We’re currently developing and deploying Stripe apps and have run into challenges when trying to test them with external accounts.
Some features, like accessing the business_profile account data, appear to only work with connected accounts that have installed our app—not on our own account in test mode.
However, it seems the only way to test with external accounts is to go through the full app review process and make the app public. This isn’t straightforward for us, as a large enterprise, since the review process often involves input from marketing and legal teams. At this stage, we’re still focused on proving the app’s operational value from a development standpoint, and we’re not ready to take it live.
Question:
Is there a way to test Stripe apps with external (“friendly”) accounts without making the app public? If not, is this something Stripe has on the roadmap?
When you run stripe apps upload, you are given access to an external test link. I was confused about this as well. For friendly companies that want to use your app in beta before it is published to the public, you can set the version you’ve uploaded as an external test and give them the “external test link” to install your app in their Stripe company.
Any time you change your external test link version, any friendly company who has installed your app via the test link you provided: their app will be automatically updated to the version you select as the external test version. (They just need to close and re-open the app in their dashboard to update the app).
This detail is not extremely clear in the documentation last I checked. But this is how we’re able to push beta releases before we publish the app to the public.
Publishing an app to the public is a multi-step process that requires a review by the Stripe team. It is hard to do. I too was afraid of stripe apps upload, but this is only the first step of many to publish your app to the public. It will become clear after you run stripe apps upload.
