What is a Sandbox? 

A sandbox is a testing environment for software. In our Sandbox Communities, visitors can experiment with the new features and functionalities of PubPub Platform. As of June 2025, Legacy features like the site template, analytics dashboards, and the ability to import/export content, are not enabled in the sandbox. 

We have pre-populated these two Communities with Fields, Types, Stages, and Pubs. The sandbox includes many of the Actions currently available. Feel free to play around with the existing content or add your own. Note that many users may be entering the sandbox, so please be respectful! Note that PubPub Platform is still in development - features like the website builder, importing content to the editor, and customizable DOI deposits are underway. As a sandbox, these are dynamic environments. The Communities' contents will be reset regularly, and progress may not be saved. 

As you explore PubPub Platform, use this guide to access the rest of the help documentation. Still confused? Running into issues accessing the sandbox? Have questions or feedback on how to improve the sandbox experience? Post on the Discussion Forum.

Sandbox Communities

The sandbox is accessible at sandbox.pubpub.org. Visitors will be prompted to log in to view the sandbox Communities.

There are two Communities available for users.

Legacy (sandbox.pubpub.org/c/legacy/pubs) models a PubPub Legacy Community template, complete with all the Fields, Types, Forms, and Workflows that will be imported during a Legacy migration. Use the following information to login:

username: legacy@pubpub.org

password: pubpub-legacy

Starter (sandbox.pubpub.org/c/starter/stages) contains a few basic fields and stages, encouraging experimentation to imagine new workflows, types, and fields. Use the following information to login:

username: new@pubpub.org

password: pubpub-new

Once logged-in, the user is redirected to the respective Community.

If the user is redirected to Settings, select the Sandbox Community from the left sidebar. 

Known Limitations

While the sandbox is intended to demonstrate many features and functionalities of PubPub Platform, some activities have been disabled in these communities. 

• Email actions and HTTP actions are disabled. When a user runs a disabled action, an alert will notify the user that the action was triggered, but will not be run in sandbox mode. The disabled action will not appear in the Action Log.
• This user cannot create new Communities. 
• File uploads, including images in Rich Text fields, are disabled. When a user uploads a file, an alert will notify the user that the upload has failed. 
• Added member invitations will not be sent.

Exploring Sandbox Communities

Welcome to PubPub Platform! Regardless of which Community you enter, use the rest of this guide to navigate through PubPub Platform. Use the left sidebar to navigate. 

Views

Views are where users can observe various activities taking place within a Community. 

 

Current Views include:

• All Pubs, displaying a list of all the Pubs in a Community for which a user has access, sorted by most recently updated.
• All Workflows, displaying out a top-to-bottom flow of steps that a Pub will move through in a Community from submission to publication.
• Action Log, (visible to Admins) displays a table of all the actions that have run (as well as those scheduled to run) in a Community.

 

 

 

Manage

Dashboards (visible to Admins) allow users to manage Community processes and settings. Each of these configurations have a Dashboard where users can see useful information, search and organize content, and make changes to settings. 

 

Dashboards listed under Manage include:

• Workflows, which displays a graph-based view of the stages and workflows in a Community.
• Forms, which displays all active and archived Forms created in a Community.
• Types, which displays all Pub Types in a Community.
• Fields, which displays all active and archived Fields at use in a Community.
• Members, which displays all Members of a Community.

To visit a Dashboard, select the Dashboard name on the sidebar below “Manage”. 

 

Create a Pub

To create a Pub from the All Pubs View, select the Create button from the upper right corner.

A pop-up will open for additional information.

• Pub Type: A Pub Type for the pub. Selecting a Pub Type will affect the available Fields below. By default, the oldest pub type of the Community is selected.

Once a Pub Type is chosen, select Create Pub to be redirected to the Default Form. 

If a field is not required, select the vertical grey bar to the left of the field to enable or disable for Pub creation. The Save button in the upper-right corner will be disabled until all required and/or enabled Fields have content. 

When ready, select the Save button in the upper-right corner. An alert in the bottom right corner will appear if the Pub creation was successful. The new pub will appear throughout the Community. 

Use Fields to Establish Key Information

Fields are the bottom-level unit of PubPub Platform. Communities can use Fields to define Community-specific metadata. Fields can be collected and arranged to create Types, Forms, and Pubs.

Some Fields may be universal across communities - Title, Author, DOI, Content. Other communities may need to be more specific in the information they have. Each of these communities comes pre-populated with Fields typical of those from PubPub Legacy, but Fields can be as broad or specific as necessary for a Community. 

Fields are managed via the Fields Dashboard, accessible via the sidebar. 

Visit the Legacy Community's Fields Dashboard at (/c/legacy/fields) and try these tasks:

• Create a new field with a String schema (hint)
• Archive an existing field (hint)
• Rename an existing field

Adding Rich Text Fields

Adding a Field with the Rich Text schema allows users to customize the rich text that appears as part of a Pub. PubPub’s rich text fields support everything from images to tables, citations, videos, and more. Update any Pub with a Rich Text field to experiment with text formatting in the Editor.

Use Types to Organize Fields

Now that Fields are established, a Community can organize them into Types. Types, made up of Fields, define the structure of Pubs that may exist in a Community. Pub Types can be assigned to Pubs upon creation.

 A Journal may be constructed from Issue, Article and Book Review Types. A Publisher Community may be constructed from Book, Section and Chapter Types. A Preprint Review Community may be constructed from Preprints, Reviews, and Responses.

Visit the Legacy Community's Types Dashboard at (/c/legacy/types) and try these tasks:

• Add a Field to a Type (hint)
• Remove the a Field from a Type (hint)
• Create a new Pub Type (hint)
• Use the Title field as the Name on the new Pub Type (hint)

Use Forms to Collect Information

Forms allow users to collect information to create, edit, and update Pubs. Every Pub Type has a Default Form, which is used as the default form to create and update a Pub.

Visit the Legacy Community's Forms Dashboard at (/c/legacy/forms) and try these tasks:

• Add a field to a Form (hint)
• Remove a field to a Form (hint)
• Create a new Form based on a Pub Type (hint)
• Add help text and labels to a field (hint)
• Mark a field as optional (hint)
• Add a paragraph element to a Form that uses tokens to include values from the Pub (hint)
• Preview it via the live link to the form (hint)
• Update a Pub using its default form (hint)
   

Use Workflows to Review and Update Information

The Workflows in these two communities represent two common use-cases for PubPub Legacy users.

Workflows are made up of Stages, akin to publication status for a collection of works. At each Stage, users can deplot Actions to make things happen to a Pub - such as sending an email, create a PDF, deposit for DOI registration, and more!  Actions are disabled in this Sandbox (they won't run) but users can configure Actions to get a sense of the requirements.

Visit the Legacy Community's Workflows Dashboard at (/c/legacy/stages/manage) and try these tasks:

• Create a new Stage (hint)
• Connect & disconnect two Stages (hint)
• Add a Pub via the Workflows sidebar (hint)
• Run the Move Action on a Pub via the Workflows sidebar (hint)
• Add a new Action (hint)
   

Get Started

Ready to dive in to building a Community in PubPub Platform?

• Questions about configuring a Community? Take a look at our For Admins documentation, which provide step-by-step instructions for configuring these Manage dashboards and Views.
• Need more context? View the PubPub Platform Glossary, which defines specific terms used throughout the documentation.
• Have questions, comments, or concerns for the PubPub Platform team? Contact us at the PubPub Platform Discussion Forum (informal space to ask questions, provide feedback, debug, share and connect!)
• Interested in migrating your publishing options to PubPub Platform? Fill out our migration form.