Platform Groups

A platform group is one axis you test across — Browsers, Operating systems, Devices. Every platform belongs to exactly one, and every environment takes at most one value from each.

The groups panel

Groups are not a list you click through. On Settings → Environments the Platform groups panel renders each group as a section heading with its own platform table directly underneath, so the whole taxonomy is on screen at once. The count beside the panel title is the number of groups.

Sections are ordered by display order, lowest first. A section heading carries:

• the group name;
• a Disabled chip when the group is switched off;
• an Order N chip when another group shares the same display order — the flag that two sections will sort unpredictably against each other;
• the platform count, “4 platforms”;
• a … menu.

A group with nothing in it says so where its table would be: “No platforms yet — an axis with no values cannot appear in an environment.” followed by an Add one link.

Creating a group

New group sits in the panel head. The dialog is titled New platform group and explains itself: “One axis you test across — browsers, operating systems, devices.” It has three fields.

The name error waits for a save attempt: leaving the field empty produces nothing until you press Create group, which replaces the hint with “Name is required”.

Typing a display order another group already uses is a warning, not a block. The field explains the consequence — “Another group already uses order 4. The two will sort unpredictably.” — and you can still save. Those two sections then both show an Order 4 chip in the panel.

The group menu

The … button on a section heading opens four actions:

• Add platform… — opens the platform dialog with this group already fixed.
• Edit group… — name, display order and enabled state, in the same dialog as creation.
• Disable group / Enable group — the label flips to match the current state; there is no separate toggle control on the heading.
• Delete group…

Disabling a group

Disabling is the safe half of the pair. The section keeps its heading, gains a Disabled chip, and every platform in it changes status from Active to Unavailable with the reason spelled out on the row: “Locales is disabled, so this platform cannot be used in a new environment.”

Nothing is destroyed. Environments already built from those platforms are untouched and keep working. What changes is the composer: the group stops appearing as an axis, and is named in the line that lists what you cannot build with — “Locales (whole group) — disabled. Enable it in Platform groups to include it.” Re-enable the group and everything comes back.

Deleting a group

Deleting a group deletes its platforms, and every environment built from them. It does not detach the platforms from those environments and leave them standing. This is permanent, and there is no undo — deleting a group with four platforms took four environments with it, verified against the database.

The confirmation states the damage in numbers before you can act. For a populated group it reads “Delete ‘Browsers’? Its 3 platforms are deleted with it.” above two counts — 3 platforms deleted and 2 environments deleted with them — and then the consequence: “Those environments are deleted too, and removed from every run that offered them. Runs already recorded keep their result history. This cannot be undone.”

How hard it is to confirm scales with what is at stake:

If what you actually want is to stop using an axis, take the Disable instead the dialog offers. It reaches the same practical outcome — the group is no longer usable for new environments — and destroys nothing.