Contribution Pages are not working in Test-Drive Mode

Question

I revisited some Contribution Pages which are working fine in "live" mode. (The credit card transactions are processed and CiviCRM records are updated.) I just discovered that those pages don't work in Test-Drive mode. (Testers receive a 404 error after clicking "Submit", no contribution record is creates, and the Contribution>Payment Processor Administration log shows REJECT1 for the failed transaction.) The text of the 404 error that appears after "Submit" is "Not Found The requested URL was not found on this server. Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request." What's wrong with my test-driving? (CiviCRM 5.48.0 on Wordpress Version 5.9.3)

Additional information. The payment processor is iATS. The credentials for both live payments and test payments are active and unchanged since we launched. I called iATS customer service and they confirm the test credentials are correct. The URL that generates the 404 error is https://[xxxx]museum.com/&civiwp=CiviCRM&q=civicrm%2Fcontribute%2Ftransact&_qf_Main_display=true&qfKey=CRMContributeControllerContribution2fhpo9ptg1usw0o00cs4co040ssg4c4wsk0o040ko04g40s8ck_6256 I've asked our webmaster to look into other applications that may be interfering with the tests. More Additional Information: I notice that occasionally the Contribution Page(s) that I'm trying to test open(s) with this 2-line error message preceding the "Test-drive Your Contribution Page" (screenshot) It doesn't happen every time. Customer Service at iATS explained that that means something is wrong with my set-up and reiterates that the test credentials are valid. More Additional Information. I found that I can get the Test-Drive functionality to work properly if the transaction amount is $1.00 (no less and no more). I've tried several different Contribution Pages with varying amounts of Fixed and "Other" optional amount. Only $1.00 Test-Drives complete successfully. And to reiterate, all the pages I tested work perfectly in "live" mode, regardless of the amount.

Answer 1

It's hard to know without more information, but here are some possible causes:

• You don't have test payment credentials set up at Administer » System Settings » Payment Processors.
• You've reused your live payment processor credentials as test credentials. This seems likely given the rejection. Most processors require you sign up for a test account separately (Stripe, notably, does not - but still requires different credentials).
• You have some sort of web application firewall or web server configuration that's causing the 404 error, which is an unusual error here.

If this doesn't provide an answer, I would edit your question with:

• The name of the payment processor you're using.
• Confirmation that you're using test credentials for the test processor.
• The URL that generates the 404 error, preferably with the actual log entry from your web server software.