Is there a way to create a shop - then test it with a virtual CC number - to make sure everything is running correctly prior to moving over to the "live" site.

I know processing is through a 3rd party - just curious if anyone else has done this?

Sure, that is exactly what a PayPal Sandbox account is used for.

Also, you could just add a bunch of products and assign a price of 0.01cents and make a purchase that way.

Tried Sandbox, made an account, tried to use it in my shop, but it says invalid username, using my sandbox created name. Research in the Discussions on Sandbox say that I need to point my cart from paypal to sandbox, can you do this? or is there some other way to test it using sandbox?

I'm having a similar problem trying to test my shop using the PayPal "Sandbox." Clicking checkout w/PayPal takes me to paypal rather than sandbox.paypal even though my SCC Pro payment settings point to a sandbox business account. According to PayPal merchant support,

"It all depends on the redirect URL being used in the software. If they're redirecting to PayPal.com instead of Sandbox.PayPal.com there may be an option within the software to set it to the Sandbox or test endpoint instead of Live."

The payment provider settings in SCC Pro don't have an option for "Sandbox - Paypal Website Payments Standard."

Anyone gotten the sandbox to work? If so, please tell me how. I feel like I'm barking up trees with no racoons.

Thanks.

Both PayPal and Google Checkout have different referring addresses to be able to use the sandbox account. To use sandbox with Cart Creator you need to manually edit the following file AFTER you have uploaded your site to a LIVE server. ccdata/data/data.php. There is currently no way to refer it to sandbox other than by editing that file.

Fogetaboudit. Just create a test item and pay the 10 cents it cost you to purchase it using the real deal.

Thanks Will & Tom. My shop is already uploaded for testing (requires a password to access). Sounds like editing the "ccdata/data/data.php" file to redirect to sandbox.paypal would be the best way to go for me. I'm planning to have several people test the entire shop, getting input to refine it before going fully live for actual purchases.

Will, could you please clarify what process I should use to edit the "ccdata/data/data.php" file? Here's what I'm thinking: (bear in mind I don't really do coding, I use VSD, SCC Pro, etc.)

1) Download ccdata/data/data.php from server to my computer
2) Edit file to point to sandbox.paypal, rather than paypal (using HTML editor?, what should/can I use to edit)
3) Upload the edited file to server.

(Will, your previous post seems to imply editing the file while it's on the server - I have no idea how to do that.)

One last thought; Scott's comments give me the impression that using sandbox shouldn't be any problem. That being the case, CC might consider adding the PayPal (& Google) sandboxes as choices in SCC Pro payment dialog. That could help to make testing pretty seamless for everyone.

Many thanks for your kind assistance.

OK. Two ways to get at that file whilst its live. One is to use a ftp program to open the file, by navigating to the file and using the view/edit button to change the address to point to the sandbox servers. It will give you the option to save the file remotely so the changes are stored on the server. The second way is to access your site via cpanel (if using linux server), and use the file manager within cpanel to modify the file.

Having sandboxes for Google and PayPal would be good for a future version, as that feature already appears in many cart solutions.

Many thanks Will ! I'll give it a go using ftp when I get home this evening.

Changing the code using FTP was easy. It almost worked. I inserted "sandbox" on the third line (see code below). On checkout it now takes me to sandbox but not the right place - it asks to login (from a mostly black screen). So the URL is still not exactly right. Any suggestions on what might work? Thanks.

$config['PayPalWPS'] = array (
'enabled' => true,
'URL' => 'https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr',
'BUSINESS' => 'my sandbox seller email',
'PDT_TOKEN' => 'my token',
'USE_PROXY' => false,
'PROXY_HOST' => '',
'PROXY_PORT' => ''
);