When starting out with ROLLER, it can often take a little time to get acquainted with all the new features the platform has to offer. Similarly, when new products and enhancements are released each month, you may want the option to try them out before configuring them in your live venue.
Say hello to ROLLER Playground! ROLLER Playground is a replica of your live venue, where you can get hands on with new ROLLER products and enhancements and test drive setting up and configuring key features like products, checkouts and POS, all without affecting your live venue!
Using ROLLER Playground, you can train up team members in using key ROLLER features, like POS, before launching in venue. You can also explore and try out new product updates a week before they go live.
This guide walks through how to access and use your playground venue, as well as how to update and populate playground from your live venue.
Key terms
You’ll see these key terms used a lot throughout this guide.
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Live venue: This is where you set up and manage ROLLER for your specific venue needs and process live bookings.
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Playground venue (or playground): This is where you can learn and experiment with ROLLER products and features without any changes going live.
What you create in playground can't be transferred to your live venue (we don’t want you to overwrite your live venue!). But, you can update your playground from your live venue so your playground reflects your live venue and you’ll have products to work with. When you update your playground from your live venue, you’ll overwrite anything you’ve created in playground.
Considerations when using playground
Keep the following considerations in mind when using playground:
- You cannot transfer bookings and guest data between playground and your live venue. This is because you can only sync your live venue with playground (ie the sync is only one way, you cannot sync your playground venue with your live venue).
- Products created in your playground can not be synced across to your live venue. This is for the same reason as above.
- Updating playground clears all existing bookings from playground and copies all products and settings from your live venue across to your playground venue.
- Staff with access only to ROLLER POS will need the direct URL to log in to POS Playground: https://pos.play.roller.app/
Switch between live and playground venues
You can access your playground venue from your live venue by following the steps below.
- From Venue Manager, select your account icon (person) at the bottom of the left-side menu.
- Select Switch to Playground venue.
To switch from your playground venue back to your live venue, follow the steps below.
- From Venue Manager, select your account icon (person) at the bottom of the left-side menu.
- Select Switch to Live venue.
Update playground
Your playground venue is a copy of your live venue, but your live venue does not automatically sync across changes to playground — you have to do this manually. This means you can control when your playground venue is updated.
You can update your playground venue periodically so that when you’re using playground the data and products available to you are as close as possible to your live venue. To update your playground, follow the steps below.
- From Venue Manager, go to Settings > Account > Venue settings.
- Select Update Playground at the top right of the page. Completing this action will clear all existing data and products from your playground venue.
This is the most important thing to remember when you update your playground environment!
Updating clears all products and existing bookings from the playground environment and copies all products and settings from your live account across to your playground account. In effect this means that your current playground set up will be wiped clear and match what’s in your live account.
If you’re working on something in the playground that you don’t want to lose, then don’t update until you’re finished.
Learn how to use ROLLER
As you get started with ROLLER and throughout the implementation phase, your playground venue is the perfect place to test drive how ROLLER works because any changes you make will never affect your live venue.
You and your team can learn how to create and configure key features, like products, checkouts and POS.
For example, create test products and add these products to your playground POS and online checkouts. Or, redeem bookings, sell and refund tickets in the playground POS. This is a great way to train new POS operators and get them comfortable with the product.
Try out new features and enhancements before they go live
Another advantage of playground is that ROLLER releases new features and enhancements to playground one week before they become available in your live venue. This gives you valuable time to try out what’s new and get comfortable using new features and enhancements before they’re rolled out to your live venue.
But, how will I know when new features and enhancements are available in playground?
Good question! When new features and enhancements are available to preview in playground, you’ll receive an in-platform notification. Then, you can head on over to your playground and access what’s new.
Have a play around and get hands on, and don’t forget to use our Help Centre and Academy resources to guide you as you get started. There’ll be another announcement waiting for you in playground with all the information you need.