Continuing the P2T Journey — How to Scramble and Visually Mark Your Test Environment

In this article, I’m continuing the previous piece I wrote about P2T (Production to Test). This time, I’ll walk you through two important steps:

1. Scrambling sensitive data in the test environment

2. Changing the visual appearance of the test environment so it’s clear you’re not accidentally working in production.

   
   
   
   

   Data Scrambling — Keep It Safe, Keep It Dummy

   The goal of scrambling is simple — to make sure the test environment can be accessed by more people without exposing sensitive information like salaries, personal data, or anything that could cause a privacy nightmare.Some people prefer to manually edit the data (which, hey, if you have a lot of free time, go for it 😅), but my recommended approach is using HDL files to load dummy data or simply wipe out sensitive fields.

   Recommended Process

   1. Extract the relevant data.

   2. Edit or replace the data.

   3. Prepare an HDL file and load it into the system.

   I highly recommend designing your Data Model (especially if you’re pulling data from OTBI reports) in a way that makes it easy to generate HDL files. Trust me — you’ll thank yourself later.

   Quick Example

   Let’s say we want to scramble all employee birthdates. We could build a Data Model using a query like this:

SELECT person_id,        TO_CHAR(date_of_birth, 'YYYY/MM/DD') AS "birth",        TO_CHAR(start_date, 'YYYY/MM/DD') AS "Start" FROM PER_PERSONS

From there, we can generate a report, export it to Excel, and update all birthdates to a fixed date — for example, 01/01/1950.

Converting to HDL

Once the data is ready, save it as Worker.dat (the file format Oracle expects).Then, compress it into a ZIP file — Oracle only accepts HDL files inside a ZIP package.

Uploading the HDL File

To load your scrambled data:

1. Navigate to: My Client Groups → Data Exchange

2. Go to Import and Load Data

3. Upload your ZIP file

4. Click Submit Now

That’s it! Your employees are now all officially born on January 1, 1950 — a great vintage year, I’m sure.

Visually Marking the Test Environment — Because Colors Matter

It’s always a good idea to visually mark your test environment, so you (and your team) can easily tell the difference between production and test. No one wants to make changes in the wrong place — been there, done that, not fun.

How to Change the Appearance

1. Create a Sandbox.

2. Add the Appearance tool to your sandbox.

   

   3. Open the Appearance settings — this will let you change elements like:

   • Logo

   • Background color

   • Header color

   • And more…

   
   

   

   
   

   4. Pick a color scheme that makes it super clear you’re in Test — hot pink, neon green, anything that screams “I am not production!”.

   5. Click Apply, then Publish your sandbox.

   And just like that, your test environment is both safe and stylish.

   Wrapping Up

   Data scrambling protects sensitive information. Visual changes protect your sanity. Combine both, and you’ve got a P2T environment that’s functional, secure, and unmistakable.

   If you missed the first part of this guide, go check it out — and stay tuned for more tips in the future!