Publish and test your scheme

This tutorial publishes your form in the staging environment and tests it end to end, first as an applicant and then as a backoffice officer. By the end, you have seen a submission move through your workflow.

Prerequisites

• A form with a workflow, components and permissions. Refer to Build your form.
• Every item in the Pre-publish checklist.
• A scheme with an open listing. For a closed scheme, refer to Invite applicants to a closed scheme.
• Your own user in each backoffice role that you want to test. Without a role, you cannot receive or process submissions.

Step 1: Publish the form

1. Open the Versions page.
2. Select More next to the form that you want to publish.
3. Select Publish.

A published open form appears on the open listings page. Forms that you publish in staging are separate from production, so real applicants cannot see them.

Step 2: Test as an applicant

1. Create a stub applicant account and sign in to the staging applicant portal. Refer to Create a stub applicant account and Portal links and environments.
2. Search for your published scheme and select Apply.
3. Fill in and submit the form as an applicant.

Step 3: Test as a backoffice officer

1. Sign in to the staging Backoffice Portal.
2. Select the Pending Action tab.
3. Select View form for the submission that you want to process.
4. Process the submission as the workflow requires.

What you have now

You have a tested scheme in staging. Repeat the tests for every role and state in your workflow.

Troubleshooting

If the form does not publish, check the publishing requirements in the Pre-publish checklist. For more issues, refer to Troubleshooting.

Next steps

• When testing is complete, continue to Port your scheme to production.
• To understand how versions behave after publishing, refer to Form versions.