Introduction

Last updated 4/06/2025

What is an Instance?

An instance, is an instance of your application. An application can have more than one instance depending on your subscription. Each instance will have the same schema, however, each instance can be customized to have a different theme, logo, welcome and reset password email templates, configurations, and minor behavior differences. Each instance of your application will hold its own data in the testing and production environments, in the development environment the data is shared.

tip

Contact our sales team to purchase extra instances!

You can't purchase extra instances when you are on a Basic plan. This is because, your live application runs in the development environment and the data is shared in the development ennvironment. You can however, purchase multiple Basic plans and export your application from your current Five account and import it into your second Basic account to have two instances of your application.

Let's take a look at an example. We have an application called Healthcare Management System and this application manages patients, doctors, and appointments. In the Instances view, you can see there are three instance records. The default, Cardiologists, and Hearing Services instances are the instance records for the Healthcare Management System application, each one has customized features.

Figure 1 - Instance records

The deployed Cardiologists instance has its own theme, logos, instance ID ithe URL, and instance name in the browser tab.

Figure 2 - Cardiologists instance of the Healthcare Management System application

The deployed Hearing Services instance has its own theme, logos, instance ID ithe URL, and instance name in the browser tab, otherwise it is exactly the same application.

Figure 3 - Hearing Services instance of the Healthcare Management System application

Default Instance

When you save an application, Five will automatically create a default instance and flag it as the default instance so you can deploy your application immediately. The instance record flagged as the default enables you to deploy the instance of your application from any view in Five.

You can only have once instance record set as the default. To change the instance record you want as the default, you need to turn the Default Instance switch off the current default and then edit another instance record and turn the Default Instance switch on. You will find the Default Instance switch on the General page on the Instance form.

tip

If you make changes to an instance record while it is deployed to the development environment, you will not see these changes by clicking the Run button. You will need to remove the development deployment and re-deploy your instance of the application again.

Figure 4 - Default Instance switch

When you click either the Deploy to Development or Run button in Five's toolbar, the instance record set as the default will be deployed.

Figure 5 - Deploy to Development button

All other instances need to be deployed on the Cluster Management page on the instance record. To get to the Cluster Management page, click the Cluster Management button.

Figure 6 - Cluster Management button

The deployment environments you see on the Cluster Management page are dependent on your subscription and role. Once you are on the Cluster Management page for an instance record, you can click the Deploy to Development button for an instance that is not flagged as the default. If the testing and production environments are available to you, you would use the Cluster Management page to deploy to these environments.

Figure 7 - Cluster Management page

Changing an Instance ID

An instance ID cannot be changed once it has been deployed, to change the default instance ID that Five creates you need to perform the following.

Remove your instance from all deployments. If you have multiple instances, all instances need to be removed from all deployments. So effectively, no instance records for your application can be deployed to any deployment environments. Ideally you would remove production, then testing, then development.

Figure 8 - Remove all deployments

At the application-level, export your application.

Figure 9 - Export button

At the application-level, re-import your application.

warning

Do not deploy any instance of your application to any environment. If you deploy your application before changing the instance ID, you will be denied and you will need to follow the process again.

Figure 10 - Import button

Go back to the Instances view and select the instance record you want to change the ID for. You can now edit the record and change the instance ID.

Figure 11 - Edit instance ID

Alternatively, if your subscription only allows one instance record, you can delete the default instance created by Five and add a new one.

caution

It is not recommended to delete the default instance if you have already set configurations such as authentications and SMTP settings, as you will need to re-configure all settings on the the new instance record.

Who has Access to Instances?

A user in Five with the role of Administrator, Control, or Developer has access to instances, however, the Developer role has limited access to an instance record. A user assigned the Developer role has restricted access to the General page and the Cluster Management. A user assigned the Administrator or Control role has full access to instances.

Developer Access

A user with the Developer role assigned can only deploy to the development environment. They are restricted to only some of the fields on the General page and can only update an instance, they cannot create or delete an instance record, they can only update. The following can be updated by a user with the Developer role assigned:

• The instance name
• The instance ID, following the process above if only deployed to the development environment
• The default instance
• The theme
• The logo
• The small logo
• The user interface

Figure 12 - Developer instance record

Understanding the Instances Form

Pages

The Instance form has six tabs across the top of the form, each of these tabs will navigate you to their respective page.

Page	Description
General	Name your instance record and add functional elements that are unique to the instance of the application.
Authentication	Setup the authentication method for a user to log into your instance of the application.
Deployment	The passwords and deployment times of each environment and configurations for production deployments.
Mail	Add your SMTP settings and create the templates for the welcome and reset password emails.
Events	Attach functions to your instance record.
External Authentication Providers	If an external authentication method has been setup, this is where you apply it to the instance of your application.

The General Page

The General page has the following fields.

Page	Description
Name	The name of your instance, this will be available in the browser tab.
Instance ID	The ID for your instance, this will be available in your URL and is to be used in code for your instance record.
Default Instance	Set a default instance for your application, this enables you to deploy this instance of your application from any view in Five.
Theme	Select the theme for the instance of your application.
Logo	Select your company logo, this will be available on your Sign In screen and at the top or your menu when using the Boston user interface.
Small Logo	Select a small logo, this will be available as the favicon in the browser tab and at the top of your menu when using the Boston user interface and reducing the size of the menu.
User Interface	Select the type of user interface you want your users to use to navigate through your application.
Privacy Policy URL	Add a privacy policy URL for the instance of your application.
License Agreement	Add a license agreement for the instance of your application.
Record Log Messages	Record log messages for the production environment deployment.
Options	Add options that are available globally using five.getOption() .
Server Options	Add options that are only available server-side using five.getOptionServer() . These options are only available on the backend for security reasons.