IT:AD:PayPal:HowTo:Setup Test Accounts for Development
Summary
Totally separate from your real world Personal/Premiere and Business accounts, you'll need fake test accounts because we don't want to use your real accounts when testing (you wouldn't want to get taxed for non-existent income).
Process
Setup Test Seller and Buyer Accounts
To test, we need a fake merchant, and at least one fake client account, all usable only within the Sandbox.
- Go to the sandbox site: http://developer.paypal.com
- Create a new user that is distinct from your existing paypal account (it's a sandbox account, not a www account).
- When in, Create two distinct test accounts. One for the client/buyer, one for the merchant/seller (ie, you).
- To access each of these accounts, you select the radio button beside it, and click
Enter Sandbox Test Site. - You'll be shown a site that is identical to the normal PayPal site, except in the header where it says 'Sandbox'.
- Emails: it's REALLY important to understand early that email addresses are not real outside of the sandbox.
ie, Password resets, etc. will never show up in your normal email inbox (or spam).
What you do instead is use your Sandbox Account (the primary one) where you'll see a Tab on the left saying