Environments

Overview

The Violet API provides developers with access to two environments: Test Mode and Live Mode. From the experience of the developer, these environments are nearly identical with only two primary differences.

1. When an order is placed in Test Mode, no dollars are transacted and no orders are fulfilled. When an order is placed in Live Mode, dollars are transacted and orders will be received and fulfilled by real merchants.

2. The Test Mode product catalog is mostly static and much smaller than the Live Mode product catalog. The Live Mode product catalog is constantly growing as more merchants join Violet.

Live Mode URLs

• Violet API - https://api.violet.io

• Channel dashboard - https://channel.violet.io

• Merchant dashboard - https://merchant.violet.io

• Violet Connect - https://connect.violet.io/[VIOLET_CONNECT_URL]

Test Mode URLs

• Violet API - https://sandbox-api.violet.io

• Channel dashboard - https://channel.violet.io

• Merchant dashboard - https://merchant.violet.dev

• Violet Connect - https://connect.violet.dev/[VIOLET_CONNECT_URL]

Test Mode

When first created, your app will be limited to Test Mode. This allows you to build and fully test out your application without the risk of transacting real dollars. The Test Mode product catalog provides you with a few thousand products across multiple taxonomies and complexities. These test products do live on private stores on real e-commerce platforms (ex. Shopify, Ecwid, etc) so you will be able to fully validate that your requests are working just as they would when using Live Mode.

Depending on the product(s) ordered you may receive a confirmation email from the store that the Test Mode products are sourced from when your order is placed. These are automated by the e-commerce platform and are similar to the emails that your customers may receive when making live purchases through your application.

We typically recommend channels create a test e-commerce store and connect it to Test Mode so you can perform all actions related to the checkout/returns/refund process yourself as you are testing. It can also be helpful if a merchant partner has a test store they use for their own development needs to connect that test store so you can iron out any issues in your integration before connecting their live store to your app in Live Mode. You can access your Test Mode Violet Connect URL in the app settings page. Note that all Test Mode apps will have a unique GUID assigned for their URL. Also note that it points to connect.violet.dev the .dev domain indicates Test Mode.

We strongly advise you to NOT connect any live merchant stores to Test Mode as this could lead to real products being shipped due to test orders placed.

Test Mode can be managed just like Live Mode in your channel dashboard. Flip the live/test toggle to Test Mode and you will see all your test merchants, test orders, etc. You can find your appId and appSecret on the overview page. You will need these tokens as well as the app owner’s email and password to authenticate against the API in Test Mode. In this documentation and associated Postman collections, we point to our Test Mode domain which is sandbox-api.violet.io. The Postman collection is useful when getting started, but as you begin building your real app and systems we recommend you maintain your own test environment that points to our Test Mode API so that you can validate changes made to your app before switching to Live Mode.

Test Mode Order Payment

When applying a payment method to an order in Test Mode you will need to use a test credit card number.

For successful results

Please use one of the following:

Card	Number
Visa	4242 4242 4242 4242
Mastercard	5555 5555 5555 4444
American Express	3782 822463 10005

To emulate payment failure

Please use one of the following:

Card	Number
Card Declined	4000 0000 0000 0002
Insufficient Funds	4000 0000 0000 9995
Expired Card	4000 0000 0000 0069
Invalid CVC	4000 0000 0000 0127
Invalid Number	4242 4242 4242 4241
Processing Failure	4000 0000 0000 0119

For additional test card numbers please visit Stripe

When you are ready to go live with your application please contact us at [email protected]

Live Mode

When your application has been approved you will gain access to Live Mode. Live Mode provides a developer with access to the live catalog of products. These are products associated with real stores where successful purchases result in true order fulfillment. The live product catalog is constantly growing. Each time a new merchant joins Violet, the catalog increases in size.

When making purchases in Live Mode true credit card numbers are required. The test credit card numbers available in Test Mode will not work when making requests against the API in Live Mode.

The hostname for Live Mode is api.violet.io. You will need a different appSecret for Live Mode, while your appId, email and password will be the same across both modes. While you appSecret will be accessible from the same place in the dashboard, you will need to complete the go live requirements you received as part of onboarding before you will be issued a Live Mode appSecret. The same goes for your Violet Connect URL. You will be able to customize this but only after meeting the same go live requirements. Again note that in Live Mode, the URL is connect.violet.io.

You can request Violet to review your application to make it live by sending us an email at [email protected]. Access to Live Mode is granted upon the successful review of a developer's application. If the business model and application quality meet our requirements a developer's Live Mode API credentials will be enabled.