How to test your Minecraft server store before the first player pays

Every store owner asks the same question before opening: does it actually work? The worst way to find out is a player who paid €5 for VIP and is now in your Discord asking where it is. This post goes through how to test a store before that happens, in the order that catches the most problems for the least effort.

1. Try each command in the console first

Most failed deliveries are a typo in a command. Before a command goes in a product, run it once yourself in the server console, with your own name in place of {player}:

lp user Steve parent add vip

If it works in the console, it works from the store: the plugin runs commands the same way, as the console. Then put it in the product with the placeholder:

lp user {player} parent add vip

Leave out the slash at the start; the console does not use one. And check the plugin's own syntax for anything less common. Crate plugins in particular differ in whether the amount or the key name comes first. The commands page lists every placeholder you can use, such as {player}, {uuid} and {price}.

2. Make sure the server is connected

A store sends commands to your server through the plugin. If the plugin is not running, nothing arrives; paid orders wait, but your test will not run. Open Servers in the dashboard and check that your server shows as Online, which means the plugin checked in during the last 5 minutes. In the game, /mcs status tells you the same from the server's side. If it is not online, see Install the plugin: usually the plugin has no token yet, or an old one. Run the mcs token ... command from Servers in the console to set it.

3. Send a test delivery to yourself

This is the test that matters, and it does not cost anything. On Minecraftstore.io every product has a Send a test to your server box:

1. Open the product and save it, so the test uses the commands as they are now.
2. Type your own Minecraft name.
3. Click Send test.

The product's commands now go to your server for that name, exactly as they would after a payment, through the same queue and the same plugin. The box follows each command live: Waiting for your server, Running, Done, or Failed with the error the plugin got back. When everything is done, you see "It works.", and you should have the rank in the game.

A few things to know:

• Commands that need the player online wait for you to join. If a product gives items, join the server, and they arrive.
• A test that is not picked up within 15 minutes is cancelled, so a rank never turns up days later. If you see Not picked up, the plugin is not connected; go back to step 2.
• A failed command is not tried again. Fix it in the product, save, and send a new test.
• A test never counts as a sale. It is not in your orders, revenue or exports, and nobody gets an email.

Do this once for every product with commands you have not used before. For a rank with a time limit, also run the expiry commands in the console once, so you know the rank really goes away.

4. Look at the store as a player

Next, check what a player sees. Open your store on your phone, not on the computer you built it on: most players will buy from a phone. Then check:

• Are the prices and descriptions what you meant? Is it clear what VIP does?
• Does /buy in the game open the menu with your products? Clicking one sends the checkout link in chat.
• If players join from a phone or console through Geyser, try it as a Bedrock player too. See selling to Bedrock players.

Before your payouts are set up, players can already open the store and look around, but the checkout says the store opens for purchases soon. That is expected.

5. Buy something yourself, once

Once your payouts are set up and the store takes payments, there is one thing a test delivery does not check: the payment itself. Do one real purchase:

1. Pick your cheapest product. The lowest a card payment can be is €0.50, $0.50 or £0.30; if your cheapest product costs more, add a test product for 50 cents with a harmless command, such as a message to yourself, and remove it when you are done. A hidden product cannot be bought, not even by you.
2. Buy it with your own card, for your own name.
3. Watch it arrive in the game and open the order in Orders. It should say Delivered.
4. Refund it in your Stripe dashboard: open Payouts, click Open Stripe dashboard and refund the payment. The order changes to Refunded by itself.

Stripe keeps its payment fee when you refund, so this test costs you a few cents. That is the cheapest a full check of the store will ever be.

A refund does not undo commands that already ran: if the test gave you a rank, take it back on the server yourself. See Refunds and chargebacks.

When something does not arrive

Open the order or the test and read what the plugin sent back. Nearly every problem is one of four:

Delivery problems goes through each of them.

Then open the store

When every product has had a test, the store looks right on a phone, and one real purchase went through, you know more than most store owners ever check. Now get the first sales.

Not started yet? Open a store for free and send your first test today.