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Develop, Stage, Production

Development, Staging, and Production Environments

When developing, testing, and deploying your API with API AutoFlow, it's best practice to use separate environments for different stages of your development lifecycle. This approach allows you to build and test your code in a safe environment, separate from your live, user-facing application.

Development Environment​

The development environment is your local setup on your machine, where you actively develop and make changes to your API. It's intended for your personal use as a developer.

In the development environment:

  • Code is rapidly changing.
  • Errors and bugs are expected.
  • Debugging and testing tools are actively used.
  • Performance might not mirror production behavior due to scaled-down resources.

In the development environment, you can freely experiment and make changes without affecting the user-facing application.

Staging Environment​

The staging environment is a replica of your production environment. It's used as a final testing ground before deploying changes to production. The staging environment should mirror the production environment as closely as possible, so any bugs or issues can be caught here before they affect your live users.

In the staging environment:

  • The code should be stable, with all development work completed.
  • Extensive testing and bug-fixing takes place.
  • The environment should mirror the production environment as closely as possible.
  • Changes that pass in the staging environment are ready for deployment to production.

Production Environment​

The production environment is the live, user-facing application. This is where your users interact with your application. Any changes deployed here should be thoroughly tested and confirmed to be stable in the staging environment.

In the production environment:

  • The code is stable and has been thoroughly tested in the staging environment.
  • Updates and changes are carefully managed to prevent disruptions to the user experience.
  • Performance, availability, and security are of the highest priority.

When using API AutoFlow, you can configure your API to function differently based on the current environment. For example, you might use a local database in the development environment, a test database in the staging environment, and the live, production database in the production environment.

API AutoFlow supports environment configuration, so you can easily manage the differences between your development, staging, and production environments. Remember, each environment serves a crucial purpose in the software development lifecycle, so it's important to utilize them effectively.