In testing, many actions are repetitive, if it is simple login only. So, every time a Manual Tester has to create new accounts to log in or to verify different flows which are very hectic and time-consuming task.

Here Disposable Emails play a very important role, which removes this hectic process of new account creation and also reduces the time of Testing. It provides the convenience of no account creation and verification. We can use these Disposable Email services by their providers like - mail7 (https://mail7.io/).

Mail7.io is a service that allows receiving emails at a temporary address that self-destructs after 24 hours. Many forums, websites, and blogs ask visitors to register before they can view content, post comments, or download something. Mail7 is the most advanced throwaway email service that helps you avoid spam and stay safe in such cases.

Email Workflows

Almost universally, online identities are tied to one of three things: an email address and already verified account (e.g. Facebook or Google), or increasingly, an SMS-enabled phone number. If we sign up for a new account using an email address, every time we will be required to verify it. This usually involves clicking a link embedded in an email sent to the address in question. Assuming the registration workflow for your application follows this pattern (which it should) then you may be wondering how you can test it end-to-end.

Use A Disposable Email Service

A more robust solution to this problem is to use a disposable email service such as mail7 (https://mail7.io/). We can send email to any address hosted at these services and then manually check that inbox to see if your mail arrived. We can append the date or timestamp (depending on our testing frequency), in order to ensure the uniqueness of our address.

Most of the scenario can be covered through Disposable Email Service, like after login "welcome email" is sent to the email or not, Reset Password link when Forgot Password is chosen by User, Email OTP Service, when user logs-in by entering OTP which is shared on its Email and many more.

It’s important to note that Mail7 inboxes are public and accessible to anyone. And even though they purge messages after every few hours, it’s still not a good idea to send private information to them.

Mail7 also offers a private mailbox, where we can create and manage private email(s) with Mail7.io domain, Mail7.io subdomains, and your custom domain(s). If required, you can also set up actions for the received email(s) like delete, forward, etc. Not just this, you can add team members, who can access all of the private email(s) received in the mailbox of Mail7. To access the private mailbox and manage the team, you need to create an account or log into your existing account.

How Mail7 works

Suppose, you are browsing a blog website and it requires you to register/login in order to keep reading an article. You might not want to register using their personal email address because of the spamming concerns and setting an email account just for this case is too much of an effort. No worries, that’s where the Mail7 comes handy, enter a prefix to the @mail7.io domain and you are good to go. Not just this, the prefix need not be unique since it is public.

Let’s say you have created an account on the blogging website using the [email protected] email address and a verification link has been sent to your email address by the website.

To verify your account, open the mail7.io website, enters the email address prefix i.e. test in the text box, and click the Go to Public Inbox button.

Conclusion

Testing end-to-end email workflows can be difficult and are definitely not exciting. Luckily, disposable email services are around to make it a lot easier to verify functionality and a lot easier to scale.