Plugin Testing Checklist – Setup Preparation for Testing

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This testing checklist has a list of common mistakes, conditions and exceptions that you need to keep in your mind when testing the plugin.

Checklist 1: If you are doing PayPal sandbox testing then do not expect to receive an email in your sandbox account.

Sandbox email addresses are simulated email addresses, so real emails can’t be routed there. You can’t receive a real email in your sandbox email account (example: jon_1325352635_biz@somedomain.com). If in doubt, you can try sending an email to your sandbox address from your real email account and see what happens. This will give you a good idea.

Also, read the PayPal sandbox setup and configuration post which will help you with the sandbox testing:

https://support.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forums/topic/quick-guide-to-paypal-sandbox-setup

Checklist 2: Do not expect emails and other post payment processing steps to work when testing on your computer’s local server (for example: using WAMP, LAMP etc).

Your local computer’s test server cannot receive live payment notifications from the payment gateway (PayPal). Without the payment notification from the gateway, nothing will work. This part of the testing can only be done on a live server (where your actual website is hosted).

Checklist 3: Do not keep any maintenance mode plugin active at the time of transaction/payment testing. The maintenance mode plugin will block any payment notification from the payment gateway (PayPal) and reply with a *we are offline* type message. This will make it to where the plugin won’t be able to receive the payment notification and do the post payment processing operations.

Checklist 4: Do not password protect your entire site with .htaccess file or any other means at the time of testing. If your entire site is password protected then payment gateway (PayPal) won’t be able to send the payment notification to the plugin (it will get blocked on the password screen).

Checklist 5: Do not keep multiple copies of the same plugin in your “wp-content/plugins” directory. If you want to keep backup, you can do so in your local computer.

Checklist 6: Make sure that your merchant account profile is setup correctly. If it is not setup correctly then it won’t notify the plugin or won’t clear the payment and the plugin will fail to work normally. For example, you should use the following reference when using PayPal:

https://support.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forums/topic/wp-estore-and-paypal-profile-settings

If you are receiving “pending” payment notification then check this post:

https://support.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forums/topic/reasons-for-a-pending-paypal-payment

Checklist 7: When doing autoresponder signup test, you may be using the same email address again and again without knowing the following:

Autoresponders won’t send out another signup confirmation email if one of the following is true:

a) The email address is already on your autoresponder list/campaign

b) Autoresponder sent you one confirmation email already and you ignored it or it went to the spam folder.

Remove your email address from the list before testing the signup operation.

Checklist 8: When testing a transaction, try to perform a live transaction rather than using sandbox account unless you are a developer and you know what you are doing. Sandbox testing (example, PayPal sandbox) can be a little confusing and time consuming as it requires you to setup your sandbox account properly before you can test and most of the time users fail to setup their sandbox account correctly.

Also, some functionality of the sandbox environment can be down for maintenance or broken without you knowing about it, this will result in you thinking that your checkout is not working.

You can create a test product with a price of say $1.00 and then purchase that product on a live setup to see how it goes. You can use your credit card to make the purchase. Alternatively, you can request a family member or a friend to purchase the product on your site. After the test is done, you can issue a refund on that transaction.

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