Testing Enterprise Grid apps
We're still building and not all features are available quite yet. Enjoy this peek into the future!
Not ready for the future? Return to the past at api.slack.com.
Requesting a sandbox
Need a safe place to play before you make changes to your Enterprise Grid instance? Enter the sandbox, a safe development space for you to build and learn in. A sandbox allows you to test and develop your app in an Enterprise Grid instance, complete with multiple workspaces, without fear of impacting a production environment.
Once you submit the sandbox request form, you will be provisioned two separate Enterprise Grid sandboxes. You'll receive a separate email for each, sent to your Enterprise organization's primary owner as specified on the sign-up form.
If you have questions as you begin to use your sandbox, please let us know at feedback@slack.com. The Slack support team will get back to you as quickly as possible.
Once you have your sandbox, you can use the following instructions to get it configured and ready to use.
Completing the organization setup
- Click Finish Setup in the email invitation.
- Enter your name and create a password to set up a Primary Org Owner account.
- Give your organization a name. This name can be updated later if you decide you want to change it, but please note that you cannot change the URL of your sandbox organization.
- Agree to the general terms of service.
Creating a workspace
Once the Primary Org Owner creates their account, they should create at least one workspace. Click Manage Workspaces, and you will be guided through the process of setting up a new workspace. You will need to provide a name and a subdomain for each workspace you create.
Setting up authentication
Enterprise Grid requires all users to use SSO, which means that admins must set up an Identity Provider (IdP). If you already have an IdP, you are welcome to use that one on your sandbox.
Simple IdP
If you don't have access to an IdP, we offer a Slack app, Simple IdP, which mocks an IdP to enable creation and management of user accounts. If you opt to use Simple IdP, all user accounts for your Enterprise Grid sandbox must be created with the test IdP, and it will not be possible to create and use accounts outside of the test IdP app. Instructions for managing accounts are as follows:
Navigate to https://slack-test-idp-for-sandboxes.herokuapp.com and install the app. Make sure you install the app on the org and not a workspace!
Copy over the required pre-configured settings from Simple IdP that you need to copy into your sandbox's SSO configurations.
You can now add as many auto-generated users as you like through Simple IdP. For the most part, these auto-generated users are good for testing your app. However, if you need more than one real person signed into your organization at a time, you’ll need to take a few extra steps due to how the Simple IdP app works: each person that you want to be able to sign into the sandbox will first need to sign in as the primary owner, authenticate the Simple IdP app, sign out, and then sign in as themselves.
First, navigate to Create a custom user and provision an account for them in the Simple IdP app. They will now appear in the Organization Members list at http://[org-domain].enterprise.slack.com/manage/people.
Add that user to a workspace, then instruct them to follow these steps:
- Navigate to the sign-in page for the workspace you added them to (http://[workspace-domain].slack.com/).
- Click Sign in with SAML.
- Click Sign in with Slack on the page that loads.
- Sign in with the primary owner’s email and password.
- Authorize the Simple IdP app.
- Enter the user's email address on the resulting page, and click Sign In. That will take them to the Org control panel, where they can then launch the team. After that, they'll remain logged in.
If you have questions as you start to use your sandbox, please let us know at feedback@slack.com, and the Slack support team will get back to you as quickly as possible.
Data retention
As a test instance, your Enterprise Grid sandbox comes with some limitations. For those building third party apps on Slack, the developer instance of Enterprise Grid is a development sandbox with limitations around data retention and user account creation. These limitations exist because the sandbox isn’t intended for normal use; it is intended for testing purposes only. Therefore, Slack will retain messages and files shared in the sandbox for only three days after they're created.
Next steps
✨ Read more about developing apps for Enterprise Grid.