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Before buyers can transact with a storefront, its readiness checklist needs a Successful transaction. For a storefront whose inventory is a modular catalogue, you can pass it yourself, with no test to request: run an ordinary sandbox campaign with your own sandbox advertiser against your own storefront.
Do not run a sandbox campaign against a source that sends campaigns to a provider. A modular source with a trafficking module, such as an ad-server or retail-media connection like CitrusAd, dispatches the buy to that provider. A sandbox advertiser marks the campaign as test-only inside Apostra, but Apostra does not currently stop the buy from creating a real campaign at the provider, and the provider may charge for it. Whether the provider simulates it depends on its own test access, which Apostra does not check.If your storefront has such a source, do one of these instead:
  • If the provider gives you a sandbox or test account, connect that account to the source and use it.
  • Otherwise, ask Apostra Support to review your storefront. Apostra can record an audited approval for the storefront to transact without the test.
The readiness checklist applies the same rule: for a storefront with such a source, it does not recommend a sandbox campaign.

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What the check needs

The Successful transaction check (publish_validation) turns complete when one media buy on your storefront has been accepted by its inventory source and carries that source’s media buy ID. A sandbox campaign you launch from your own account produces that buy. A successful buy from a live buyer satisfies the same check, but a live buyer cannot connect until your storefront is ready, so for a new storefront the sandbox campaign is the route. The check reads the whole storefront:
  • Modular sources with no trafficking module. The sandbox campaign is the evidence. Nothing else is required for the check.
  • Modular sources with a trafficking module. Do not use a sandbox campaign. See the warning at the top of this page.
  • Managed ad-server sources. A storefront whose active sources are all managed ad servers reports the check complete without a test. A mixed storefront still needs the campaign, and it covers the sources that are not managed ad servers.
  • External sales agents. An external Agent source needs its own current proof of create_media_buy. A sandbox campaign does not stand in for it, and the check names the Agent that is still uncovered. Use that Agent’s Test section.
  • Demo storefronts. The check reports complete with no test while every connected source is part of the demo profile.
Run the sandbox campaign, where it applies, after the other blockers on the checklist are clear. Check your storefront status for what is still open: the checklist tells you which blocker comes first.

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Run the sandbox campaign

This is for a storefront whose sources are modular catalogues with no trafficking module. Use your seller account’s own MCP connection. You stay in the same account for the whole campaign; do not switch accounts.
1

Create a sandbox advertiser

Call save_advertiser with sandbox: true. A sandbox advertiser belongs to your own account and is test-only. Its sandbox setting is permanent: it cannot be changed to live later. Every Media Company can create sandbox advertisers.
2

Create a campaign for that advertiser

Call save_campaign with the advertiser, a brief, a flight, and a budget. Apostra pins the campaign to your own storefront; a product, proposal, or media buy from any other storefront is refused.
3

Choose a product from your own catalogue

Open your catalogue with get for kind: "seller" and include the products, then pass a qualified product to save_media_buy to stage a media buy. You can also ask for proposals with request_proposals.
4

Add a creative

Call save_creative with the campaign to attach a creative to it. See Create and verify a campaign creative.
5

Launch the sandbox campaign

Launching is a two-call operation: preview, then confirm with the returned revision. See Launch a campaign with explicit confirmation. Because the same company operates both the campaign and the storefront, your explicit launch is also the storefront’s approval of the buy. The buy then goes to your inventory source.
The full buyer workflow is in Buyer workflows, and the seller-side limits are in Seller limitations.

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Confirm that the check passed

Call get_status, or open the readiness checklist, and look at Successful transaction. Readiness refreshes shortly after the buy is recorded, so give it a moment before you read it again.
  • Complete. The buy was accepted by its source and recorded with that source’s media buy ID.
  • Still missing, no buy recorded. The campaign did not launch or the buy did not reach the source. Read the campaign and its media buy, resolve the error it reports, and launch again.
  • Still missing for an external Agent. The check names the Agent. Its proof comes from that Agent’s own Test section, not from a sandbox campaign.

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Which sources the sandbox campaign is for

What happens after the buy leaves your storefront depends on the source:
  • A modular source with no trafficking module (an avails feed, for example) has no outside system to send the campaign to. Apostra reserves the capacity and records the buy against your booking ledger. This is the source type the sandbox campaign is for.
  • A modular source with a trafficking module sends the campaign to a provider. Follow the warning at the top of this page and do not use a sandbox campaign.

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What a sandbox campaign does and does not do

  • It uses only your own storefront and your own sandbox advertiser. It cannot reach another company’s storefront or use an advertiser that belongs to another account. Apostra admits a storefront that has not passed the check only for your own sandbox advertiser.
  • It does not make your storefront live or discoverable to buyers by itself. Buyers connect once every blocker on the checklist is clear.
  • Sandbox campaigns are not live campaigns. Running live campaigns against your own inventory is limited to the companies enrolled for it.
Related: Sandbox mode, Storefront overview, and Demo Storefront.