Different Ways to Test
After program has been set up (either by you, in MySheerID, or by SheerID's professional services team), you have options for seeing the customer journey and confirming that everything is wired up correctly. We call this invoke test behaviors.
| If you are | then |
| Testing a new program that has not yet launched to the public | Put the program in test mode, to give special testing behaviors to everyone |
| Launching your program to the public | Put the program in live mode, so it uses real verification sources |
| Smoketesting a live program | Use the testing allowlist, to get special testing behaviors for only your specified testers |
When you're ready to fully launch your program, flip the program to live mode and make your offer landing page visible to your site visitors. If needed in the future, you can still test an already-launched program.
Using Test Behaviors
When you want to easily simulate verification success, simply invoke test behaviors and by default your verification will be approved. Test behaviors also enable you to test the user journey for the various paths that verification can take. See this article for details about test special behaviors.
There are two ways to invoke test behaviors:
- Put the program fully into test mode
- Set up testing for specific testers using the testing allowlist
Put the program fully into test mode
When the program's configuration is set to test mode, then every verification gets test mode behaviors. This is especially useful when first setting up your program and getting ready to launch. You can toggle between test mode and live mode within one of our ecommerce apps and within MySheerID. In both cases, click on the program of interest, then on the next screen change the configuration so it says 'test' is on.
You can see your program's current state both in MySheerID (it'll say "test" instead of "live") and at the top of the verification form, if you're using the form UI provided by SheerID.
Live mode should always be used when visible to your customers, as all of the live verification functionality is turned on. A program in live mode consults real data sources and submits real document reviews.
Set up test mode for specific testers using the allowlist
When a program is set to live mode, you can still get test behaviors as needed by using the 'testing allowlist' feature in MySheerID. This is useful when
- You want to smoketest recent edits you made to a program that has already been launched to the public; the public will get verified using real data sources, whereas the specified testers will get test mode.
- You want to smoketest a separate production program instance prior to launching, which is common for custom hosted and API programs.
At the top of the program list page in MySheerID, find 'testing allowlist' and click the gear icon to open a modal where you can enter the emails you want to get test mode behavior. You can enter up to 20 email addresses. Toggle the feature ON and click save.
When this feature is on, any verification for any program in your account will get compared against your allowlist. When there's an exact match on the email, (eg john@doe.com is in the allowlist and a verification comes in with john@doe.com as the email) then that verification will automatically be treated as a test mode verification. This can be used for manual or automated testing.
Note: When you're done testing, we recommend turning off the testing allowlist to prevent any unauthorized use of it.
Using Mock Steps
Mock steps are useful for developers when fine-tuning styling and verbiage, with repeated page refreshes. Use mock steps to jump to an explicit step in the verification UI, using the URL. This let's you skip filling in the verification form.
Note: mocksteps do not use real data. The purpose is purely visual, to see what each step looks like. To test the flow and/or how data is shared between SheerID and your platform, use test mode.
For further instructions, see our developer center article on mock steps.