Using Playground Environments With InMotion Central

InMotion’s Managed WordPress plans include a set number of playground environments. The number of playground environments that you have depends on your specific plan, but you can always addon more if necessary. In this guide, we’ll explain what Playground Environments are and how to use them.

• What Are Playground Environments?
• Creating a New Playground Environment
• How to Select a Playground Environment (Within a Project)
• How to View All Playground Environments
• How to Delete an Environment
• Purchase Additional Playground Environments

What Are Playground Environments?

Each project can have multiple “Playground Environments” that can be used to build separate WordPress sites within that same project. For example, you could have a project called “John’s eCommerce site” and within that project there are 3 separate WordPress site environments.

Each environment is like a sandbox where you can test and modify the website as needed, you can also copy a site from one environment to another. When you are finished testing, you can publish the site and make it live on a production server or simply delete it after testing.

Creating a New Playground Environment

1. Login to InMotion Central.
2. Roll your mouse over the project you want to work with and click The Bridge button.
   
3. Click the Environment link in the menu under Project Settings, the menu will pop out with additional options, click +New Environment.
   
4. Enter your Environment Name then click the Next button.
5. Now you must select if you want to create a New WordPress site or Copy an Existing Site. The steps for all three options are outlined below.

New WordPress

When you choose the New WordPress site option and click Next, it will immediately create a new environment with a clean WordPress installation and the following message “Awesome! All done here. We’ve added your new environment. Head over to the dashboard to explore this site’s controls.”

Clicking the My Dashboard link will take you directly to the WordPress Dashboard for this new environment and website.

Copy an Existing Site

The Copy an Existing Site option will attempt to connect to your existing WordPress site and pull a copy of the site into a new WordPress Project on a playground environment.

1. After choosing the Copy an Existing Site option and clicking Next, you will need to enter your WordPress URL.
   
   
   Once you have entered your WordPress URL and clicked Next again, InMotion Central will attempt to connect to your site and verify that it finds a WordPress installation there. 
2. Now that a WordPress site has been identified, you can connect using the admin user’s Username & Password (recommended) or manually using the Connect plugin.
   
3. Enter your admin user’s username and password and then click Next, it will attempt to connect, login, and install the BoldGrid Connect plugin.
   
   
   You will see a message stating “Successful InMotion Central Connection!”
4. Click the Continue button to return to The Bridge.
   

How to Select your Playground Environment

1. Login to InMotion Central.
2. Roll your mouse over the project you want to work with and click The Bridge button.
3. Click the Environment link in the menu under Project Settings.
   
4. You will then see a list of all of your playground environments in this project. Click the one you want to access and it will immediately access the WordPress site and open the environment.
   

How to View All Playground Environments

1. Login to InMotion Central.
2. Click Playgrounds in the main navigation menu
3. You will then see all of your playground environments listed. Click the View Playground button to open it within the project.
   
4. Scroll down to view the number of playgrounds used by each team.
   

How to Delete an Environment

1. Login to InMotion Central.
2. Roll your mouse over the project you want to work with and click The Bridge button.
3. Click the Project Settings link toward the top left of the page.
   
4. You will see an Environments section with all of your environments listed. Click the button next to the one you want to delete.
   
5. Click the Delete option.
6. You will see a confirmation message asking if you want to permanently delete the environment. Enter the name of the environment and the Delete button will light up.
   
7. Click the Delete button. You are finished when you see a “Delete Successful” message.

Purchase Additional Playground Environments

If you need more playground environments, you can purchase them in packs of 5, 10, and 15 inside of InMotion Central.

1. Login to InMotion Central.
2. Click Playgrounds in the main navigation menu.
3. Click the + New Playground Subscription button on the top right.
   
4. You can then select how many playground environment instances you want to purchase. Options are 5, 10, and 20 instances.
5. Choose a team or user that will own the playground environments.
   
6. Click the Continue button.
7. You will then be taken to a checkout page. If you already have a credit card in your account you can select it, or enter your billing address and credit card details now.
8. Select your renewal period, options are Yearly or Monthly.
9. Agree to the terms of service, and click Submit Order. You are finished when you see a “Purchase Complete” message. You can scroll down to view the invoice or click the My Purchases link to view all of your receipts.
   

Congratulations, now you know how to use Playground Environments with InMotion Central! Learn about Purchasing other Addons & Upgrades in our next guide.