Development and Production Modes

Each platform of an App, website or React Native app, has a Mode: Development, while your developers install and try the chat on their computer, or Production, once it serves your Contacts. The Mode only changes the steps shown in App settings > Developers > Getting started.

What the Mode does not change

• The App key and the install code: nothing to replace or publish again to move to Production.
• The inbox: conversations arrive there in both Modes, those written while trying it too.
• The chat keeps showing on your developers’ computer once in Production.

Switch Mode

• A new platform starts in Development. Platforms added before Modes existed are in Production.
• At the top of a platform’s steps, choose “Development” or “Production”, either way, at any time. You can move to Production straight away.
• The platform moves to Production by itself the first time the chat is seen live: on your site’s domain, or in a release build of your app with its Bundle ID or Package name.
• This happens only once: if you switch back to Development, the platform stays there.

The steps in Development

• Website: install the chat, customise the chat, webhook (optional), notifications (optional), team (optional), then Move to production.
• React Native: Bundle ID and Package name, install the SDK, customise the chat, webhook (optional), notifications (optional), team (optional), then Move to production.

The webhook applies to the whole App. In Development, its step creates the CLI key and shows the command: your developer runs the Zean CLI, then you send a Test event, without leaving Getting started. See Test your webhook on your computer. In Production, it asks for the webhook address and its signing secret: see Receive events with a webhook.

The Production checklist

In Production, the steps give way to a checklist that ticks itself. It blocks nothing: the chat already works.

• Website: the domain is set (required), the chat was seen on that domain (required), the webhook address got a successful delivery (optional).
• React Native: the Bundle ID or Package name of at least one OS is set (required), a release build was seen with it (required), the webhook address is set (optional).

When the checklist is done, a message confirms it and the platform reads “Production” in the platform list. Getting started is for Admins and the Owner.