Creating and Managing Screen Snapshots

In the same way that you can create and publish Snapshots of your game's configuration, you can create a Screen Snapshot of the configuration you have built up in the Manage section of the portal for your Screens, Snippets, and Charts. The Screen Snapshot feature is specifically designed to:

• Help you develop the set of Admin Screens and forms you need for your game management and monitoring purposes.
• Push these Screens and forms out to the Live environment.
• Manage successive versions of Admins Screens and forms through their lifecycle.

This topic explains how to create and manage your Screen Snapshots.

Screen Snapshots and Game Config Snapshots?

It's important to note at the outset that the Manage configuration saved when you create a Screen Snapshot is kept entirely separate and distinct from the rest of the Game configuration - game Snapshots do not contain the Manage configuration. This strict separation of Manage configuration and game configuration brings clear advantages:

• You might not yet have all of your Admin Screens up and running when you are ready to publish your game to Live and launch it - you can bring in your Admin Screens to Live later.
• If you publish some Admin Screens to Live but then carry out further development on some of them, you can create a new Screen Snapshot and version-up your Admin Screens without being tied to the publication lifecycle of your game's main configuration - you don't have to wait until you create and publish a new game configuration Snapshot before updating and publishing your Admin Screens.
• When you've worked in Preview stage to create and configure some Admin Screens and now feel they are ready for the Live game environment, you simply create a Screen Snapshot and publish this to the Live stage servers.

IMPORTANT: Publish a Game Config Snapshot FIRST! Before you publish a Screen Snapshot for your game, you must first publish a game configuration Snapshot. This is because until you publish a game configuration Snapshot to Live, your game will not be recognized by the Live servers.

Adding a Screen Snapshot

1. Go to Manage>Admin Screens.

2. On the Screen Snapshot panel, click Add:

A Create Screen Snapshot dialog appears.

3. Enter a Description for the new Screen Snapshot and click Create:

The dialog closes and the new Screen Snapshot is added to the Screen Snapshots list:

Under Actions you can use these icon button options:

• - Copies the Screen Snapshot to another game.

Important! Don't worry about overwriting the target game's Manage configuration. There is a fail-safe - a Screen Snapshot of the target game's previous Manage configuration version is automatically created (called AUTOSAVE - Pre Copy) before the copy occurs.

• - Publishes the Manage configuration saved in the Screen Snapshot to the LIVE servers. The Screen Snapshot that is currently published is highlighted in green.
• - Reverts your Manage section to the configuration saved in the selected Screen Snapshot version. There is another fail-safe - a Screen Snapshot of the previous version is automatically taken (called AUTOSAVE - Pre Revert).
• - Deletes the Screen Snapshot.

Copying a Screen Snapshot

Many of the Admin Screens and their constituent Snippets and Charts that you've developed for one of your games might be of use in another game - even if you have to make some minor adjustments to the way they work and the data they show for the second game. The Screen Snapshot copy feature lets you quickly copy a saved version of your game's Manage configuration into another game's Manage section.

1. On the Screen Snapshots panel, click to copy a Screen Snapshot. A Copy Snapshot dialog appears.

2. Use the Game drop-down to select the target game to which you want to copy the Screen Snapshot and click Copy:

When the copy process completes, you'll get a message:

3. Click to Close the message dialog:

4. Now open the target game you selected for the Screen Snapshot copy and navigate to Manage>Admin Screens:

Notice that:

• The configuration in the target game's Manage section for Screens, Snippets, and Charts has been replaced by the Manage configuration saved under the source game's Screen Snapshot.
• To prevent any unwanted loss of Screens, Snippets, or Charts, a Pre Copy Screen Snapshot of the target game's manage configuration has been automatically made. You can revert to this again should you need to.

Publishing a Screen Snapshot

Publishing a Screen Snapshot places the Manage configuration saved in the Snapshot into the LIVE environment:

1. On the Screen Snapshots panel, click to publish a Screen Snapshot. The Screen Snapshot is published and is highlighted in Green:

WARNING: Publish Game Config Snapshot first! Before you publish a Screen Snapshot, make sure you have published a game configuration Snapshot first. See previous section.

Reverting to a Screen Snapshot

If you have accidentally removed some Manage configuration details or if something recently went wrong, you might want to revert to an earlier version of your Manage configuration which was saved under an earlier Screen Snapshot.

Published Snapshots? You can't revert your Manage configuration to a published Screen Snapshot.

1. On the Screen Snapshots panel, click to revert to an earlier Screen Snapshot:

A confirmation dialog appears:

2. Click Ok to continue with reverting to the Screen Snapshot.

Snapshot AUTOSAVE! When you revert to a Screen Snapshot, your current Manage configuration is saved automatically to create a Screen Snapshot of the configuration as it was before the revert: