Test Mode is useful if:

1. you want to experiment with a feature of Suma but don’t have a license for that feature, or
2. you are using a licensed feature in production and need to be able to exercise it with test payment methods (i.e. Sandbox payment accounts) but without excluding regular users from using the site.

Test Mode is available for most licensed features of Suma and is activated per feature from Suma’s Settings page in the Wordpress Administration area.

When a feature is activated in Test Mode:

1. the feature will only be available in Test Mode to the Administrator (as explained below),
2. the feature will continue to operate in Live Mode for all other users if that feature is licensed, and
3. the feature will use the Sandbox Payment Processor when required (e.g. PayPal’s Sandbox instead of your Live account).

An important principal of Test Mode is that its use is restricted to the Wordpress Administrator (specifically, requests from the Administrator’s computer).  If any other user requests a Test Mode enabled feature they will be given that feature operating in live mode if there is a valid license for it or it will be treated as a disabled feature if there is no valid license.  Suma achieves this operational behavior using the following mechanism.  When the Administrator activates Test Mode on a feature, Suma saves their IP Address (i.e. their network address), which is reported on the Settings page beneath each feature that is in Test Mode.  Then whenever Suma receives a request for that feature and Test Mode is enabled for it, it will compare the requester’s IP Address with the saved one. If they match then the request will be given a Test Mode version of the feature.  If they don’t match, then the requester will be given the Live Mode version of the feature if its been licensed otherwise its treated as though the feature is disabled.  Since only the Administrator has access to Suma’s Setting page, only the Administrator’s IP Address will be saved for comparison.

The Administrator’s IP address was used as the basis of this scheme because it allows the Administrator to access features in Test Mode without being logged into Wordpress.  This is an important requirement because Suma treats logged-in users differently than anonymous users (as when determining whether they have access to content, or whether access to Subscription Plans) and furthermore treats a logged-in user in the Wordpress Administrator role differently again (not interfering at all).  Using IP Addresses does however create the possibility that a malicious user could impersonate the IP Address of the Administrator in order to access a feature in Test Mode but this would merely offer them the ability to subscribe using a Sandbox account instead of a Production account and for this they would need the password for the Sandbox.  Since this scheme does not grant any access to the administrative functions of Suma or Wordpress,there is no threat that this could be used as a backdoor to perpetrate other exploits.

Being able to have the Administrator test a feature on a live site using the site’s live data and its actual configuration (posts, subscription plans, other plugins active on the site, etc) means the Administrator can reproduce the same scenarios as actual users without needing valid payment methods.  And allowing Suma to service both Sandbox and Live Payment Processors simultaneously means that you don’t need to shut out users from the site (e.g. maintenance mode) in order to run test transactions.

Features that can be run in Test Mode:

• Donations Feature
• Onsite Recurring Payments Feature
• Hosted Recurring Payments Feature
• HTTPS Protocol

The choices for which elements to display are:

• Title only
• Title and Excerpt only
• Title, Excerpt and Comments only

When an element is not to be shown, Suma replaces it with a message as shown below.

In this example the Hello World! post from the default installation of Wordpress has been made a restricted access post and the Visibility setting is set to Title Only.  Thus the only content displayed from the Post is its title.  Its body (content) has been replaced with a Suma-generated message (the gold-edged box) that contains a message hyperlinked to the registration forms hosted by Suma on the website.

Note that Comments comprise both a remark and the username of the author who left the remark.  Thus when the Comments are restricted neither the remark nor the comment’s author are shown, but are instead replaced with a Suma-generated message and the generic term – “A subscriber”.

The Suma-generated generic messages, as shown above as gold-edged boxes, can be fully customized through the Suma Customization API.

See Also:

• Suma’s Customization API
• Suma’s Philosophy (or core operating principles)

This default value can be changed through the Visibility attribute of the Post or Page which is found at the end of the Post or Page’s Edit screen.

Note that this setting only applies to Posts or Pages created since (and while) the Suma plugin is activated.  Posts or Pages created prior to Suma’s activation are treated as though their Visibility had been set to Public (pre-Suma).  In this way, Suma doesn’t not hide any Wordpress content which was previously visible prior to it being activated.

Also, note that if you deactivate Suma then all of the Posts and Pages with restricted Visibility will no longer be protected by Suma’s access control and will thus be visible to the public.  In other words, the Visibility settings will remain attached to the content but without Suma there will be no way to enforce their requirements.

It is located in the Profile section of your PayPal account.

See Also:

• PayPal Donations Feature setting

Users are presented with the following step when the Donations feature is active and the user selected a Guest Plan.

A demonstration of this is also included in the Payment Module screencast.

This feature of Suma requires a license (which can be purchased from the Suma Shop) in order to use it with the general public.  But if you want to try it out for yourself in your own website (which has Suma installed) then simply enable the Donations Feature in Test Mode.  This setting is found on the Suma-PayPal settings page in Wordpress’ Dashboard area under Settings.

When you enable this feature you will need to supply your PayPal Authentication Token (See Setting: PayPal Authentication Token ).

See Also:

• The PayPal Authentication Token setting
• A Comparison of Payment Modules showing their similarities and differences
• A Payment Module screencast demonstrating the different Payment Modules
• A list of Licensed features in Suma
• The Suma shop for purchasing licenses