Test your integration

Zapier includes a number of ways to test your integration before releasing it to users, both inside Zapier’s Platform UI with tools to test each part of your integration, as well as the Zap editor itself.

The Platform UI helps you test your integration’s authentication, triggers, and actions while building your integration. Then, be sure to test your integration in Zaps yourself, and invite others to help test your integration as well.

How to Test Authentication

Authentication testing in Zapier is crucially important, as this is where you first connect an account from your app to Zapier, which you will then use to test subsequent trigger and action steps as they’re built. Once you’ve added your app’s authentication settings and saved them, click Connect an Account in the final Testing step to connect your account to Zapier.

Then, click the Test Connected Account to make the test API call you added to your app authentication. If it’s successful, Zapier will show a green check and a Request Successful message at the top of the dialog.

You can then explore the data Zapier sent to and received from your app. The Response tab shows the JSON data response from your API, with each field and its data listed. The Bundle tab shows the data Zapier stores about your authentication. The HTTP tab shows the full request details for each API call Zapier made during the test. And the Console shows any additional data your API calls logged in Zapier if you use custom code for any part of your authentication.

Be sure to check each of them to ensure the expected data came through. Depending on your API, it’s possible to have an unsuccessful API call come through as successful if your API returns a message without an HTTP error code. Check the Response to make sure it includes the data expected from this API call, and if anything is incorrect, check the HTTP tab to help diagnose where things went wrong.

While building your integration, it’s often best to use a new account specifically for testing so you don’t clutter your core app account with testing data. Later on, repeat the steps to connect additional accounts to test your integration with live, active data.

How to Test Triggers and Actions

Once you’ve tested authentication, trigger and action steps are easy to test inside Zapier visual builder. Set up the trigger or action settings and API calls, then as the last step the familiar Test Your API Response box appears. It will show any accounts you added to your integration previously while during authentication testing.

For all action steps, along with triggers that include input forms, first fill in details for each of the fields in the Configure Test Data form. Add data that will successfully work in this API call, similar to what you would use in a live Zap.

Enter individual values in each field to add single objects. If you include commas in the field data, Zapier will turn that field into an array in your API call. Click the Raw button to preview the JSON formatted data from your test data that Zapier will send with the API call.

Then click Test Your Request to run the trigger or action step. Zapier will notify you if it run successfully and show the JSON results which you can explore as in the Authentication testing.

How to Test New Integrations Inside Zapier

Testing inside the Platform UI is crucial to building functioning integrations. But to ensure people can easily use your integration, it’s equally crucial to test your integration inside Zapier with live Zaps.

To test your integration, make a Zap in the Zap editor, and choose your app in the Choose App selector. Your integration will show the name and logo set in the Platform UI, along with the integration’s current version number and a By invite tag. If your integration is a new version of an existing integration, look for the latest version number and the By invite tag to differentiate from existing, public integrations.

Then be sure to check each of the following:

• Authentication: Does your app account successfully connect? Zapier will show any testing accounts you already added, but try adding a new account here for a complete test.
• Connection Label: Does Zapier show a detailed connection label on the new account, with the info you set when building your integration?
• Trigger and Action List: Do you see every trigger and action step, respectively, that you added to your integration? Are each trigger and action’s name and description accurate and grammatically correct?
• Fields: Do triggers and actions show the fields you expect? Are their names and labels accurate and grammatically correct? Do any links or formatting in descriptions work correctly? Do drop-down fields or those with multiple selectors work correctly?
• Output: When you run a Zap trigger or action’s test, does the step return the fields and data you expect? Are those formatted correctly? Do triggers show the most recently added item from your app, and do searches return appropriate results?
• Input: Open your app, and check each item that Zapier actions added or updated. Were they added correctly? Is their data in the correct format?
• Automation: Turn on Zaps with each of your integration’s triggers. Do they run correctly when the data they watch for is added or updated in your app account? Do your integration’s actions successfully add and update items automatically?

Check your Zap History to make sure Zaps ran as expected.

Using your integration inside Zapier’s core editor is the best way to notice details that might have been overlooked while building your integration. Pay special attention to the fields included in triggers and actions, and any that might be missing. Be sure to double-check all copy to make your integration easy for users to incorporate in their Zaps.

Monitoring

When testing in the editor, use your integration’s Monitoring page to ensure that test Zaps are running without errors. This tab shows every action taken by your integration within the Zapier platform, and you can filter it by timeframe and log type. This provides you with more details to diagnose any issues that occur.

How to Invite Others to Test New Integrations

It’s crucial to have as many people test your integration as possible before launching it to the public. Integrations are required to have at least 3 users with live Zaps before they can be released. Each additional tester helps ensure that your app doesn’t ship with usability problems or bugs.

While developing your app integration, invite additional admins from your integration’s Manage Team page. These users will have full access to the Platform UI to edit the app details, authentication, triggers, actions, and versions. This is the best way to add additional developers to your project.

Reminder: You can also invite other team members as collaborators, which gives them view-only access. Collaborators can view performance data, view feature requests and bugs, and access tools to embed Zapier integrations inside your UI. Collaborator access is recommended for marketers, product managers, and others not contributing directly to the creation and maintenance of the integration.

When your integration is nearly finished and ready for wider testing, you can invite testers from your integration’s Sharing page. These testers will be able to use your integration inside the Zapier editor, but cannot see or change your app’s core settings and functionality in the Platform UI.

Using the invite link on the Sharing page to invite testers will give them access to all versions of your integration. If you’d like to manage access by version, invite your users by email, and select the version(s) to give them access to.

This is the best way to add non-technical team members, beta testers, and advanced users of your app to your integration, to allow for additional testing before launching.

From the Monitoring page, you’ll then see every action taken by your integration users. You can filter by user, see auth and trigger/action events, and see any errors that occur.

The Analytics tab in the Platform UI provides usage statistics, focusing on how many users each trigger and action has.