play/billing/billing_testing.jd

page.title=Testing In-app Billing
parent.title=In-app Billing
parent.link=index.html
page.tags="inapp, billing, iap"
@jd:body

<div id="qv-wrapper">
<div id="qv">
  <h2>In this document</h2>
  <ol>
    <li><a href="#testing-purchases">Testing In-app Purchases</a></li>
    <li><a href="#billing-testing-static">Testing with Static Responses</a></li>
    <li><a href="#billing-testing-test">Setting Up for Test Purchases</a></li>
    <li><a href="#draft_apps">Draft Apps are No Longer Supported</a></li>
  </ol>
  <h2>See also</h2>
  <ol>
    <li><a href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/billing_overview.html">Overview of In-app
    Billing</a></li>
  <ol>
</div>
</div>

<p>The Google Play Developer Console provides several tools that help you test your In-app Billing
implementation:</p>

<ul>
<li>Test purchases, which let license-test users purchase your published in-app
    items, without any actual charges to their accounts.</li>
<li>Static billing responses from Google Play, for testing in early development</p>
</ul>

<p>To test in-app billing, you need to publish your app to an <a
href="https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/3131213">alpha
or beta channel in Google Play.</a></p>

<p>After you publish an app to an alpha or beta channel, it can take a few hours
for the app to be available for testers. The version code of an APK on a test device
must match the version currently uploaded to the alpha or beta channel on Google Play.</p>

<p class="caution"><strong>Important</strong>: To test in-app products or make in-app
purchases in your alpha or beta channel app, each tester
needs to <a href="https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/3131213">opt-in
to your apps alpha or beta test</a>. On your tests opt-in URL, your
testers will get an explanation of what it means to be a tester and a link to opt-in.</p>

<p>You can test on any Android-powered hardware device running Android 1.6 or higher.
The most current version of the Google Play application must be installed on the device.
For general information about how to set up a device for use in
developing Android applications, see <a href="{@docRoot}tools/device.html">Using Hardware
Devices</a>.</p>

<h2 id="testing-purchases">Testing In-app Purchases</h2>

<p>When your In-app Billing implementation is ready, you can test purchasing of your in-app SKUs in two ways:</p>

<ul>
<li><strong>Test purchases</strong>, which let your selected license-test
users purchase your in-app products without any resulting charges to the user.
Test purchases can be used in alpha/beta releases only. </li>
<li><strong>Real purchases</strong>, which let regular users make real purchases
of your in-app products with actual charges to the users payment instruments.</li>
</ul>

<p>In either case, you need to publish your app to Google Play's
<a href="https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/3131213">alpha
  and beta release channels</a> to manage the users who can make purchases.</p>

  <p>The sections below provide more detail about how to use these approaches for
testing and validation. </p>


<h3 id="test-purchases">Test Purchases (In-app Billing Sandbox)</h3>

<p>Test purchases offer a secure, convenient way to enable larger-scale testing
of your In-app Billing implementation during development or in preparation for
launch. They let authorized user accounts make purchases of your in-app products
through Google Play without incurring any actual charges to the user
accounts.</p>

<p>
  Once authorized for testing access, those users can make purchases without
  being charged. Test purchases don't have an <code>orderId</code> field, which
  ensures that there are no actual charges to user accounts.
</p>

<p class="note">
  <strong>Note:</strong> Test subscription purchases recur daily, regardless of
  the product's subscription period.
</p>


<h4 id="setup">Setting up test purchases</h4>

<p>Its easy to set up test purchases&mdash;any user account can be chosen to be
a test account, and any user of a test account can make test purchases with any
available payment method (even though theres no charge to the payment
method).</p>

<p>First, upload and publish in-app products that you want testers to be able to
purchase. You can upload and publish in-app products in the Developer Console.
Note that you can upload and publish your in-app items before you publish the
APK itself.</p>

<p>Next, create license test accounts for authorized users. In the Developer
Console, go to <strong>Settings</strong> &gt; <strong>Account details</strong>,
then in the License Testing section, add the addresses to <strong>Gmail accounts
with testing access</strong> field. For more information, see <a
href="#billing-testing-test">Setting Up for Test Purchases</a>.</p>

