Forced Test Mode

Tuesday, 6 August 2019 by John Rickard

Along with the introduction of "Cost Centres", finPOWER Connect version 3.2 also adds a new "Forced Test Mode" option.

This forces finPOWER Connect to use third party service "Test" environments, rather than the "Production" or "Live" environment - or to fail if they don't support a Test Mode.

This means you won't accidentally be able to send an SMS or create a Credit Enquiry for a Customer (and affect their Credit Rating).

Overview

Most third party interfaces allow both a Test and Production mode. This allows testing of a service without affecting live data. For example, producing a Credit Report should not affect a real Person's Credit Bureau data.

Note, depending on the service they may call their Test environment by another name, e.g. Sandbox or Discovery.

When you are undertaking internal testing, e.g. User Acceptance Testing (UAT), you may wish to test without the fear of using a production environment. Forced Test mode makes this simple to achieve.

The Benefit of Cost Centres

In versions prior to 3.2, to define whether Test or Production Mode is used you set an option under Tools, User Preferences for Credit Bureau, Security Enquiry and PPSR. Other services, such as SMS, did not provide such an option.

This was a per User setting, so to switch all Users to use Test mode meant visiting every User and changing three options under User Preferences.

In addition, to switch to use a service's test environment you also had to update the credentials under Global or User Preferences. This meant additional work, both to set to Test and then to reset back to Production. Any changes to Global Settings would also affect other Users.

With the changes made for Cost Centres both Test and Production credentials can be defined, and therefore switching between Test and Production modes is much easier.

Not all services are currently supported under Cost Centres.

Switching to Forced Test Mode

This is defined under Global Settings, Cost Centres. You can either check:

"Force Test Mode for all Users and Services".

With this checked all third party service calls are made in Test mode.
This may mean some services fail because they do not support a Test mode.
A warning message will be displayed on opening the database.
Window Title will include "TEST MODE ENFORCED".
Background colour is forced to bright green.

or "Allow Production Mode based upon User Preferences".

Allows each User to define whether they are using Test or Production mode.
Then, under User Preferences, Cost Centres, check either "Test Mode" or "Production Mode".

Because Forced Test Mode is "Global", it means you don't have to change individual Users - you can simply check the Global setting and be confident you are all set to start testing.