Dwolla reflector off-site test account and Payment Activity

Question

Using the off-site test account (Dwolla Reflector), I am able to get a successful transaction indicated by status=Completed. I also get all of the expected results including an empty transactionid, valid signature, checkout id etc.. when in test mode. However, no payment activity in my account at all.

The documentation for the reflector doesn't specify usage of test-mode or not. My assumption was a test account would be in test-mode but one could also assume based on the documentation that test-mode should not be used.

Can anyone clarify the conditions to properly use the Dwolla reflector to actually see payment activity? I'm looking for all of the required conditions if possible including, for example, if a valid funding source must be setup and verified to use the reflector and see payment activity in the Dwolla dashboard. (or perhaps point me to documentation that addresses this?)

Answer 1

    After working with other payment networks it is hard not to make assumptions about Dwolla.  
    The TestMode=LIVE or TestMode=TEST.  One assumption being that a test account would allow you to 
    complete the entire test cycle. However this is not the case with Dwolla.  Here is what I found
    that addresses the exact requirements to use the Dwalla reflector account.

    1. Developer Account Setup
    2. Account must be  100% active and have valid funds
    3. TestMode=LIVE
    4. Amounts less than 10.00 (if you want to avoid fees)

    The Dwolla reflector account has nothing to do with TestMode and trying to set TestMode=TEST output unexpected
    results. (compared to other payment networks i've worked with).

    The cause, in my case was the funds had not yet cleared (account not 100%) and I thought the reflector account was a test account
    because the Dwolla documentation at https://developers.dwolla.com/dev/pages/testing  says it is a test account
    but makes no mention of the configuration setting of TestMode=Live.  A test account you would think would require
    test mode / environment.

Answer 2

I just recently coded against the Dwolla API and against the reflector service. Assuming you have your own personal dwolla account, you can generate a token to represent you here. Since I'm not sure what language you're using, I'll assume php. It is likely you now have a code snippet like this:

$Dwolla = new DwollaRestClient();
$Dwolla->setToken("<your personal generated token from above link>");
$trans_id = $Dwolla->send("<Your Personal 4 digit pin>", "812-713-9234", 0.01, "Dwolla", "My sample transaction detail notes");

if(!$trans_id) {
    echo "Error: {$Dwolla->getError()} \n";
} else {
    echo "Sent transaction ID: {$trans_id} \n";
}

Please note to use this code sample you need to replace the 2 values surrounded in chevrons with the appropriate described values. Note: The account you are sending to denoted by "812-713-9234" is dwolla's reflector service.

With this code sample, you will send a penny from your own account to the reflector service. After roughly 10 minutes the penny gets returned to your account. You will get a transaction ID each time it is successful. If it is not successful you will get an error code.

If it helps, I got an error code the first time around with something about a non-valid SSN. It turns out I hadn't logged into my account for a while and I needed to confirm my SSN at dwolla.com, however initially I thought this was some error because the reflector service wasn't setup appropriately (since it's a fake service it wouldn't have a valid SSN associated with it).

My understanding is the reflector service is for purely testing your end of things - not to verify what things look like inside the reflector account as far as transaction line item detail from the payee's perspective. If you look at the send() function in the dwolla API it does specify what all the variables you can pass are (this would tell you the level of data and details the transaction will store).

As for specific error codes you can expect, they are documented with meanings here under the error codes section (expand if necessary): https://developers.dwolla.com/dev/docs/transactions/send