Block Restore allows you to retrieve Blocks from a backup of your Application, preserving their exact state at a specific point in time. Restored Blocks are added to a separate folder to ensure your current Application data remains unaffected. This feature is especially useful for resolving errors, such as updating a Metric with the wrong structure, importing or overriding data in the wrong location, or accidentally deleting a List Property.

This article outlines the key considerations when restoring a Block, how to restore a Block, and how to manage restored Blocks in an Application.

What is Block Restore?

Pigment automatically performs backups of your data at regular intervals. If needed, you can restore a single Block or multiple Blocks from these backups.

For example, if you deleted a Revenue Block this afternoon, you wouldn’t be able to recover the version as it existed this morning. However, you could restore it from the version saved during the most recent backup.

You may need to use Block Restore for various reasons including:

1. Accidental Block Deletion: If you delete a Block by mistake, you can restore it, move it to the correct folder, and update all references to it.
2. Accidental Data Deletion: If you delete data in a List or Metric by mistake, you can restore a previous version of the Block and:
   • Copy and paste the data into the current live Block, or
   • Use a formula to source data from the restored Block (with optional transformations), then convert the formula values to inputs.

Key considerations for Block Restore

Taking the time to plan your restore process ensures data consistency and minimizes disruption to your Application. You should consider the following before you restore Blocks:

• Dependencies. What dependencies need to be restored? If the required dependencies cannot be restored, the Blocks may also fail to restore. However, if the required dependencies still exist in the live Application, Pigment will attempt to use them in the restored Block references.
• Critical Blocks. Should you restore critical Blocks first and then replace the current Block versions with the restored ones?
• Scope of Restoration. Do you want to restore all related Blocks to their previous state? For example, if you restore a Revenue Block, your current Revenue will still exist alongside the restored version. Metrics like Cost that depend on Revenue will continue to use the current version of Revenue.
  • If you want Cost to rely on the restored Revenue, you'll need to replace the current Revenue after restoring.
  • If you want to restore both Revenue and Cost, you must explicitly select both during the restore process.
• Workspace hygiene. It’s best practice to delete unnecessary Blocks to optimize Workspace efficiency. Large Blocks and ongoing Block Restores can impact Workspace performance over time.

Restore Blocks from backup

Follow the steps below to restore a Block:

1. Go to the History page in your Application.
2. Select the Block restore tab.
3. Select + New restore.

In the Block restore pane: 

1. Select Get started.
2. Select a previous version of your Application to restore Blocks from, then click Next: Select Blocks.
3. Choose the Blocks to restore and click Next: Summary. Any Blocks that are available to restore but are not in the live Application will be marked with “Deleted”.
4. In the Summary panel, review the selected Application version, Blocks, and any added dependencies.
5. Select Restore Blocks.

Application actions are briefly unavailable while the Block restoration process is in progress.

If formula errors occur in restored Blocks, an Errors icon will appear next to the History tab. Select the icon for details and to resolve any issues.

Manage restored Blocks

After the Block Restore process is complete, a Restored parent folder is created in the Block Explorer, containing individual folders for each restoration.

These folders are automatically created, timestamped with the date and time of restoration, and include all restored Blocks. You’ll receive a notification when the folder is ready—select it to go directly to the new folder. To rename the folder, click the three dots next to its name and select Rename.

To move restored Blocks to another folder, click the three dots next to the Block name, select Move to Folder and choose the destination folder.

Restored Blocks are also listed on the Updates overview page under the Value column. They are labeled as "restored" and include the same timestamp as their corresponding folder for easy identification. To open a Block from the Values column, hover over it and select Open.

To review details of successful or unsuccessful restores performed in the past seven days, visit the Restore Blocks page.

Delete restored Blocks

To delete restored Blocks, go to the original restoration folder or any folder containing restored Blocks in the Block Explorer.

Click the three dots next to the Block(s) you want to delete and select Delete.