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Testing Your App

Before you submit your app for App Marketplace approval, test it as a draft app in your own sandbox store. Testing catches problems before the Marketplace team does, which keeps your review moving. For the standards the team reviews against, see the approval requirements.

Before you begin

You need:

You can install a draft app in the following ways:

  • As the store owner. This is the preferred option for partner sandbox stores.
  • As a user with the Install Applications permission.

If your app runs on your local machine, BigCommerce still needs a public HTTPS URL to reach it. For options, see Remote tunnels.

Install the app

The first test is the installation. It confirms that your OAuth flow works, your app returns valid HTML for the control panel iframe, and the API token BigCommerce generates is valid for your scopes.

  1. In the control panel of your sandbox store, go to Apps > Develop.
  2. Select the draft app.
  3. Install the app.

After the install completes, the app appears in the Apps menu in the left navigation and under My Apps. If it doesn’t appear, the install or OAuth flow didn’t finish. These causes are common:

  • The POST request to the token endpoint is malformed or missing information.
  • The page your app returns can’t load in the iframe, because of header issues or server availability.
  • The scopes or Auth Callback URL in the app’s Developer Portal settings don’t match the request your app sends.

For more detail, see Implementing the OAuth flow. For the install standards, see Installation.

Load the app

After installation, confirm that the app loads in the control panel iframe and that the page it returns meets the approval requirements.

  1. Refresh the page, or select the app from the Apps menu.
  2. BigCommerce calls your app’s load callback URL, and the control panel shows the HTML your app returns. For details, see Single-click app callback handlers.

Two problems come up often during review: X-Frame-Options headers that block the iframe, and session or cookie handling that fails inside it. Your app must also follow the user interface constraints.

Verify API requests

Installation generates a store-level access token that your app uses to make API requests to that store. Confirm that the requests your app makes succeed.

  1. Trigger the actions in your app that call the BigCommerce APIs, such as syncing data.
  2. Check for the resulting data in your app and in the sandbox store.
  3. Log the responses from BigCommerce so you can catch errors.

Check that your app uses only the OAuth scopes it needs, and that it uses current, supported API versions.

Test the storefront

If your app creates scripts or otherwise changes the storefront, verify it now.

  • For scripts, open Script Manager and confirm the Scripts API created them as expected.
  • For widgets, find the new custom widgets in the storefront editor and place them.
  • With your changes in place, use the storefront as a shopper would and verify the functionality.
  • Confirm that standard BigCommerce functionality still works and isn’t in conflict with your content.

For the standards, see Storefront scripts.

Uninstall the app

Finish by testing the uninstall flow.

  1. Go to Apps > My Apps.
  2. Select the app’s menu, or select the app name, then select Uninstall.
  3. If your app handles the uninstall callback, confirm your handler runs as expected.
  4. Confirm that the scripts your app installed are removed from the store.
  5. Confirm that your app removes the store’s data from your own systems, as your app requires.

BigCommerce automatically deletes a store’s webhooks and app extensions when an app is uninstalled. For the standards, see Uninstall.

Before you submit

Run these checks before you submit the app for approval:

  • Multiple users: install and use the app as a second user who isn’t the store owner. For details, see Supporting multiple users.
  • Browsers: test the app in each of the BigCommerce supported browsers.
  • Production readiness: the app you submit must be the production version, with callback URLs that point to your production environment. You can test in a staging environment first.
  • Onboarding: complete setup and onboarding from start to finish as a new store owner.
  • Unified Billing: if the app charges store owners through Unified Billing, test plan selection, checkout, and cancellation.
  • Compatibility badges: if you plan to declare Multi-Storefront, Catalyst, or Multi-Location Inventory support, test against the matching compatibility requirements.
  • Test instructions: write the instructions the Marketplace team needs to test your app, including any test credentials.

This checklist is a baseline for how your app integrates with BigCommerce. It doesn’t replace your own quality assurance and functional testing. Testing thoroughly gives your app the best chance of success with store owners.

Next steps