As you set up your new AccessAlly site, you'll want to make sure each piece is working properly before going live.
ARTICLE CONTENT:
Why It’s Important To Test Your Setup Before Going Live
AccessAlly works hand-in-hand with your CRM, giving you the opportunity to create a fully automated online course and membership area.
However, both systems are incredibly robust, and a single misstep during the setup process can cause frustrating errors for you and your clients.
Because of this, it's very important to test (and re-test) each portion of your site as you set it up, so all errors can be caught before they affect your paying customers.
What testing your setup looks like:
A typical test follows this flow:
- Choose an area to review (that might be an order form, an opt in form, the progress tracking for a course, etc.)
- Sign up as a new user (using the order form or opt in form)
- Follow the process that you would expect your client's to follow (make purchase, check email, use link to log in, etc.)
- Make a note of any front end inconsistencies (are there any broken links? Images that don't show up?)
- When the "experience" part is completed, review the new test user's profile to ensure it includes all of the tags you would expect them to have.
Important Tools For Testing
Understanding the Testing Process
Testing your course setup is a great way to experience your hard work the same way that your students will see it. The process is fairly straightforward: you'll simply go through each step the same way that a client would, from submitting a test purchase to going through course material, checking off objectives, etc.
Tip: Have a notepad handy to keep track of changes that you'd like to make, as well as issues that arise during the testing process.
Testing Process:
1. Opt-in or Purchase with a “Test Email”
Go to the opt-in form or order form and submit a submit with an email that is not currently in your system. (This is extremely important, since you want to test to make sure that new users are properly created).
Using this method is the best option for testing your completed course to test your automation, tags, and emails. Follow the tutorial to test order forms with a real or test credit card or PayPal account.
Use the tutorial below to create a test user to use for testing:
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- Use a variation of a testing Gmail email address. For example, if your name is [email protected], there are an endless number of variations by following this format: [email protected] (see additional details on email variations below)
- Test the new user in an incognito browser on Chrome or a private browser in Firefox
- Navigate to the members site and use the login information that was emailed to your test email address, or the Snappy Login Links™ link.
Once you've logged in, you'll be able to experience your membership site just as your new users will.
How to Create Unlimited User Email Variations for Testing
Each user has to have its own unique email address, which can get confusing when you have to create a lot of different test users. Fortunately, you can create unlimited variations from a single GMAIL address:
Example email: [email protected]
Variations:
However, to make it easier to know what portion of the site you're testing, you can get more descriptive with your email name variations, like:
What to look for:
- Was a new user properly created for the new test email?
- Were you able to log in using your new login credentials?
2. Go through the course materials
Now, head into the course. Take your time combing through each of the lesson pages, homework assignments, videos, and quizzes.
What to look for:
- Does the course navigation work, leading students properly from Lesson 1 to Lesson 2, etc?
- Do the LMS features (progress tracking, private notes, quizzes) work as intended?
- Do all downloads work properly?
- Is the correct email address showing for the user?
- Did the user receive a welcome email?
3. Log in as an admin, review the AccessAlly tracking pieces
Now, go ahead and log in with your regular admin account. With this view, you'll be able to review the "behind the scenes" information as a final check.
What to look for:
- Does the test user have all proper tags on their account?
- Did the order register properly (AccessAlly > Sales)
- Did any private notes get submitted properly? (ProgressAlly > Private Notes)
