Set up a test store

Use a test store to preview changes before you make them live on your customer-facing store. For example, set up a new Menu or build a Content Block in the test store first, check how it looks, then repeat the change on your live store.

StoreConnect allows unlimited storefronts, so a test store is just another Store record on a path of its own.

Before you begin

A test store is publicly reachable by anyone who knows its URL. It is not password protected or access restricted. Choose an unguessable path if the work in progress should stay private, and see stealth mode if you also need to keep it out of search results.

Create the test store

1. Go to the Stores list in the StoreConnect Config app.
2. Click New.
3. Set the Name to My Test Store.
4. Set the Path to my-test-store. This creates a store on your default store domain under /my-test-store. To make the path harder to guess, use something like some1231203irandom23140812038path instead.
5. Leave the Default checkbox cleared.
6. Save the record.

:::note Leave Default on your live store. Selecting it on the test store clears it on the live store and sends single sign-on callbacks that are not tied to a store to the test store. Your live store keeps the root path as long as its Path is blank. See redirect behavior and the default store. :::

Visit the test store

1. On the Store record you just created, go to the Store Information section.
2. Click the link in the Preview Store field.
3. Confirm the test store loads and is separate from your live store. It has its own menus, pages, and content.

Preview Store is the reliable way in. It uses the Store Domain Name on the store record, which StoreConnect fills in from Site Base URL when you leave it blank, and falls back to Site Base URL plus the path when there is no domain. Reading the two fields together tells you the store’s real address, for example https://p-yourorgname-00d5a000000srltabe.herokuapp.com/my-test-store.

What a test store separates, and what it shares

Menus, pages, product categories, and articles belong to one store. Your test store has its own, and you can change them without touching your live storefront.

Two things are shared across every store in your org. Changing either one changes your live storefront straight away:

• Themes — the Theme field on a Store record points at a theme, it does not own one. When your test store and your live store point at the same theme, editing a Theme Template, Theme Asset, or Theme Variable changes both stores. To try theme changes safely, give the test store its own Theme record and set the test store’s Theme field to it. If you have the theme as a .zip file, run it through the theme importer again under a new name. Otherwise create a new Theme record and recreate the templates you want to change in it; anything you do not add falls back to the base theme.
• Content Blocks — a Content Block does not belong to a store. Attaching one to a page in your test store is safe, and so is detaching it, but editing a block that is also attached to a live page edits the live page. Build new blocks for the test store rather than editing the ones it shares with your live store. This includes the blocks named on the Store record itself: Page Header Content Block, Footer Content Block, HTML Head Content Block, and Body Content. A test store cloned from your live store points at the same blocks until you change those fields.

Check both before you treat a test store as a safe place to experiment. A store that points at your live theme and reuses your live content blocks looks separate, but is not.

:::tip A test store is a good place to try changes driven by an AI agent, as long as it has its own theme and its own content blocks. See build on StoreConnect using AI agents. :::

Find your Site Base URL

Your Site Base URL is where your site lives when you first install StoreConnect. It looks like p-yourorgname-00d5a000000srltabe.herokuapp.com for production installs, or s-yourorgname-00d0c000000oiftewr.herokuapp.com for sandbox installs.

You usually set up a custom domain name for a live store, but a test store does not need one.

1. Go to the StoreConnect Setup page in the StoreConnect Config app.
2. Read the value in Site Base URL.

:::warning A new Store record with Store Domain Name left blank takes its domain from Site Base URL. If someone has pointed that setting at your live public domain while setting your store domain, a new test store becomes reachable on your customer-facing domain. Set Store Domain Name on the test store yourself to avoid that. :::