Testing Gatekeeper

This article will provide hints and tips for testing Gatekeeper (without the need for many different colleagues to collaborate)

When configuring Gatekeeper - be it setting up user permissions or new workflow processes - there is often a need to experience the system from multiple perspectives.

Common testing aspects being:

Accessing workflows to complete Actions & submit Forms
Receiving workflow notification emails
Browsing the repository/portals as different user types

The easiest and most effective way to do this is by leveraging Gatekeeper's Unlimited User pricing model and adding dummy accounts for any user type you wish to emulate.

All you need to create a test user account is a unique email address which you can access!

Getting a unique email address

Gmail

The simplest method to create many users from a single email account in Gatekeeper is using a Gmail account and leveraging their "+ email" trick

In this method, you can add +[sometext] to your Gmail address before the "@" symbol.

Google will disregard the +[sometext] whereas Gatekeeper will not. Therefore you can set up a series of testing accounts under a single Gmail inbox

e.g. (assuming your email address is johnsmith@gmail.com)

johnsmith+collaborator@gmail.com can be used to test Gatekeeper as a low level collaborator

johnsmith+supplier@gmail.com can be used to test Gatekeeper as a Supplier Portal user

NB. This method relies on Email+Password login being possible in your Gatekeeper tenant. If your account has been restricted to a particular SSO method, you will need to use another testing option

Account Aliases

If you do not use a mail account which permits the above option, you may be able to configure a few testing accounts for your company's domain.

These would work in much the same way; serving as distinct email addresses for separate Gatekeeper accounts while still allowing you to receive all activation/notification emails to your primary inbox

See Outlook guidance for adding a new Alias

See Gmail guidance for adding a new Alias

NB. Your company's IT department may manage this so please get in contact with them if you cannot do it yourself

Temporary Mailboxes

If you cannot use either of the above methods, there are online services which provide temporary email inboxes.

Example: mailinator.com provides access to a temporary inbox so you can create and activate a user account which will be able to receive notifications for a short period of time

Testing Gatekeeper

Once you have decided on your unique email to add as a test user account, you can add this as a new user (see this article for a recap on manually adding users). Checking the "Invite to Gatekeeper" box will allow you to receive an activation email for their account

💡Pro Tip: Naming a user after their "Role" makes it easier to identify them while testing

i.e. 3 users called "John Smith" are much harder to track than "Larry Legal", "Victor Vendor" and "Connie Contract Manager"

Gatekeeper will not let you log into the system as more than one user at a time in the same browser. Attempting to do so will automatically log out all other accounts in the current browser.

Therefore, if you wish to test Gatekeeper as multiple users simultaneously, you should use incognito mode or a separate browser for each user.

See Minimum System Requirements (Supported Web Browsers) for a list of compatible web browsers

Final Note

To ensure your tenant's user configuration area does not become cluttered with test users (making messaging and live user maintenance more difficult), ensure you are revoking/archiving the test accounts once they have served their purpose

See Dealing with Movers and Leavers (Archiving Users)