Developer Console

Use the Developer Console to manage your applications, permissions, and authorizations.

Link to section

Overview

Square provides the Developer Console to manage your applications, permissions, and authorizations, the Square Dashboard to track seller activity and create seller resources, and the Sandbox Square Dashboard to simulate the seller experience when testing APIs.

When you sign up for a Square account, Square provides the Developer Console and Square Dashboard, which you can access using the Account menu:

A drop-down menu that shows the Developer Console and Square Dashboard options.

  • Developer Console - Use the Developer Console to create and manage your applications, access the Sandbox Square Dashboard, configure webhooks for real-time notifications, and perform other development tasks.
  • Sandbox Square Dashboard - You can use the Sandbox Square Dashboard to simulate the seller experience when testing APIs in the Square Sandbox. You can access it through the Developer Console.
  • Square Dashboard - The Square Dashboard provides sellers with tools to manage daily business operations. A seller can control just about everything needed to ensure that the business is running smoothly.
Link to section

Developer Console

The Developer Console lets you manage all aspects of your applications in one place. These tasks include:

  • Creating an application and viewing the application ID and application secret.
  • Subscribing to webhook events and designating the notification URL where you receive webhook event notifications.
  • Setting up OAuth permissions so you can manage resources on behalf of a seller.
  • Reviewing logs for API calls and webhook events.
Link to section

Explore the Developer Console

  1. Sign in to the Developer Console.
  2. On the Applications page, choose an application that you created.
  3. At the top of the page, toggle Sandbox or Production to set your environment. For information about the Sandbox, see Square Sandbox.
  4. In the left pane, choose the following pages and review the application's configuration settings:

An animation showing how to get the Sandbox access token and location ID in the Developer Console.

  • Credentials - Provides the credentials used to authenticate requests. Credentials are provided for use in production and Sandbox testing. The API version is the default version for your application.

    Note

    The access token on the Credentials page has permissions to update all Square account data. You should therefore not share this access token with other people.

  • OAuth - Provides the access tokens needed to test your code in the Sandbox environment. For production applications, use the OAuth workflow to obtain tokens at runtime.

  • Locations - Displays all locations created for your Square account. Square creates the initial location based on the information you provided during signup. Several Square APIs require your location ID. If you're signed in to Square, API Explorer prompts you to select one of your locations when creating an API request.

In addition, each application maintains information on other pages, such as webhooks (for push notifications) and client payments configurations.

Link to section

Square applications

A Square application lets you register your application with Square so that your code can connect to Square and make API calls. The application provides the necessary development credentials needed to build with the Square API.

In addition to managing credentials, you can manage webhook subscriptions, API versions, Apple Pay configurations, and more. The API version that you choose for the application is the default Square API version. If your application makes an API call without an HTTP version header, Square applies this default version to the request.

You might only need one application to address your business needs, but you can create additional applications in the Developer Console if needed. For example, you're using the Square Developer platform to:

  • Create web and mobile client payment solution and a backend application to support both clients. In this case, you might create an application for each of the three platforms.
  • Create solutions for different scenarios, such as managing orders or managing a Square catalog.
Link to section

App Marketplace

You can use the Developer Console to publish your application in the App Marketplace and manage your reviews. For information on building and publishing an app on the App Marketplace, see App Marketplace.

Link to section

Sandbox Square Dashboard

You can use the Sandbox Square Dashboard to simulate the seller experience when testing APIs in the Square Sandbox. You can access it through the Developer Console.

When you make API calls using the Sandbox test account, you can verify those transactions in the Sandbox Square Dashboard. These transactions don't affect your production data.

Open the Developer Console and review the Sandbox Square Dashboard, as shown in the following example:

An animation showing how to open the Developer Dashboard and verify a transaction in the Seller Dashboard.

The Sandbox test accounts section shows the Default Test Account.

  1. Review the Sandbox default test account:

    1. Choose (ellipsis) and view the details of the Sandbox default test account.

      Note

      If you created your Square account in a supported region (where Square supports processing payments, see supported countries), Square creates this Sandbox default test account in the same country as your Square account. Otherwise, Square creates the account in the US because the Sandbox test account can only be created in regions where Square can process payments. Also, any simulated payments made in a Sandbox account follows the banking and payment rules for that country. For example, if you create a Sandbox test account for France, when you use the OAuth API for test payments, Square processes the payments according to the payment regulations of France.

    2. Choose Done to close the Account Details window.

  2. Choose Open next to Default Test Account.

  3. Review and close the Sandbox Square Dashboard.

Link to section

See also