You have a couple of options available to test the applications that you write, depending on what they do and what your needs are. The primary issue with testing web services applications revolves around how to test the calls without affecting your production environment and data. We can provide access to a test harness site for initial testing with realistic data on a non-production site.
We recommend the following process to ensure that you are able to test all of the scenarios that you need, while maintaining the highest level of safety for you production environment:
- Unit test your application against your demo site or the Gateway test harness site.
- Your demo site is typically the best place for initial testing because it is configured with the same services and most of the same options as your production site, without allowing any of the orders to be sent to suppliers.
- This Gateway test harness is located at https://gwwsdemo.clearstar.net/. This site is intended to provide access to features that your customers would typically use or you would typically need to provide to customers. This means that there are certain features and data that you will not be able to access through this site, like the Business Owner and Supplier areas of the system, Supplier information, and other admin-level data as it becomes available through Gateway. If you need access to the Gateway test harness site, please contact us.
- Perform acceptance testing against your production site, using customer and user accounts that are configured for test use.
- By using customer and user accounts that are only used for testing, you will be able to isolate your work from production customers and users. In this way it will be easy to delete test profiles and orders.
- Do not submit profiles during this phase unless you are sure that the routing is will ensure that the orders go to internal processors who are prepared for them or you are willing to pay the supplier charges.
- Update user and customer settings and release for production use.