Featurecast Story 19 - WhatsApp Sandbox

Featurecast Story 19 - WhatsApp Sandbox

IM'ing (Instant Messaging) Feature Story Series  

Featurecast Story 19 - WhatsApp Sandbox

Maximize the benefits of business messaging without paying for it


What is a sandbox environment?

A sandbox environment is a virtual playground that allows you to freely test and experiment with various elements without impacting your live product. It provides a secure and isolated space for trying out new software, code, or configurations without unnecessary risks or costs. A sandbox is an excellent approach for learning, exploring, and verifying messaging functionality before integrating these elements into your business operations.

Let's say you're a developer working on a mobile app. Before releasing it to the public, you can create a sandbox environment to test the app's functionality, features, and compatibility with different devices. This lets you see how the app behaves in a controlled setting, identify and fix bugs or issues, and ensure a smooth user experience. It's like a virtual testing ground for your app before it enters the real world.

What is the WhatsApp business sandbox?

WhatsApp doesn't provide a specific sandbox environment for developers to test their apps. However, WhatsApp does offer a testing feature called "WhatsApp Business API Sandbox." It allows businesses to simulate interactions with the WhatsApp Business API before deploying it in production. This way, companies can ensure their integrations and messaging workflows work correctly before going live. It's a helpful tool for businesses to test and refine their WhatsApp integrations.

How does sandbox work? 

The sandbox comes with a pre-configured WhatsApp phone number that will be shared among all opted-in Sandbox users. You can map any of your WhatsApp test numbers to the Sandbox environment and start testing.

What is a test number?

A test number can be any default WhatsApp phone number of yours, which can be used for testing integrations within the sandbox environment.


Best practices

Zoho Desk's WhatsApp Sandbox enables you to prototype both sending and receiving messages in a test environment. You can start testing Sandbox with test numbers even before WhatsApp approves your business number and verifies your WABA. WhatsApp Sandbox is an easy way to test the functionality of WhatsApp Business Messaging APIs.

When using the WhatsApp sandbox, it's best practice to familiarize yourself with the platform's documentation and guidelines. This will help you understand the sandbox environment's features, limitations, and capabilities. Additionally, consider creating a test plan outlining the specific scenarios and use cases you want to explore within the sandbox. This will help you structure your testing process and ensure thorough coverage. Finally, collaborate with your team to gather feedback and insights from multiple perspectives, allowing you to make the most of the sandbox environment.
In summary, the sandbox environment allows businesses to validate the functionality of their WhatsApp Business API integration, resulting in a more dependable user experience.
There's more to come, so please watch this space for more IM feature stories.
 
Until next time,
 
Kavya Rao
The Zoho Desk Team

    Access your files securely from anywhere

          Zoho Developer Community




                                    Zoho Desk Resources

                                    • Desk Community Learning Series


                                    • Digest


                                    • Functions


                                    • Meetups


                                    • Kbase


                                    • Resources


                                    • Glossary


                                    • Desk Marketplace


                                    • MVP Corner


                                    • Word of the Day



                                        Zoho Marketing Automation
                                                • Sticky Posts

                                                • Zoho Desk Virtual Meetup: US Central, October 5 - 7, 2021

                                                  After the interactive Virtual Meetups in the other regions, we are starting with the US Central and Midwest regions from October 5 to October 7, 2021. The dates for other regions will be announced soon.  At this event, we will explore the topics which
                                                • Register for Zoho Desk Beta Community

                                                  With the start of the year, we have decided to take a small step in making the life of our customers a little easier. We now have easy access to all our upcoming features and a faster way to request for beta access. We open betas for some of our features
                                                • Ask the Experts 10: A 5-hour online Q&A on Zoho Desk Best Practices

                                                  Welcome to Zoho Desk's Ask the Experts session! This is a monthly discussion on our  forums; wherein a panel of experts will take on questions  specific to topics related to Zoho Desk. The panel will be available for a 5-hour period and will answer any questions posted here.   Let's begin the year learning some best practices from our experts. In this month's ATE we are opening the floor to questions on how to use Zoho Desk the best way.  If you have a business use case but not sure if Workflow is
                                                • Share your Zoho Desk story with us!

