There are many facets to your event, and Webex Events is only one piece of the puzzle. To ensure that everything goes smoothly, it's incredibly important to carefully examine and test all aspects of your Event App. This article provides the framework and steps needed to test your Event App, including test user creation and management, basic testing protocol and best practices, and instruction templates tailored for different kinds of testers. Let this be your guide to making sure that everything is in place and ready to go before showtime! 🌈

Testing can be as simple as clicking around in the Event App to make sure everything looks and functions like it should. However, some preparation may be necessary in the following scenarios:

No matter how you plan to test, more testers mean more chances to catch problems before your attendees do. Create test accounts for each of your testers so you can block them after they're done testing, which removes all the content they've posted. 👍

Keep reading to learn how to prepare your Event App for testing. 🧪

If attendees have already joined your Event App, you should create separate test features that are only visible to the people testing them. Create a hidden group and add all of your test attendees to it, then associate features with the hidden group to temporarily hide them. That way, only your testers can access features during testing. We'll cover creating test attendees and hiding features in more detail later in this article. For now, let's create a hidden group!

In your Event navigation bar, click Attendees, then click Groups. Click New Group. In the modal that appears, enter a name for the testing group, pick a color, then select Hidden from attendees. Click Save Changes to finish creating the group.

In the left navigation bar, click Attendees, then click New attendee. In the modal that appears, add information to the required fields. Click the Exclusive group drop-down and select the hidden test group you created. Click Save changes when you're done.

We include detailed instructions for adding an attendee in our article about adding Attendees.

If there are multiple groups restricting visibility in different ways, use the Groups drop-down to assign different groups one at a time, testing each time you assign a new group. For example, if you want to test features that are exclusive to virtual attendees and features exclusive to in-person attendees, assign the in-person group, test, then unassign it and assign the virtual group and test again.

Click Save Changes to finish creating the user. After creating test accounts for your testers, use the templates later in this article to invite them to test!

If there are already people using the Event App, hiding features entirely will ensure your testing goes unnoticed. This is especially useful if you want to test Wall posting, sending chats, entering Game codes, or starting live streams. 🙈 However, if you're testing to make sure certain features are only visible to specific attendee groups, skip this part for now and do interaction-based testing at the very end so the activity will only be visible for a short time before cleanup.

To hide features before testing, first create a hidden group as described earlier. Next, click Features in your Event navigation bar under 'Event App'. On the Features page, hover over the feature you want to hide and click the Settings (⚙️) icon. In the modal that appears, click the Visible To drop-down and select your hidden group, then click Save Changes.

Make sure you've assigned all testers to the hidden test group as described earlier.

Now you're ready to test! Every event is different, so our best advice is to go wild! Work your way down the list of features on the Mobile App and Web App and click on everything. Pay attention to the smallest details of images. Make sure there's nothing strange, broken, or off-center. Act like an attendee in any way you can think of. If you leave a mess, don't worry — it's easy to clean up the Event App. 🧹

Whether you published your Event App to the Webex Events App or a Branded App, simply access the Event App promo page and download the Mobile App or open web version to start testing.

Beyond being aware of how the app and its features will appear and behave for attendees, there are some specific areas we always recommend testing. Follow the links for details on how each of these works:

Replace the text in {{braces}} with the correct information from your Event App before sending these templates. Consider adding screenshots or creating a short Vidcast to help guide people through the testing process.

After everyone is done testing, it's time to block those test attendees. In your Event navigation bar, click Attendees.

If everyone is in a hidden testing group, click the filter drop-down and select the test group. Now, click the Settings (⋯) icon next to a tester and select Block. If you didn't use a hidden test group, simply use the search function to quickly find a test attendee.

If you chose to hide any of your features during testing, simply remove the hidden group from the feature using the steps described earlier.

That's it! Blocking test attendees has removed their posts, chats, and game interactions from the Event App, and your features are no longer hidden.

Now that you've tested your Event App, read our best practices for launching and promoting your Event App to attendees. 🚀 Don't forget to do live stream rehearsals with your speakers, too!