> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.affelios.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# API Testing
> Comprehensive guide to testing your Affelios API integrations, including error scenarios, validation, and best practices
## Testing Overview
Thorough testing helps ensure your integration works correctly, handles errors gracefully, and provides a reliable user experience.
**Testing Benefits:**
* Catch integration issues before production
* Validate error handling and edge cases
* Ensure data integrity and security
* Improve application reliability
* Reduce support requests and debugging time
### Authentication Setup
Create dedicated API keys for testing to avoid affecting production data.
**Best Practices:**
* Use separate API keys for testing and production
* Create test keys with minimal required permissions
* Document your test key configurations
* Rotate test keys regularly for security
## Error Scenario Testing
### Date Format Testing
All date and time values in the Affelios API must follow the ISO 8601 standard format.
**Required Format:**
```
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss.sssZ
```
**Test Cases:**
* Valid ISO 8601 formats
* Invalid date formats (MM/DD/YYYY, DD/MM/YYYY)
* Missing timezone information
* 12-hour format without AM/PM
* Timezone names instead of offsets
* Unix timestamps instead of ISO strings
**Examples:**
* ✅ `2024-01-15T10:30:00.000Z` (UTC timezone)
* ✅ `2024-01-15T10:30:00.000+00:00` (with timezone offset)
* ✅ `2024-01-15` (date only)
* ❌ `01/15/2024` (US format)
* ❌ `15/01/2024` (European format)
* ❌ `2024-01-15 10:30:00` (missing T separator)
## Integration Testing
### End-to-End Testing
Test complete user workflows to ensure all components work together correctly.
**Test Scenarios:**
1. **Customer Creation Flow**
* Create customer via API
* Verify customer appears in dashboard
* Test customer data retrieval
* Validate error handling
2. **Transaction Processing Flow**
* Submit transaction via API
* Verify immediate response (201 Created)
* Check transaction appears in dashboard
* Monitor for asynchronous processing errors
3. **Commission Calculation Flow**
* Create transaction with known commission rules
* Verify commission calculation
* Check commission appears in reports
* Validate payout calculations
### Performance Testing
Test your integration under various load conditions to ensure it performs well.
**Test Scenarios:**
* **Single Request Testing**: Verify individual API calls work correctly
* **Batch Request Testing**: Test multiple requests in sequence
* **Concurrent Request Testing**: Test simultaneous API calls
* **Rate Limit Testing**: Verify behavior under high request volumes
* **Timeout Testing**: Test behavior with slow network conditions
## Testing Tools and Methods
### API Testing Tools
**Benefits:**
* Test API requests directly without application code
* Easily modify headers, body, and parameters
* View raw request and response data
* Test different authentication scenarios
* Save and organize API requests for reuse
**Quick Start**: You can import the Affelios OpenAPI specification directly into Postman. Use the [OpenAPI Specification](https://platform.affelios.com/swagger/v1/swagger.json) to automatically generate a complete collection with all available endpoints, request examples, and response schemas.
**Setup Example:**
```bash theme={null}
Method: POST
URL: https://api.affelios.com/api/v1/transactions
Headers:
X-Api-Key: your-api-key-here
Content-Type: application/json
Body (raw JSON):
{
"externalId": "test_transaction_123",
"customerId": "customer_456",
"amount": 100.00
}
```
**Unit Tests:**
* Test individual API functions
* Mock API responses for consistent testing
* Validate error handling logic
* Test data transformation functions
**Integration Tests:**
* Test complete API workflows
* Use test environment for safe testing
* Validate end-to-end functionality
* Test error scenarios and recovery
**Dashboard Verification:**
* Check that API-created data appears correctly
* Verify data formatting and display
* Test different user permission levels
* Validate report generation
**Error Monitoring:**
* Check **Transactions > Transaction Errors and Failures**
* Monitor for asynchronous processing errors
* Verify error messages are helpful
* Test error recovery procedures
## Monitoring and Validation
### Real-time Monitoring
Monitor your integration in real-time to catch issues early.
**Monitoring Points:**
* API response times and success rates
* Error frequency and types
* Data synchronization accuracy
* User experience metrics
* System performance indicators
### Validation Checklist
Use this checklist to ensure your integration is ready for production.
**Integration Validation:**
* [ ] All API endpoints tested successfully
* [ ] Error handling tested for all scenarios
* [ ] Authentication and permissions verified
* [ ] Data validation working correctly
* [ ] Performance meets requirements
* [ ] Monitoring and logging implemented
* [ ] Documentation updated
* [ ] Support team trained on integration
**Error Handling Validation:**
* [ ] 401 Unauthorized errors handled
* [ ] 403 Forbidden errors handled
* [ ] 404 Not Found errors handled
* [ ] 400 Validation errors handled
* [ ] Network timeout errors handled
* [ ] Asynchronous processing errors monitored
* [ ] User-friendly error messages displayed
* [ ] Error logging and reporting working
***
Now that you understand API testing, you can build more reliable integrations with the Affelios API.
**What's Next?**
* [Error Handling](/developers/error-handling) - Learn about error handling and troubleshooting
* [API Authentication](/developers/authentication) - Learn about authentication methods
* [API Reference](/api-reference) - Explore available endpoints
* [Integration Examples](/integrations/api/examples) - See practical integration examples