Live and Test Mode
There are two different modes to your campaign (Test or Live), and it's important to understand how each of these modes will impact your campaign. The modes are determined by whether your campaign is accepting live payments or not, so let's explore what this means for you.
Test vs Live Mode - what are the differences
What mode is my campaign in?
When created, your campaign will always default to the Test mode. This is because the campaign is yet to be linked to a payment account, and the campaign is not set to accept live payments. You can see this by having a look at the campaign from your Raisely admin area, as you'll see a tag displaying either Test or Live.
Also, from the campaign dashboard, on the sidebar you will see either Payments disabled or Payments active under View your Site link to your campaign:
Test vs Live Mode
The main difference between test and live mode are:
- Test mode will not attempt to charge a card for a donation. Live mode will attempt to charge the card.
- You can use testing credit cards to test the same donation flow that your donors will experience in live mode.
- Donations made in each mode, are only visible in that mode. So a donation made in test mode is not visible in live mode, and vice versa.
- Your campaign will be publicly accessible and visible in either mode - test mode does not hide your campaign or prevent access.
Test Mode
Whilst in test mode, any donation attempts via your payment gateways will not actually charge the credit card. This is how you can test your donation flow, emails and any other accompanying processes.
For Stripe, whilst in test mode, you can use several different Stripe testing credit card details, you can find a complete list here: https://stripe.com/docs/testing#cards - A quick test card you can use is:
Card Number: 4242 4242 4242 4242 Expiry: Any date in the future CVC: 123
When your campaign is in test mode, any test donations or offline donations submitted are recorded as Test donations. They will then only be visible while your campaign is in test mode, once you switch to live mode those donations will disappear.
Live Mode
This is when your campaign is ready to start taking donations and charge live cards and PayPal accounts. Once you switch over to this mode, any test donations disappear and your payment gateway/s will attempt to deduct money.
Switching Modes
When wishing to switch your campaign to either test or live mode, from the sidebar select Settings > Payments & Receipts > and use the Accept Live Payments switch. When the Accept Live Payments toggle button is OFF, you are in Test Mode, though when toggle is ON, you are in Live Mode.