Verifying what is sent.
WHAT TO TEST
That the message is sent at the right time That it goes to the right recipient That content and links are correct That it renders acceptably That it is not sent twice
WHAT TO USE IN TESTING
A capture service receiving messages instead of delivering them.
WHY
It allows assertion on content without sending to real people.
WHAT TO NEVER DO
Point a test environment at real delivery with real addresses.
WHY
Test messages reaching customers cause immediate damage.
WHAT TO VERIFY ABOUT LINKS
That they point to the right environment That tokens work That they expire correctly
WHY ENVIRONMENT SPECIFICALLY
Test messages containing production links are a common and damaging error.
WHAT TO TEST ABOUT RENDERING
Across the mail clients your recipients use With images blocked As plain text
WHY IMAGES BLOCKED
Many clients block them by default, and a message that is only an image shows nothing.
WHAT TO TEST ABOUT TIMING
Messages triggered by scheduled jobs Messages triggered by state changes Behaviour when sending fails
WHAT TO VERIFY ABOUT FAILURE
That it is retried, and that failure is recorded.
WHAT TO TEST ABOUT PREFERENCES
That unsubscribing works, and is honoured.
