Channel elements are very flexible and can be copied from one environment to another as long as the user has access to both environment. Here is some advice for organising work in Babelway if you plan to use more than a few channels.

Using a test environment for transformation development

Before starting, let's mention that Babelway is managing a single multi-tenant platform. From a Babelway perspective all environments and messages are "production".

However a customer can decide to organise himself in a traditional multi-environment setting.

Create a "test environment" in your account and use it to develop messages and transformation. Once you are ready to use it, then "promote" to production by simply replacing the element in your production environment. When importing the element in the production environment, give it a name including a version indicator. ex: Invoice flatefile My ERP v1.23 or Invoice Carrefour 96A 200900416. All the previous "production" version will therefore remain available allowing you to revert changes if you need it.

For this model to work properly , it is important to do all modifications in the "test environment". There is no need to keep a copy of the "promoted" version in the test environment. Would you need to work on an old release, simply copy it back from the production environment.

It is also a best practice to include all the production channels in your test environment. This way you will be able to test your routing rules and metadata substitution in the gateways. Note that you can use a different type of gateway to make your life simple, for instance use an email or a web gateway instead of a AS2 gateway.

Versioning of channel

Instead of modifying an existing channel, simply deactivate it and create a new one. Import the new elements from the test environment to the new one and activate it. The next deployment will deploy the new channel and undeploy the old one. You now have a backup copy of the old channel.

Service provider

There are 3 valid set-ups for a service provider to use Babelway:

The key differences between these is the billing and the possibility to give access to end-customers. If each end-customer should receive their Babelway invoice in full transparency, go for one account per client. If each client should get individual online access to channels and messages but the service provider takes care of the overall Babelway invoice, go for one environment per client in a single account. If the service provider provides full outsourcing service to its customers, without giving them any visibility on Babelway, go for one single account/environment.

Anyway the best practice for the service provider is still to create a test environment in one of these accounts or in his own.