<p>Once youve added the users as license tester accounts and saved the change,
within 15 minutes those users can begin making test purchases of your in-app
products.</p>

<p class="caution"><strong>Important</strong>: After you publish your app
to an alpha or beta channel, your testers need to <a
href="https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/3131213">opt-in
to your apps alpha or beta test</a> using the provided opt-in URL before they
can make test purchases. </p>

<p class="note"><strong>Note</strong>: License test accounts
must be on the users Android device. If the device has more than one
account, the purchase will be made with the account that downloaded the app. If
none of the accounts has downloaded the app, the purchase is made with the first
account. Users can confirm the account that is making a purchase by expanding the
purchase dialog.</p>

<p class="note">
  <strong>Note:</strong> Test purchases don't have an <code>orderId</code>
  field. To track test purchases, you use the <code>purchaseToken</code> field
  instead.
</p>

<h4 id="tp-account">Test purchases and developer account</h4>
<p>Authorized license test accounts are associated with your developer account
in Google Play, rather than with a specific APK or package name. Identifying an
account as a test account enables it to purchase any of your in-app products
without being charged. </p>

<h4 id="purchase-flow">Details of purchase flow</h4>
<p>During a test purchase, users can test the actual merchandising, purchase,
and fulfillment flow in your app.  During purchase, the inapp item is displayed
as a normal item with an actual price. However, Google Play marks test purchases
with a notice across the center of the purchase dialog, for easy identification.
</p>

<h4 id="cancelling">Canceling completed test purchases</h4>
<p>Google Play accumulates completed test purchases for each user but does not
pass them on to financial processing.</p>

<p>In some cases, you might want to manually cancel a test purchase to continue
testing. To do so, open the app page in the Play Store. If the test purchase
that you want to cancel is a subscription, you can also use the
<a href="https://developers.google.com/android-publisher/api-ref/purchases/subscriptions/cancel">
{@code cancel()}</a> method of the Purchases.subscriptions API.
</ul>

<p class="caution">
  <strong>Important:</strong> The
  <a href="https://developers.google.com/android-publisher/api-ref/purchases/subscriptions/refund">
  {@code refund()}</a> and
  <a href="https://developers.google.com/android-publisher/api-ref/purchases/subscriptions/revoke">
  {@code revoke()}</a> methods of the Purchases.subscriptions API don't support
  test purchases.
</p>


<h3 id="transations">Testing with real transactions</h3>
<p>As you prepare to launch an app that uses In-app Billing, you can make use of
Google Play alpha/beta release options to do validation and load testing on your
implementation before distributing the app to all of your users. </p>

<p>With alpha/beta test groups, real users (chosen by you) can install your app
from Google Play and test your in-app products. They can make real purchases
that result in actual charges to their accounts, using any of their normal
payment methods in Google Play to make purchases. Note that if you include test
license accounts in your alpha and beta distribution groups, those users will
only be able to make test purchases. </p>

<p class="caution"><strong>Important</strong>: After you publish your app
to an alpha or beta channel, your testers need to <a
href="https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/3131213">opt-in
to your apps alpha or beta test</a> using the provided opt-in URL before they
can make test purchases. </p>


<h2 id="billing-testing-static">Testing with Static Responses</h2>

<p>We recommend that you first test your In-app Billing implementation using static responses from
Google Play. This enables you to verify that your application is handling the primary Google
Play responses correctly and that your application is able to verify signatures correctly. You can
do this even if the app hasn't been published yet.</p>

<p>To test your implementation with static responses, you make an In-app Billing request using a
special item that has a reserved product ID. Each reserved product ID returns a specific static
response from Google Play. No money is transferred when you make In-app Billing requests with the
reserved product IDs. Also, you cannot specify the form of payment when you make a billing request
with a reserved product ID. Figure 1 shows the checkout flow for the reserved item that has the
product ID android.test.purchased.</p>

<img src="{@docRoot}images/billing_test_flow.png" height="381" id="figure1" />
<p class="img-caption">
  <strong>Figure 1.</strong>Purchase flow for the special reserved item android.test.purchased.
</p>

<p>You do not need to list the reserved products in your application's product list. Google Play
already knows about the reserved product IDs. Also, you do not need to upload your application to
the Developer Console to perform static response tests with the reserved product IDs. You can simply
install your application on a device, log into the device, and make billing requests using the
reserved product IDs.</p>

<p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong> Previously you could test an app by
uploading an unpublished "draft" version. This functionality is no longer
supported. However, you can test your app with static responses even before you
upload it to the Google Play store. For more information, see <a
href="#draft_apps">Draft Apps are No Longer Supported</a>.

