This article will describe how to simulate the vendor user experience by creating a test vendor user account.
Estimated Read Time: 4 Minutes
Sections in this article:
Introduction
Effective testing of the Vendor Portal is essential to ensure workflow interactions, data submissions, and communication processes work as intended. This also allows you to experience the process from a vendor user's point of view.
Note:
- You cannot log in to the Vendor Portal using an internal user profile.
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When creating a vendor user profile, a unique email address is required - it cannot be in use for any other Gatekeeper user.
- When logging in as this vendor user, it's recommended to use a different browser or incognito/private mode, as Gatekeeper only allows one user per session at a time.
Create a Unique Email Address
There are several ways to get a unique email address for testing purposes. Note that you require access to the email inbox for testing purposes.
Use an alternative email
Your main Gatekeeper login will likely be that of your organisation. Therefore, to test the Gatekeeper experience from an external vendor's perspective, you could use an alternative email, such as your personal email account, as a dummy vendor user.
Use the + method in G-Suite
For Google Workspace (G-suite) accounts, you can create unlimited email aliases by adding + followed by any text to your email address.
Google ignores the +[text] portion, but Gatekeeper treats it as a unique address.
This means all notifications will still be delivered to your primary inbox, while Gatekeeper recognises each alias as a separate user account:
For example, all emails sent to john.smith+TestSupplier@gatekeeperhq.com will be received by john.smith@gatekeeperhq.com.
Create email aliases
If you have administrator control over your email account, you may be able to create aliases for your email address. The steps for doing this will depend on the system your organisation uses.
Every address you add as an alias will be able to receive mail and direct it to your inbox, but can be used as a separate login for Gatekeeper.
Your company's IT department may manage this so please get in contact with them if you cannot do it yourself.
Use a temporary inbox
There are some online services which can create temporary custom inboxes for free. These generally last for a short duration of time.
Your company's IT department may have a block on using this sort of service. Please check your IT policies and seek the necessary approval when using this method
Log in to the Vendor Portal
Once you have a unique email address, create a new vendor user and select the Invite to Gatekeeper checkbox to send an invitation email. To learn more about this, see Invite Vendors to the Vendor Portal.
Test Vendor Portal Features
Once you have created your vendor user login and have access to the Vendor Portal, you can then test the processes which involve vendor user input, such as:
- Receiving a workflow notification email
- Reviewing/accessing a workflow form
- Submitting a form on a workflow
- Messaging internal users
- Adding additional colleagues as Vendor Portal Users
See also: Testing Gatekeeper.