                                                  Tell us how you use Zoho Desk for your business and inspire others with your story. Be it a simple workflow rule that helps you navigate complex processes or a macro that saves your team a lot of time; share it here and help the community learn and grow with shared knowledge. 
                                                • Ask the Experts 7: A 5-hour online Q&A on Telephony and Call Module

                                                  Welcome to Ask the Experts session! This is a monthly discussion in forums; each session, a panel of experts will take questions on specific topics related to Zoho Desk. The panel will be available for a 5-hour period and answer any questions posted here. In this month's Ask the Experts, we will take questions on everything related to Telephony and the Call Module in Zoho Desk. We will discuss the following aspects:  Integration with different Telephony vendors Routing calls to agents Converting


                                                Manage your brands on social media



                                                      Zoho TeamInbox Resources

                                                        Zoho DataPrep Resources



                                                          Zoho CRM Plus Resources

                                                            Zoho Books Resources


                                                              Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                                                                Zoho Projects Resources


                                                                  Zoho Sprints Resources


                                                                    Qntrl Resources


                                                                      Zoho Creator Resources



                                                                          Zoho Campaigns Resources


                                                                            Zoho CRM Resources

                                                                            • CRM Community Learning Series

                                                                              CRM Community Learning Series


                                                                            • Kaizen

                                                                              Kaizen

                                                                            • Functions

                                                                              Functions

                                                                            • Meetups

                                                                              Meetups

                                                                            • Kbase

                                                                              Kbase

                                                                            • Resources

                                                                              Resources

                                                                            • Digest

                                                                              Digest

                                                                            • CRM Marketplace

                                                                              CRM Marketplace

                                                                            • MVP Corner

                                                                              MVP Corner





                                                                                Design. Discuss. Deliver.

                                                                                Create visually engaging stories with Zoho Show.

                                                                                Get Started Now


                                                                                  Zoho Show Resources


                                                                                    Zoho Writer Writer

                                                                                    Get Started. Write Away!

                                                                                    Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                                                                                      Zoho CRM コンテンツ






                                                                                        Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


                                                                                            ご検討中の方





                                                                                                  • Recent Topics

                                                                                                  • Power of Automation :: Automatically start / pause / stop timer on task status update.

                                                                                                    Hello Everyone, A Custom function is a user-written set of code to achieve a specific requirement. Set the required conditions needed as when to trigger using the Workflow rules (be it Tasks / Project) and associate the custom function to it. Requirement:-
                                                                                                  • Editor limitations to define screen types

                                                                                                    Guys I have noticed that even in version 2.0 of the editor (which is this new one we use) we still have a lot to improve... When I compare to some more global solutions like Wix, Zyro, Go Daddy, Squarespace and Weebly feel that we have some limitations
                                                                                                  • Dúvidas do Zoho Creator

                                                                                                    Pessoal, Estou colocando um tópico para dúvidas do Zoho Creator. Um abraço, Leandro
                                                                                                  • Tropicalize Books

                                                                                                    Books is an incredibly powerful tool that works well in many countries. But I feel that it is a product that is not yet "tropicalized" for Brazil as we speak (this would be like adapting the local reality). We have many strong competitors who do more
                                                                                                  • Automatic Sitemap Generation

                                                                                                    Guys are all right? Doesn't make sense for me to have to generate a map site and upload it... because it's not automatically generated just as it is done in WIX? where the customer doesn’t have to worry about this.
                                                                                                  • SEO improvements with ZIA

                                                                                                    Are you okay? I would like to bring an idea that would be amazing to improve the product that is the possibility of being able to improve the SEO of the pages (this of each page or each article on the blog) through ZIA so that it could create page Summary
                                                                                                  • Automatically updating field(s) of lookup module

                                                                                                    I have a lookup field, which also pulls through the Status field from the linked record. When the lookup is first done, the Status is pulled through - this works perfectly. If that Status is later updated, the lookup field does not update as well. As
                                                                                                  • Initiating a SalesIQ Zobot from a custom button on Zoho Sites

                                                                                                    I have created a Zobot set to initiate on a custom action called "Fast_Answers". On Zoho Sites, I created a code snippet button and set it to on-click run the event called "Fast_Answers". I installed the SalesIQ integration code into the Zoho Sites Page
                                                                                                  • Zoho Desk -> Zoho Analytics : Where is the field for "Layout" ?

