Learn about the various tools that Square provides for developers who are creating applications that use the Square APIs.
Square developers use the Developer Console to find credentials and manage permissions, versions, and other application settings. In addition, they can use the dashboard to access the Sandbox Square Dashboard for test accounts and manage webhook subscriptions and other capabilities.
The Square Dashboard allows Square sellers to monitor activities and manage daily business operations. Many Square APIs integrate with Square Dashboard features. For example, when you create a customer using the Customers API, the new customer profile is added to the Customer Directory in the Square Dashboard.
The Square Sandbox consists of a free, isolated server environment, a set of Sandbox seller test accounts, and a Sandbox Square Dashboard for each account. Every developer gets their own Sandbox after they create an application in the Developer Console. The Sandbox environment separates transactions from the production environment.
Use the Square Sandbox to create transactions by calling Square APIs using API Explorer or your own code. You can make API calls using the default test account or you can create your own test account.
Square API Explorer is an interactive interface you can use to build, view, and send HTTP requests that call Square APIs. API Explorer lets you test your requests using actual Sandbox or production resources in your account such as customers, orders, and catalog objects. You can also use API Explorer to quickly populate resources in your account. You can then interact with the new resources in the Square Dashboard.
Square APIs write transaction information to a central log (API Logs) that you can use for diagnostics, troubleshooting, and auditing. The logs consist of an overview page showing all entries and a detailed page for each log entry that shows the transaction request and response, as well as a summary of the API call. You can view the logs on the API Logs page for your application in the Developer Console and in API Explorer.
To troubleshoot issues with webhooks, you can use the webhook event logs to determine when a webhook was sent and received, what was the retry reason if there was a retry, and the payload that was sent.
A webhook event subscription is a subscription that notifies you when events created by the Square APIs occur. You create a subscription using a notification URL and the events that you want to be notified about. When an event occurs, Square collects data about the event, creates an event notification, and sends the event notification to the notification URL for all webhook subscriptions that are subscribed to the event. There are more than 60 webhook events you can subscribe to.
Postman is an application for easy RESTful API exploration. You can use Postman to test Square API calls multiple times without having to write code or install Square SDKs. You can save multiple sets of credentials to quickly test Square API calls in the Sandbox and in production.