<p>There are four reserved product IDs for testing static In-app Billing responses:</p>

<ul>
  <li><strong>android.test.purchased</strong>
    <p>When you make an In-app Billing request with this product ID, Google Play responds as
    though you successfully purchased an item. The response includes a JSON string, which contains
    fake purchase information (for example, a fake order ID). In some cases, the JSON string is
    signed and the response includes the signature so you can test your signature verification
    implementation using these responses.</p>
  </li>
  <li><strong>android.test.canceled</strong>
    <p>When you make an In-app Billing request with this product ID Google Play responds as
    though the purchase was canceled. This can occur when an error is encountered in the order
    process, such as an invalid credit card, or when you cancel a user's order before it is
    charged.</p>
  </li>
  <li><strong>android.test.refunded</strong>
    <p>When you make an In-app Billing request with this product ID, Google Play responds as
    though the purchase was refunded. Refunds cannot be initiated through Google Play's in-app
    billing service. Refunds must be initiated by you (the merchant). After you process a refund
    request through your Google payments merchant account, a refund message is sent to your application by
    Google Play. This occurs only when Google Play gets notification from Google payments that
    a refund has been made. For more information about refunds, see <a
    href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/v2/api.html#billing-action-notify">Handling
    IN_APP_NOTIFY messages</a> and <a
    href="http://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1153485"
    >In-app Billing Pricing</a>.</p>
  </li>
  <li><strong>android.test.item_unavailable</strong>
    <p>When you make an In-app Billing request with this product ID, Google Play responds as
    though the item being purchased was not listed in your application's product list.</p>
  </li>
</ul>

<p>In some cases, the reserved items may return signed static responses, which
lets you test signature verification in your application. The reserved items
only return signed responses if the user running the application has a <a
href="{@docRoot}distribute/googleplay/start.html">developer</a> or <a
href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/billing_admin.html#billing-testing-setup">test
account.</a>

<p>To make an In-app Billing request with a reserved product ID, you simply construct a normal
<code>REQUEST_PURCHASE</code> request, but instead of using a real product ID from your
application's product list you use one of the reserved product IDs.</p>

<p>To test your application using the reserved product IDs, follow these steps:</p>

<ol>
  <li><strong>Install your application on an Android-powered device.</strong>
    <p>You cannot use the emulator to test In-app Billing; you must install your application on a
    device to test In-app Billing.</p>
    <p>To learn how to install an application on a device, see <a
    href="{@docRoot}tools/building/building-cmdline.html#RunningOnDevice">Running on a
    device</a>.</p>
  </li>
  <li><strong>Sign in to your device with your developer account.</strong>
    <p>You do not need to use a test account if you are testing only with the reserved product
    IDs.</p>
  </li>
  <li><strong>Verify that your device is running a supported version of the Google Play
  application or the MyApps application.</strong>
    <p>If your device is running Android 3.0, In-app Billing requires version 5.0.12 (or higher) of
    the MyApps application. If your device is running any other version of Android, In-app Billing
    requires version 2.3.4 (or higher) of the Google Play application. To learn how to check the
    version of the Google Play application, see <a
    href="http://market.android.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=190860">Updating Google
    Play</a>.</p>
  </li>
  <li><strong>Run your application and purchase the reserved product IDs.</strong></li>
</ol>

<p class="note"><strong>Note</strong>: Making In-app Billing requests with the reserved product IDs
overrides the usual Google Play production system. When you send an In-app Billing request for a
reserved product ID, the quality of service will not be comparable to the production
environment.</p>