                                                                                                    I have many different layouts on my helpdesks and I want to be able to identify the stats for each one, however I can not file the field in the raw data from the Zoho Desk datasource. I thought it might be under "Tickets" but there is nothing. There is
                                                                                                  • Set resolution mandatory field

                                                                                                    Hi,  i have 2 questions:) : - i want to set the resolution field mandatory before close the ticket. Because for now, i can close the ticket without writing how i solve it - how can i setup zoho desk to receive ticket by email(e.g. clients sent email to support@mydomain.com) and it create a ticket in zoho desk
                                                                                                  • Impuesto automatico en cotizaciones

                                                                                                    Buen dia Mi pregunta es como se puede poner alguna operacion para que las cotizaciones me salgan automaticamente con impuestos ya que uno al cargarla al final tienen que añadir el porcentaje de impuesto Saludos
                                                                                                  • Zoho Assist "Agree and Download" Button "Greyed Out" ("Light Blued" Out)

                                                                                                    Anyone else having issue where support clients are unable to click "Agree and Download" to access the client so that we can provide remote support? This is for "on demand" support via accessing the support page and entering the support key and name. This
                                                                                                  • Project Billing with the Staff Hours Method in Zoho Projects

                                                                                                    The Staff Hours Billing Method in Zoho Projects allows you to bill your clients based on the actual time spent by each team member on a project, at the rate set for each user. This is useful for projects where different skill sets are needed and service
                                                                                                  • Creator Subform to CRM Subform

                                                                                                    Hello all, Has anyone successfully written data from a Creator Subform into CRM subform? I have been able to get the rows to populate but none of the data will come through. I'll add my code and the result in CRM. Creator Subform is 'Delivery_Receiving_Hours'.
                                                                                                  • custom fields not populating from deluge script into invoice

                                                                                                    Hello, I've created some Deluge script that is meant to take a few inputted invoice custom fields and calculate a few others. I can see when I execute the function that my inputted custom fields are being passed, yet im still ending up with all "null"
                                                                                                  • tax summation function - getting error

                                                                                                    Hello, I'm trying to create a function that adds all of individual tax rates from a few jurisdictions. I'm getting an error on line 9 - Value is empty and 'get' function cannot be applied. I've checked that I have data in each of the required fields,
                                                                                                  • Backstage / Zoho Books integration

                                                                                                    Hello. We have Zoho One and have slowly started using Backstage. Loving it. Problem is, we have ZERO accounting control over what is sold through this product. When will we be able to connect it to our existing Zoho Books tenant? Thank you very much!
                                                                                                  • Getting list of calendar events over api for zoho mail calendar

                                                                                                    Hi, I am using just Zoho mail without using Zoho CRM. I wanted to get all events booked in my zoho mail calendar through an api at regular intervals. I could find such API support for Zoho CRM calendar but not for zoho mail calendar. Can you kindly let
                                                                                                  • Allocate emails to user in a shared mailbox

                                                                                                    Hi, This might be obvious, but I cannot find the answer. I have 3 shared mailboxes so any team member can see the emails. Is there a way of allocating a specific email to a user so that it is their responsibility to deal with it? Thanks in advance.
                                                                                                  • Introducing Zoho Campaigns' own gateway for SMS campaigns

                                                                                                    We are excited to announce the launch of our SMS Gateway to send SMS through Zoho Campaigns. We have also made a few other changes in our current SMS Campaign model to improve your over all user experience. These updates are planned with an aim to expand
                                                                                                  • Update a lookup field in CRM from Creator using deluge

                                                                                                    I have a Creator form that creates a new account. When it creates the new account in the Accounts Module, I need it to also populate the Parent Account, which is a lookup field coming from the Module Parent Accounts, field Parent Account Name. I have
                                                                                                  • SMS Keyword Tracking in Zoho CRM From Zoho Campaigns

                                                                                                    Is there a way to track SMS leads in campaigns by associating them with specific keywords or codes? Additionally, can these leads be pushed to the CRM while retaining the keyword for tracking and reporting purposes?
                                                                                                  • Projects Multiselect API

                                                                                                    Having troubles setting a mutli select field via API. updateMap = map(); updateMap.put("UDF_MULTI1","picklist_id1,picklist_id2"); updateProjectRes = invokeurl [ url :"https://projects.zoho.com/restapi/portal/XXXX/projects/" + projectID + "/" type :POST
                                                                                                  • Bill quantity received / PO quantity

                                                                                                    PO's are raised & often the quantity received is greater than the PO quantity, so when we receive the bill & adjust the quantity on the bill we get.... Quantity recorded cannot be more than quantity ordered. This necessitates the adjustment of the PO
                                                                                                  • ZOHO BOOKS - RECEIVING MORE ITEMS THAN ORDERED

                                                                                                    Hello, When trying to enter a vendor's bill that contains items with bigger quantity than ordered in the PO (it happens quite often) - The system would not let us save the bill and show this error: "Quantity recorded cannot be more than quantity ordered." 
                                                                                                  • Adding Bluesky channel

