Amplify-console: No option to use existing environment for preview

[brignano]

Hi,

Not sure if this is related to #363 or not but, I don't see any option to configure a default backend for previews in my console anymore. Is that the expected behavior?

I checked the latest AWS Amplify - Console User Guide and Page 45 seems to indicate that I should expect the view pictured below to have an extra column labeled Backend environment.

_For some context-_ When I originally setup Amplify console, I saw this option there but opted to create new environments for each pull request. After noticing that setting up new backend environments for every preview extended the build time, I provisioned a dedicated environment for previews but when I went back to manage the preview settings again this option was gone.

[swaminator]

@brignano is your repo private? The backend PRs are only enabled for private Git repos.

[brignano]

Thanks for the quick reply @swaminator.

Originally, my repository was public but, after noticing pull request previews weren't being triggered, I re-read the documentation and updated my repository to be private. After doing so, I can see pull request previews being successfully triggered but I do not have an option to set the Backend environment anymore.

[swaminator]

@brignano: Try reauthenticating your app. Go to App settings > general > Reconnect repository.

[brignano]

@swaminator I did try re-authenticating my app prior to opening this issue without any success, and tried again today based on your feedback, but unfortunately I'm still not able to set the Backend environment.

[brignano]

Please let me know if there's anything else I should/can try to resolve this issue or if there's anymore information I can provide you to help debug it.

[Joycehao19]

Hi @brignano , what do you see when you connect a new app of your repo?

[brignano]

Hi @Joycehao19 , sorry I lost track of this issue but noticed it was moved from pending triage to pending release. Is there anything more from my end I can do to help the team debug this?

[jemucino]

I am running into the same issue. My app has always been private. I created a new app from the same repo, and still don't see the option to use an existing environment when enabling previews.

This is a big inconvenience because building the environment from scratch takes a long time or fails entirely and I would really like to simply use my dev environment.

[jemucino]

Interesting, I accidentally deleted my backend so I rebuilt the app from scratch using the Amplify CLI, but didn't push anything until all services were added and this time the Amplify Console recognized my app's framework as a React-Amplify (whereas previously it only said React) and now I get that option. Hope this helps someone else.

[ianmartorell]

I really don't want to recreate my entire app to enable this feature, but it would be really convenient to have. I was also seeing an option to assign a backend to the branch autodetection feature and now it's gone. 😕

[brignano]

Agreed, @ianmartorell.

Very kind of @jemucino to document this workaround, even I previously followed the same steps as a hot fix for this issue, but I hope we are still interested in fixing the root cause because it seems to be impacting multiple users and there is no real mitigation strategy other than to recreate everything which I can't imagine will work for everyone.

As per the related issue (#363),

Hello, we released a fix of the bug. Feel free to reopen if you still see the bug

_Originally posted by @Joycehao19 in https://github.com/aws-amplify/amplify-console/issues/363#issuecomment-637132026_

[litwicki]

@brignano we're going to revisit this and give a proper update this week.