Snapshot & Load

Syntasa empowers you to manage data workflows efficiently, and the Load and Snapshot features play a crucial role in version control and rollback mechanisms within the development environment. Let's explore these functionalities in detail. In this article, we will cover:

Snapshot Overview

The Snapshot feature, accessible through the triple-dot icon (), allows you to create a manual checkpoint of your application's workflow at a specific point in development. This provides several benefits:

  • Version Control: Snapshots essentially act as backups of your workflow at different stages of development. This enables you to revisit past versions if needed, compare changes, or identify the root cause of any issues.
  • Incremental Rollback Granularity: While Syntasa automatically captures snapshots whenever you deploy an application to production, manual snapshots in development provide more granular control. You can create snapshots at various points throughout the development process, allowing you to roll back to a specific state if necessary.
  • Detailed Naming: Assigning meaningful names to your snapshots is crucial for organization. Clear names help you identify the purpose or state of the workflow captured in that snapshot, making it easier to navigate your version history.

How to take a Snapshot manually?

Before taking the snapshots, it is important to know:

  • When an app is created in Syntasa, a live snapshot of the development workflow is automatically created and named 'development,' which can be accessed from the 'Journal' screen. Upon deploying the development workflow to production for the first time, another snapshot named 'production' is created.
  • The snapshots named 'Development' and 'Production' always provide real-time views of the development and production workflows, respectively.
  • Users can view the workflow of any snapshot by selecting a snapshot card from the left side of the Journal screen, which will then display the corresponding workflow on the right side.
  • Snapshot and Load options are only available on the development workflow. 



To take a manual snapshot:

  1. Navigate to the development workflow.
  2. Click the triple-dot icon (mceclip7.png) next to the 'Deploy' button (mceclip6.png) and select 'Snapshot' from the options.



  3. Clicking 'Snapshot' will open the 'Snapshot' screen. Here, you can enter a name for the snapshot. For example, in the screenshot below, we named it 'Dev Version 1'.
  4. Click 'Take Snapshot'.



  5. The taken snapshot will be added under the 'Journal' screen as shown below:



How to Take a Snapshot During Deployment Process?

Whenever you deploy to production, creating a snapshot is mandatory. Clicking the 'Deploy' button from the development workflow takes you to the deployment screen, where you will be prompted to enter a snapshot name. This action creates a snapshot of the current production workflow under the provided name and pushes the development workflow to production. The saved snapshot can be found under the 'Journal' screen.

If you need to roll back to a saved snapshot, you can load the snapshot into the development workflow and then redeploy it to production.



Loading the Snapshot

The Load feature, accessible through the triple-dot icon, allows you to restore a previously saved snapshot of your application's workflow into the development environment. This functionality is useful in various scenarios.

  • Rollback to Previous Version: If you encounter issues with your workflow after making changes, you can leverage Load to revert to a stable snapshot you created earlier. This allows you to recover from mistakes and continue development without losing significant progress.
  • Experimentation: Snapshots can be used to create a safe environment for experimentation. You can load a snapshot, make modifications, and test them without affecting the main development workflow. If the changes are successful, you can integrate them into the main workflow and create a new snapshot.
  • Pre-loading Snapshots: Before deploying your application to production, you can use the Load feature to bring a development snapshot into your development environment. This allows you to test the deployment process and ensure a smooth transition from development to production.

How to load the snapshot?

Loading any saved snapshot is very easy. To load a snapshot:

  1. Navigate to the development workflow.
  2. Click the triple-dot icon (mceclip7.png) next to the 'Deploy' button (mceclip6.png) and select 'Load' from the options.
  3. Clicking 'Load' will open the 'Snapshot Workflow' screen. Here, you can select any of the saved snapshots. For example, in the screenshot below, we selected a saved snapshot named 'Dev Version 1'.
  4. When loading a snapshot, Syntasa offers the option to create a new snapshot of your current workflow before overwriting it. This provides an extra layer of safety in case you need to roll back further. If you select 'Yes', you will be prompted to enter a snapshot name.
  5. After clicking 'Load Snapshot', the snapshot will be saved under the 'Journal' screen and it will load the workflow saved under snapshot 'Dev Version 1'.



  6. Now, you can click 'Load Snapshot'. This will load the workflow saved under snapshot 'Dev Version 1'. 

By effectively utilizing Load and Snapshot features, you can streamline your development process in Syntasa. Snapshots act as valuable checkpoints in your development journey, while Load empowers you to restore previous versions and experiment safely within the development environment.