Once you are happy with your Connector’s methods, it’s time to test them! But first, you will need to install a test version of your connector to an account.
Reminder! Set up an Account for Testing
You will need to set up an Account to be able to test your Connector effectively. It’s advised to use a non-client-facing account for this, as you may need to install and uninstall your Connector several times while it is in the testing phase.
If you have not set up an account yet, please refer to the Account Management section of our “Introduction to the Cyclr Console” Tutorial:
Keep in mind that the API calls you make when testing your Connector will count towards your usage.
Install a Test Release
To test your methods, you will need to install a test release of your connector to your testing account. To do this, you will need to navigate to a Connector-level page in your Connector.
If you are within a method, you can find your way back to Connector level by clicking the Back To Methods button. If you’re coming from the Console, you need to navigate to your Custom Connectors “Releases” and from there, “Edit“, as learned in the Connector Navigation section in lesson 3.2.
Once you’re on the Connector level, you can find a play button for “Test Release” at the top right. When you’re ready to test your Connector and methods, click on this button. If you have not logged in recently, you will be prompted to choose an account where the test release will be installed.
On the next page, click the ‘Install Test Connector’ button to install the connector into your chosen test account. You should get a confirmation that your test connector has been installed.
To confirm that the test Connector was installed, navigate to your test account, and go to ‘My Connectors’. You should find your connector installed underneath, with the suffix ‘TEST’.
Remember to authenticate the connector with your chosen Authentication method. You can do this by accessing the ‘Setup’ icon at the top right of the Connector Settings page in the test account.
Reinstalling Test Connector after Connector level changes
Important! Whenever you make a Connector level update, you will need to uninstall and reinstall your Connector to ensure the update goes live.
To do this, navigate to your testing account, and at the account level, go into the ‘My Connectors’ page to find your Connector. Next to your Connector, press the ‘Delete’ icon. This will uninstall the Connector from that account. You can then reinstall the Connector and test any changes you have made.
You have to do this every time you make any Connector level changes. However, if you change something at a Method level, you only need to install and upgrade each step to overwrite the Connector without deleting it.
Testing Methods on the Connector Settings Page
After you have confirmed authentication details, Cyclr will redirect you to the connector settings page. Here you can overview your Authentication status on your right and your Methods on the left.
You should begin testing your Methods in Cyclr here to ensure that they work and that they are giving the correct kind of response before you start using them.
When you can expand the method you want to test, you should see two tabs, ‘Fields’ and ‘Test’. Under ‘Fields’ you can view the settings of all your fields, you can double check that they look correct.
To test the method, click the Test tab. If your Method has any required fields, you will need to provide a value for them manually. Once you’re ready, click ‘Run’. Your request will now be made through Cyclr.
If everything has worked successfully, you should see the data returned below the Run button.
If you don’t get a successful response, or receive an error, complete the following steps.
- Read the error, what does it actually say? Does it say what is wrong?
- Retrace your steps: take a look at where you were working on your connector and double check your work at connector-level and method-level.
We also have a video available on how to Test a Method in Connector Settings in our Builder tutorial, which you can view here.
Testing Methods in a Cycle
After you’ve received successful responses with your Methods on the Connector Settings Page, you can be confident that the methods work. Now it’s time to test them fully in a Cycle in your test account. This is to ensure that the methods work together as intended.
For a reminder on how to build Cycles, you can visit our video tutorial here.
Once you’ve built a Cycle with your methods, click on the ‘Play’ button on the top left, and select ‘Run Once’ to run your Cycle.
After the Cycle has run, you should see a third button appear on each step. This is the ‘Step Data’ button which shows you the data that was returned on each step. Take a moment to inspect each step’s response to see if they look correct.
Some Basic Error Codes
Here are some basic error codes that you may encounter, with some initial troubleshooting steps.
| HTTP Response Code | Troubleshooting Action |
|---|---|
| 400 Bad Request | Is the request in the correct format? Are all the requisite parameters are provided? Is there a header missing? |
| 401 Unauthorized | Is the authentication method set correctly? Are you using the correct credentials? |
| 403 Forbidden | Did you include the correct scopes during authentication? |
| 404 Not Found | Is your endpoint URL correct? Are you missing a MergeField value from your URL? |
| 405 Method Not Allowed | Did you select the correct HTTP method on the settings tab? |