source Environment Export History

To view projects that have been exported and their status on the source environment:

1. Click the Menu icon in the upper navigation bar, and then select T2P.
2. Click the Export tab in the left menu.
3. Click the Export History icon.

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View Target Environment Import History

To view packages that have been imported and their status on the target environment:

1. Click the Menu icon in the upper navigation bar, and then select T2P.
2. Click the Import tab in the left menu.

3. Click the Import History icon.

   

    

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Search and Filter the Change Log

Use the search and filter controls in the export change log to narrow the list of logged changes by user or date range. This is useful when reviewing large change logs across multiple users or time periods.

• Select a user from the User column to display only changes made by that user.

  

   

• Enter a Start Date and End Date to display only changes logged within that period. Click Search after entering the desired start and end dates.

  

   

• Clear the filters to return to the full change log view.

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Delete a Change in the Source Environment

Global administrators can delete changes from the Export tab in the source environment, whether or not the change has been logged against a project. Deleting a change prevents it from being promoted and removes it from the list. Deleting a change does not revert the change in the system.

To delete a change, navigate to the Export tab and click Delete for the applicable change row or rows.

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