Create and Manage Product Instances

This topic provides specific procedures for creating and working with product instances.

For an overview of the various design-time content containers in XDP-product groups, products, product instances, and content packages-see XDP Content: Storage and Access.

Sections in this topic:

• Create a product instance
• Grant access to a product instance
• Copy a product instance from one sandbox to another sandbox
• Deactivate or reactivate a product instance

Create a product instance

The first product instance for a new product is created automatically during the creation of the product itself.

After creating a new product instance, you can configure the service and upload the necessary file or files to the instance.

To create an additional product instance for an existing product

1. On the main information page for the product, click Add Product Instance.
   
2. On the Product Instance Setup page, select a sandbox from the Sandbox list. For info about how to create a sandbox, see Create a New Sandbox.
   
3. Select Empty product instance to create an instance of the product with no configuration, or select an instance of the product shown under Copy from existing product instance to copy configuration information from an existing instance.
   

   Important If the product has been published to the retail sandbox, you should select RETAIL under Copy from existing product instance to ensure that you start with the configuration that has shipped.

4. Click the green Save button at the right edge of the page.
   

The new product instance appears on the main information page for the product. You can identify it by the name of the sandbox where it is located.

Grant access to a product instance

You can grant design-time or run-time access to your product instance. To learn how, see Grant Design-Time Access or Grant Run-time Access.

Copy a product instance from one sandbox to another sandbox

You can make an existing product instance that is assigned to one sandbox available in another sandbox-either another existing sandbox, or a newly created one. This makes it possible for the same product instance to be available in connection with two separate configurations of other product instances simultaneously.

In this operation:

• If the destination sandbox that you specify already exists, any instance of the same product currently assigned to that sandbox will be completely replaced by the instance that is copied from the origin sandbox.
  
• If the destination sandbox that you specify does not already exist, it will be created for you during the operation.
  
• The origin and destination sandboxes must have identical 4-letter monikers. For example, a product instance can be copied from Sandbox XDKS.3 to Sandbox XDKS.7, but not from Sandbox XDKS.3 to Sandbox MSFT.7.
  

To copy a product instance from one sandbox to another sandbox

1. On the main information page for the product, click Add Product Instance.
2. On the Product Instance Setup page, select a sandbox from the Sandbox drop-down list.
3. Select an instance of the product shown under Copy from existing product instance to copy configuration information from an existing instance.
4. Click the green Save button at the right edge of the page.

The new product instance appears on the main information page for the product. You can identify it by the name of the sandbox where it is located.

Deactivate or reactivate a product instance

You can make all of the content packages in a product instance unavailable for run-time access in the sandbox by deactivating that product instance.

A product instance that has been deactivated can later be activated again.

To deactivate or activate a product instance

1. On the information page for the product, click the name of the product instance.
   This location is different from the ID of the sandbox, which is displayed in the Sandbox column.
   
2. On the Product Instance page, under Title Data, in the Status row, it will display Active if the product instance is active and Inactive if it is not.
   If the product instance is active and you wish to deactivate it, click the grey Deactivate button.
   If the product instance is inactive and you wish to activate it, click the green Activate button.
   
3. Click the name of the product in the left-hand navigation menu to return to the information page for the product.