                                                                                                    Hello, Is Bluesky (AT protocol) soon added on Social ? Bluesky is being developped and is now open to anyone (no more invitation) Thank you
                                                                                                  • Using Queries with dynamic parameters in Kiosk Studio

                                                                                                    Hi, I'm pretty new when it comes to developing within Zoho (I'm really a .NET developer), as it was just added to my responsibilities. For a new feature in the CRM, I'm trying to develop a Kiosk function to show a list of records (retrieved by the new
                                                                                                  • Unused items should not count into the available number of custom fields

                                                                                                    Hey, I realized that unused Items reduce the number of available custom fields. I can't see a case where that makes sense. Especially in our case where we have two different layouts in Deals with a lot of different fields, this causes problems.
                                                                                                  • Introducing Bot Filtering for Accurate Email Campaign Analytics

                                                                                                    Dear Marketers, We're excited to announce a new feature designed to enhance the accuracy of your email campaign analytics: bot filtering. This feature helps you filter out bot-generated opens and clicks, ensuring your campaign reports reflect genuine
                                                                                                  • Tip 37: Time Log Restriction in Zoho Projects

                                                                                                    Timesheet in Zoho Projects helps you big time in entering log hours for the tasks and issues and approving them. Now, with the new Time Log Restriction option, you can set daily and weekly log hour limits. You can restrict users from entering extra log hours than the permissible limit. The limits are restricted to 24 hours per day and 168 hours per week by default based on business hours. To customize, navigate to Task & Timesheet settings under Portal Configuration in Zoho Projects setup and enable
                                                                                                  • Chart showing schedule

                                                                                                    I want to be able to create a chart for everyday to check and which of which driver is available on the timeframe. Here's my table Name City Day Start Time End Time Driver1 Medicine Hat Monday 11:45 AM 4:45 PM Driver 2 Medicine Hat Tuesday 11:00 AM 7:00
                                                                                                  • Multiple Vendor SKUs

                                                                                                    One of the big concerns we have with ZOHO Inventory is lack of Vendor Skus like many other inventory software packages offer. Being able to have multiple vendor skus for the same product would be HUGE! It would populate the appropriate vendor Sku for
                                                                                                  • In Zoho Projects, is there a way to create a folders template under documents that can be used once a project is created?

                                                                                                    We have a specific folder structure that we would like to use that is standard across every project. Instead of having to create this structure every time a project is created, is there a way to create a template for the folders that can be added?
                                                                                                  • Zoho Payroll in France

                                                                                                    When will Zoho Payroll be available in France ?
                                                                                                  • Blueprint - 'On hold' state with an automatic transition?

                                                                                                    I think I'm missing something here so I'm hoping if I explain what I'm trying to achieve someone might be able to give me a way around it. We sometimes get request far in advance but we don't want to action them unless it is 7 days from when they are
                                                                                                  • HOW TO VIEW INDIVIDUAL COST OF NEWLY PURCHASED GOODS AFTER ALLOCATING LANDED COSTS

                                                                                                    Hello, I have been able to allocate landed costs to the purchase cost of the new products. however, what i need to see now is the actual cost price (original cost plus landed cost), of only my newly purchased products to enable me set a selling price
                                                                                                  • Client Script: $Client.refresh({ triggerOnLoad: true }); not triggering onLoad Client Scripts

                                                                                                    Hey friends! I'm trying to store a temporary var, refresh the page for the user, then check that temporary var and do some actions. Theoretically using the title's code: $Client.refresh({ triggerOnLoad: true }); should refresh the page and trigger on
                                                                                                  • Calculate months and years between 2 dates on subform

                                                                                                    I am looking for a function syntax for an employment candidate to calculate the number of years and months (decimal format. eg 1.2 years) they are employed. I have their start date entered, but if the end date is blank, that tells me they are still employed
                                                                                                  • Combine related grouping values into categories in CRM analytical components

                                                                                                    Hello everyone, Analyzing large datasets can be challenging when dealing with numerous individual data points. It's often difficult to extract meaningful insights when information is scattered and ungrouped. To address this, we're adding options to create
                                                                                                  • How Kiosk Studio can simplify sales for bank employees | Kiosk Studio Session #4

                                                                                                    Hello everyone, Banks can boost revenue by cross-selling to their current customers. For example, they can sell credit cards, personal loans, and more to existing account holders. To do this, bank employees move all around the CRM, open and close records,
                                                                                                  • Next Page