Testing your Application/Site

Testing your Application

1. Application Testing – Applicant testers

After confirming the application's build, it is always a good idea to test the application from the applicant's perspective.

It's suggested that you have at least two, or more individuals test your application form.  You will want your testers to test from the applicant’s perspective, therefore each tester will need to have their own Applicant Account. This account should be a valid email account so that they can receive and review all the applicant emails that are sent during the application process and follow any required instructions or links within those emails.

             Note: once an email address is used for any profile type, it cannot be used again to create a different profile access, therefore, if any of your testers are going to be using the site as administrators or reviewers, you will not want to use their main (business) email for the Applicant login, they will want to use a different email address when creating their Applicant account.

Once you have reviewed and tested your application and feel confident that the application will suit the applicant's needs and your application process, you can then publish the application for your applicants to start applying to it. 

The following section below will outline the steps needed to test the application flow from the applicant's perspective. You will want to test all aspects of the applicant's experience, starting with creating the applicant account, applying to the application, completing the form, and then submitting the application.

2. Testing the Welcome Screen 

This should be performed the first time you use your site to test.

1. Site Welcome page: Does the correct default page appear when you first hit the site, depending on how it was set by the Global Admin in the Administration > Site Settings: General Settings Default Page Before Login. 

• • Search page(used when you have multiple one to one applications and are providing search functionality to allow applicants to search for applications/funding)
  • If using, are the correct search parameters and fields displaying in the Search for: page
  • Login Page
  • Applications List page

      2. Does the correct default page appear after you login in, depending on how it was set by the Global             Admin in the Administration > Manage Site Settings: General Settings Default Page after                    Login. 

• Applications List Page

• Search Page

• My Applications Tab

View Funding Source (application) Descriptions - are your available Funding Source (application) Titles and brief descriptions displaying as expected?  When you click the Title is the correct detail descriptions, etc. displaying as expected.

3. Test Application Flow

Complete the entire application, answering all questions, and completing all sections as if you were the applicant applying: 

1. Create an applicant profile login- using a different login email from your administrator or reviewer account.  

• • Did you receive the new account confirmation email?

• • Check the message; does it make sense to the applicant?

2. (If using, unpublished or private application)After the Application Invitation has been set up, an email will be sent inviting you to log in to the application. 

• If using this to send invites to your applicants for a private application, is the email message and instructions correct for the process you are using.
• If you are providing a link in the email for the invitation, click the link in the invitation email you received. Is it working as expected?

3. Login - using your Applicant user account.

Enter Applicant Email ID and Password > Click on Login > Click Enter > Click the “Apply” button for which application you want to apply

5. Pre-qualification questions- If you have pre-qualification questions, did these appear, and did the login combination work as expected?

• • Test this both ways to confirm the deny message is appearing as expected; you will need to test the wrong way first, then log in and test the correct combination.

6. Dashboard Instructions- Are the application’s dashboard instructions displaying correctly? Are they easy to read and understand? 
7. Sections - Are the sections appearing as expected, and in the order you wanted them to? 

• • Are the sections that should be hidden until a specific question is answered showing or are they hidden as expected?

• • If they are hidden, then locate the trigger question(s) and answer those questions using all the appropriate scenarios, to confirm that logic is functioning properly, do they now appear as expected?
  • Are each section’s instructions appearing as expected?

8. Questions- Answer the questions and confirm all conditional logic. 

• Are the sub-section headers appearing as expected?
• If you are using Linked fields, are the linked replies appearing in the correct sections and showing the correct linked item.
• Are the questions, appearing and disappearing according to the logic set on parent question? 
• Are numeric, currency, date, phone, email, and text questions taking the correct formats?
• If you have calculations questions, are those calculations correct and adding the correct values?
• Upload a document. Did it upload properly?
• Are essay questions set for the correct word limit?
• If you created bubble instructions – how are they appearing?
• Are the required questions, marked as required?

9. (If using) Click on the Request Section Icon– are the instructions to the applicant            easy to follow?

• Do you understand what is required for each request section listed below, who you should be requesting to complete it, and how to complete the request to nominate someone to complete it?
• Do you understand how to remove the nominated person if they decline and how to reassign to someone else?

10. Test the Request Section(s) as the nominee – (test all request sections, not just one of them) - As the applicant open the Applicant’s Request section page and nominate yourself or another staff member, using a valid email address, and enter some data in the comment field. (Note: If using yourself, use a different email than the one you used to create the test applicant account, i.e. you can use your admin account email for this option)

• Confirm the email is sent to the nominee as intended and that the right email message is being relayed to the nominee.
• Click on the link in the email to be directed to the request section – is it going to the right section, are the instructions on the section clear so that the nominee understands what they are to do on that section?
• If using linked questions, are the appropriate linked questions appearing?
• Are you able to upload documents?
• Are calculation fields calculating?
• If there are essay or comment fields – is the word limit the correct length?
• Test if the recommender does not yet submit but saves for later. Can they still access later using the same email and link?
• Submit the Request Section – Does this submittal send an email to the applicant that it has been completed?  Does this submittal show on the Applicant’s dashboard Request section as completed for that recommender?
• Do the test again but this time deny the request. Confirm that if the recommender denies the request. An email is going to be sent to the applicant and if denied it will show on the applicant’s request section for that nominee.  
• If denied from the applicant’s dashboard, test the ability to re-assign a recommender.

11. Confirm Text Tabs- If using, are the tabs showing as expected?     

If you are following the One to Many process, the below step is important: (otherwise skip to step 13)

12. Matching Funds Eligibility question - If using the Matching fund’s eligibility question – answer the eligibility questions within the application that apply specifically to those Funding Sources? 

• • Click the Update button, when the correct eligibility questions are answered, are the correct eligible Funding Sources appearing as matched to that applicant?

• • After you have saved the Matching Funds Eligibility Section, are all the appropriate fund dependent supplemental sections and questions appearing based on fund matching logic?

13. Preview & Submit your completed application 

• The below screen is the Preview Application.

• Once you click on the Submit button you get the System Alert message.

• Click Continue with Submit button and the below screen is displayed.

• After submitting, did you get both the online confirmation and the email confirmation? Are the messages the correct message?

14. (If applicable) If using the Import Responses from Existing Applications – After you complete the first application and are starting the second, click the import button and import from your first application, did the items import successfully?

15. If you have Acceptance and Post Acceptance sections that are set to appear when an applicant is at a specific status, you will want to change the applicant’s status to the trigger status, (using the Filter>Change Status function in Manage Applicants) then go in again as that test applicant and confirm all the appropriate Acceptance/Post Acceptance sections are appearing as expected for that status and the correct questions are showing.

• Note: if using the Grant/Scholarship Awarded question, that question will not populate with data until the applicant has been awarded funding. If you wish to test this question, and any logic tied to the question, you will need to first award the applicant using one of the Award functions per your application’s award process (Manage Awards – One Fund or Manage Awards – Multiple funds)

Once all the above items have been tested and the application is working per your expectations, your application is ready to go live.