Task · Account settings

Try things out in test mode

Switch your account into test mode and try things without touching real sales.

8 steps · About 2 minutes

Your account comes with test mode: a copy of every event, kept up to date from your live account. You can register, refund and check people in there without any of it reaching your real orders, your real attendees or your real money.

1. Open the account switcher and turn on Test mode

   The switcher is your account's name at the left of the account bar. The Test mode switch at the top of the panel, above your other accounts, shows whether test mode is on. You arrive on the same screen you were looking at, so switching from an event's attendees puts you on that event's attendees in test mode. From one order or one attendee you land on the list, since test mode has orders and attendees of its own. You can also press ⌘K and choose Switch to test mode.

   The first switch sets test mode up, which takes a minute or two. A page saying test mode is being set up appears while that happens, and it takes you in by itself as soon as it's ready.

   go.tito.io/acme/admin

2. Work in test mode

   A yellow bar across the top of every screen says you're in test mode, with two buttons. Details opens a page about test mode, and Leave test mode takes you back. An order, an attendee, a message or a customer you open in test mode says Test data at the top, because it exists only in test mode.

   The menu is the one you have in your live account. Orders, attendees, check-in, badges and messages in test mode are test mode's own, so Badges prints only the tickets you bought in test mode. The badge's design is your live account's, and it's changed there. Ticket types, questions, discounts and settings are your live account's, and a Live data line at the top of each of those screens says so. Anything you save there changes your live account too.

   Team, custom domains, data residency, billing, contacts and Connections in settings are marked Live mode in the menu. Selecting one leaves test mode and opens that screen in your live account.

   To connect a Stripe or PayPal sandbox to test mode, use Go to Connections on the Details page instead.

   Test mode picks up a change to your ticket types, prices, questions or settings the next time you open a screen. The Details page says when the copy last updated, and Refresh brings it up to date straight away. The same page is where you connect your own ways to pay and clear the test data, both described below.

3. Register for your own event and see what comes out

   View event page at the foot of an event's sidebar opens test mode's own event page in a new tab. An amber strip across the top of it says the page is in test mode and nothing on it is charged for real, so anyone you send the link to sees that too. The strip stays at the top of the window as you scroll and move through checkout. Buy a ticket and the whole of it happens for you: the order page, the confirmation email, the ticket, the ticket scanning at Check-in, and its badge printing from Badges. The places you use come off test mode's own count, so your live event stays exactly as full as it was.

   Emails from test mode come from Tito's address, even when your live account sends from an address of its own. The From line on a send screen in test mode names both addresses. To see how an email from your live account's address arrives, select Email senders in the note under the two addresses, open that address and select Send me a test.

   There's nothing to set up first. Paying in test mode is simulated, so there's no card to type in: you pick what happens instead. Simulate a successful payment puts the order through as a real one, and Simulate a failed payment leaves it waiting so you can see what a buyer sees when a payment fails. Adding paid tickets or items to an order, or changing a ticket for one that costs more, is paid the same way. In your orders list you can narrow to Test payment to see the ones you put through this way.

   Refunding one of those orders is simulated too. The tickets stop working and the places go back on sale. The order page and the buyer's email both say the refund was simulated.

   acme.go.tito.io/summer-fetes/summer-fete

4. Share test mode with the people testing with you

   Test mode opens only to people who have its link. You arrive with it already when you switch in, on the browser you switched in from. Anyone else, and you on another device, needs the link. Share on the Details page shows it. Send it to whoever you want testing with you, whether or not they're on your account. Opening it once lets that browser in.

   Reset link on the same page makes a new link and stops the old one working for everyone who had it. Use it when a link has gone further than you meant. People on your account can always get back in through the account switcher.

5. Try the other ways people register

   Every address your event answers on in your live account answers in test mode too. Portals, audience pages and application pages are all there, with the same amber strip across the top saying the page is in test mode. Widgets are there too, marked Test mode at the top of the box and of every step of buying through one. Once the event has an audience, an application page or a widget, the count beside View event page opens Ways to register, which lists the event page, audience pages, application pages and widgets with a link to open each one.

   You can make portals and invitation lists of your own in test mode, to try a set-up before it's real. They say Test data at the top, they stay in test mode when it refreshes, and they never reach your live account. A portal or list that came from your live account says Live data at the top, and it can only be changed in your live account. Its Duplicate makes a copy that belongs to test mode.

   Ticket requests appears in the event's sidebar once the event has a request form. Requests sent in test mode arrive there, and you can approve them, turn them down, run the draw and end the form. Approving sends the invitation, and claiming it goes through the simulated payment like any other order in test mode. The forms themselves are made and changed in your live account.

