Testing without a sandbox

The Dropfans API has no sandbox environment. You test against a real creator account that you control — same endpoints, same moderation, same data model as production, because it is production.

Set up a test creator#

1. Sign up at dropfans.io and complete creator verification.
2. Upload at least one item to the vault — keys are generated from Vault → API Connect, and you need content in the vault before anything downstream (drops, media posts) can be exercised.
3. Generate a Personal key for the test account and keep it separate from any real creator’s key in your config.

What to use for end-to-end runs#

• Free drops. POST /drops accepts price: 0 — a free drop walks the whole create → link → checkout path without moving money. Do not buy paid drops with real cards unless you intend to pay; there is no test card.
• includePending=true on GET /vault shows items still in review, including their moderationStatus — without it, pending items come back with an empty filePath and no status field.
• Moderation takes real time. Uploads and posts go through the same review pipeline as everything else, so PENDING for minutes is normal, not a failure. Build your polling now — production behaves identically. See Moderation & statuses.

Cleaning up#

• Posts delete hard: DELETE /posts/{id} removes them outright.
• Vault items soft-hide: DELETE /vault/{id} hides the item from every list but does not purge the file. Re-deleting is a no-op success.
• Drops cannot be deleted through the API — keep test drops free so a stray link costs nobody anything.

Next: Authentication & API keys or Sell a drop end-to-end.