<h2 id="billing-testing-test">Setting Up for Test Purchases</h2>

<p>After you finish your static response testing, and you verify that signature verification is
working in your application, you can test your In-app Billing implementation by making actual in-app
purchases. Testing real in-app purchases enables you to test the end-to-end In-app Billing
experience, including the actual purchases from Google Play and the actual checkout flow that
users will experience in your application.</p>

<p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong> You can do end-to-end testing of your app
  by publishing it to an <a
  href="{@docRoot}distribute/googleplay/developer-console.html#alpha-beta">alpha
  distribution channel</a>. This allows you to publish the app to the Google
  Play store, but limit its availability to just the testers you designate. </p>

<p>To test your In-app Billing implementation with actual in-app purchases, you will need to
register at least one test account on the Google Play Developer Console. You cannot use your
developer account to test the complete in-app purchase process because Google payments does not let
you buy items from yourself. If you have not set up test accounts before, see <a
href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/billing_admin.html#billing-testing-setup">Setting up test
accounts</a>.</p>

<p>A test account can purchase an item in your product list only if the
item is published.</p>

<p>To test your In-app Billing implementation with actual purchases, follow these steps:</p>

<ol>
  <li><strong>Upload your application to the <a
  href="{@docRoot}distribute/googleplay/developer-console.html#alpha-beta">alpha
  distribution channel</a> with the Developer Console.</strong>

   <p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong> Previously you could test an app by
    uploading an unpublished "draft" version. This functionality is no longer
    supported; instead, you must publish it to the alpha or beta distribution
    channel. For more information, see <a href="#draft_apps">Draft Apps are No
    Longer Supported</a>.

  </li>
  <li><strong>Add items to the application's product list.</strong>
    <p>Make sure that you publish the items (the application can remain unpublished). See <a
    href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/billing_admin.html#billing-catalog">Creating a product
    list</a> to learn how to do this.</p>
  </li>
  <li><strong>Install your application on an Android-powered device.</strong>
    <p>You cannot use the emulator to test In-app Billing; you must install your application on a
    device to test In-app Billing.</p>
    <p>To learn how to install an application on a device, see <a
    href="{@docRoot}tools/building/building-cmdline.html#RunningOnDevice">Running on a
    device</a>.</p>
  </li>
  <li><strong>Verify that your device is running a supported version of the Google Play
  application or the MyApps application.</strong>
    <p>If your device is running Android 3.0, In-app Billing requires version 5.0.12 (or higher) of
    the MyApps application. If your device is running any other version of Android, In-app Billing
    requires version 2.3.4 (or higher) of the Google Play application. To learn how to check the
    version of the Google Play application, see <a
    href="http://market.android.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=190860">Updating Google
    Play</a>.</p>
  </li>
  <li><strong>Make in-app purchases in your application.</strong></li>
</ol>

<p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong> The only way to change the primary account on a device is to
do a factory reset, making sure you log on with your primary account first.</p>

<p>When you are finished testing your In-app Billing implementation, you are ready to
publish your application on Google Play. You can follow the normal steps for <a
href="{@docRoot}tools/publishing/preparing.html">preparing</a>, <a
href="{@docRoot}tools/publishing/app-signing.html">signing</a>, and <a
href="{@docRoot}distribute/tools/launch-checklist.html">publishing on Google Play</a>.
</p>

<h2 id="draft_apps">Draft Apps are No Longer Supported</h2>

<p>Previously, you could publish a "draft" version of your app for testing. This
functionality is no longer supported. Instead, there are two ways you can test
how a pre-release app functions on the Google Play store:</p>

<ul>

  <li>You can publish an app to the <a
  href="{@docRoot}distribute/googleplay/developer-console.html#alpha-beta">alpha
  or beta distribution channels</a>. This makes the app available on the Google
  Play store, but only to the testers you put on a "whitelist".</li>

  <li>In a few cases, you can test Google Play functionality with an unpublished
  app. For example, you can test an unpublished app's in-app billing support by
  using <a
  href="{@docRoot}google/play/billing/billing_testing.html#billing-testing-static">static
  responses</a>, special reserved product IDs that always return a specific
  result (like "purchased" or "refunded").</li>

</ul>