Test sales and test networks

The go-live check

The setup's Test sale step listens for your first event. Any event signed with your program's own secret, or sent by its own Stripe webhook, counts, even if it matches no partner and even while the program is a draft: it proves your signature and address are right.

BODY='{"id":"evt_test_1","type":"sale","order_id":"test_order_1","amount_cents":10000,"currency":"USD","ref_code":"your-handle"}'
TS=$(date +%s)
SIG=$(printf '%s.%s' "$TS" "$BODY" | openssl dgst -sha256 -hmac "$VP_SIGNING_SECRET" -hex | sed 's/^.* //')
curl -X POST https://viralpayouts.com/api/v1/events \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -H "x-vp-program: <program id>" \
  -H "x-vp-timestamp: $TS" \
  -H "x-vp-signature: $SIG" \
  -d "$BODY"

The timestamp must be within 5 minutes of our clock. The answer says whether the sale was processed, a duplicate or unmatched, and which signing secret matched. Full field list: Event API.

The console test sale

"Send test sale" credits a partner of your choice with a test sale. It runs the real pipeline, but the sale is flagged as a test: it never becomes payable, carries no fee, sends no postback and does not count for the go-live check.

Test networks

ViralPayouts also runs as testnet (a long-lived sandbox) and devnet (thrown away after each QA run). Every page there shows a banner. The code is the same, with its own database, and no real money can move: a live Whop key is refused.