   A form that asks people for a card doesn't ask in test mode until you connect a Stripe sandbox of your own, described below. Requests still come in, and approving one sends the invitation to pay.

   Ending a form in test mode holds until the next refresh, which opens it again from your live account. The test requesters it turned down stay turned down, and clearing the test data puts both back.

   A widget has its own code in test mode, pointing at test mode's address. Widgets in the event's sidebar shows the code for each widget, with the steps for pasting it. Paste it into a test page on your own website and register through it the way your buyers do. When you're ready to sell, paste the code from your live account instead. Only the address on the first line differs. Anyone who opens your test page can buy through the widget without the test mode link, the same as on your live site. To keep that to people with the link, turn on Only people with the test mode link can buy through a test mode widget in your live account’s Settings. When test mode requires its link and checkout can’t continue inside the widget, open checkout in a new tab. Your ticket and workshop selections are kept, but your name and email aren’t carried over. If that browser isn’t already allowed into test mode, open the shared test mode link there or sign in as an account member, then return to checkout. The checkout traffic checks also run when testers continue to payment through a test mode widget.

   The widget only shows on websites approved under Your websites in your live account. Open your test page once, then select Refresh on the Details page. The test page's address then appears on that list in your live account, waiting for you to approve it. Approve it there, and the widget shows on your test page after the next refresh or the next time you switch in.

6. Connect a Stripe or PayPal sandbox to see your own ways to pay

   A simulated payment shows you what Tito does, and says nothing about whether your own payments work. An owner or admin can connect a Stripe sandbox or a PayPal sandbox of the account’s own. The Details page offers it under Payments, and Go to Connections takes you to test mode's own Connections page, where connecting works the way it does in your live account. Stripe and PayPal both ask you for a sandbox rather than a live account. Payments in test mode then go to that account and nowhere else, the simulated checkout steps aside, and the connection stays there through every refresh. Apple Pay, Google Pay, Link and the local ways to pay come from the account taking the payment, so this is the only way to see the ones your own buyers get.

   Paying then goes through a real card form, and only Stripe's test cards work in it. Any expiry date in the future and any CVC will do.

   • 4242 4242 4242 4242 pays.
   • 4000 0000 0000 0002 is declined.
   • 4000 0025 0000 3155 asks for an extra security check first.

7. Clear the test data to start over

   Clear test data on the Details page deletes every test order, ticket, check-in and guest in test mode and puts the places back on sale. It shows you the counts first, event by event, and asks you to confirm. Your live account isn't changed, and anything you connected on Connections stays connected.

   Each event in that list has Clear only this event beside it, which clears that event's test data and leaves the others theirs. That page offers Clear all the test data instead if you change your mind.

8. Go back to live when you're done

   Leave test mode in the bar or on the Details page, or the Test mode switch in the account switcher. All three bring you back to the same screen in your live account, or to the list if you were looking at one test order or attendee.

   In your live account, the event page and its checkout show your team a note saying orders there are real and refunds don’t return fees, with a link to the same page in test mode. Buyers never see it. It shows when you open the page with View event page, or while you’re signed in to Tito.

   If an event has test orders, attendees or invitations, its Orders, Attendees and Invitations in your live account say how many, with a link to the same list in test mode. The numbers are brought up to date each time you go into or out of test mode.

   Switching only affects you.

   Two people on the same account can be in different places at the same time, and switching to test mode doesn't move anyone else.

   Set-up you change in test mode changes your live account.

   Ticket types, prices, questions, discounts and settings are shared with your live account, so a price you change in test mode changes for your buyers too. Orders you place in test mode still aren't real.

Good to know

• Guest lists arrive empty. The lists themselves come across, and the people on them don't.
• Test mode has its own web address, made from your account's name with sb- in front. Anyone who types it without the link is told test mode needs its link, and search engines are told to skip every page in it.
• Everything you do in test mode is separate. Its ticket types have their own places, so you can sell an event out in test mode with every real place still on sale.
• Deleting a ticket type in your live account removes it from test mode too, along with any test orders for it.
• When the first ticket type of an event goes on sale, that ticket type's page offers to clear test mode's test data.
• Test mode is permanent. Clearing empties the testing you've done in it, and test mode itself stays.
• Emails from test mode really send, so you can read what an attendee reads. Every subject starts with "Test" and a dot, and they only ever reach an address somebody typed into test mode.
• Only owners and admins can connect a Stripe sandbox, the same as payments in your live account. Everyone else on the account can register in test mode either way.
• Your automations run in test mode. A step that posts to an address you typed still posts, and a step that sends to a service on your Connections page is skipped, so a test registration never reaches Slack or Zoom.