Unless otherwise noted, information on this help page only applies to Studio. To protect the security of scripts in the various stages, folders assigned to development stages are not visible in Desktop Studio.
Development stages affect some aspects of scripting:
- As scripts move from folder to folder through the development life cycle, file paths referenced in the scripts may be affected. File paths are referenced when you specify the location of a file, such as a prompt, grammar file, or a location to store saved files.
- When a script is promoted to the next stage or is copied to a lower stage, Studio makes a copy of the script and places it in the next development stage's folder. Files that the script references are not automatically copied. You must manually copy any referenced files into the next development stage's folder .
- Copying referenced files from stage to stage provides the same benefits to them as it does to scripts. It also helps ensure that relative paths to the files don't change. However, absolute paths may be affected because the files and the script are located in a different stage's folder after being moved.
- The solution to avoiding broken absolute paths is to use variable substitution for file paths. This saves you time compared to modifying the paths for every file in every script each time it moves. It also removes the risk of modifying file paths in production scripts without testing the change first.
It's a best practice in Studio to use absolute paths where possible, even where relative paths are also supported. This is especially important when referring to a file that's located in another folder. This best practice applies anytime you're referring to files in scripts, not just when working with development stages.