In-app billing Testing

The Android Market publisher site provides several tools that help you test your in-app billingimplementation before it is published. You can use these tools to create test accounts and purchase special reserved items that send static billing responses to your application.


To test in-app billing in an application you must install the application on an Android-powered device. You cannot use the Android emulator to test in-app billing. The device you use for testing must run a standard version of the Android 1.6 or later platform (API level 4 or higher), and have the most current version of the Android Market application installed. If a device is not running the most current Android Market application, your application won't be able to send in-app billing requests to Android Market.

Testing In-app purchase with static response:

To test your implementation with static responses, you make an in-app billing request using a special item that has a reserved product ID. Each reserved product ID returns a specific static response from Android Market. No money is transferred when you make in-app billing requests with the reserved product IDs. Also, you cannot specify the form of payment when you make a billing request with a reserved product ID

To test your application using the reserved product IDs, follow these steps:

1. Install your application on an Android-powered device.

2. Sign in to your device with your developer account.

3. Verify that your device is running a supported version of the Android Market application or the MyApps application.

4. Run your application and purchase the reserved product IDs.


Testing In-app Purchases:

After you finish your static response testing, and you verify that signature verification is working in your application, you can test your in-app billing implementation by making actual in-app purchases. Testing real in-app purchases enables you to test the end-to-end in-app billing experience, including the actual responses from Android Market and the actual checkout flow that users will experience in your application.

Note: You do not need to publish your application to do end-to-end testing. You only need to upload your application as a draft application to perform end-to-end testing.

Inapp billing overview:

Android Market In-app Billing is an Android Market service that provides checkout processing for in-app purchases. To use the service, your application sends a billing request for a specific in-app product. The service then handles all of the checkout details for the transaction, including requesting and validating the form of payment and processing the financial transaction. When the checkout process is complete, the service sends your application the purchase details, such as the order number, the order date and time, and the price paid. At no point does your application have to handle any financial transactions; that role is provided by Android Market's in-app billing service.

In app billing Architecture:

In-app billing uses an asynchronous message loop to convey billing requests and billing responses between your application and the Android Market server.

Your application sends and receives billing messages through the Android Market application, which handles all communication with the Android Market server.

Type of billing request generatuing duriing IN-app purchase:

1. Check billing supported