Alerting Hub Sandbox

Test out our APIs and sample code for free

Alerting Hub provides a sandbox capability where you can simulate alerts without incurring costs or actually issuing SMS, emails or voice calls. In this quick-start guide, you will learn how to use the sandbox to simulate the sending of an alert and where the sandbox differs from live alerting.

  • HTTP

    https://sandboxapi.alert.alertinghub.co.uk

  • MAILTO

    sandboxapi@awsemail.alertinghub.co.uk

Simulate an alert – 1: API key

Any Alerting Hub issued API key can be used in the sandbox. If you don’t have an existing API key you can obtain a free sample API key by completing the API key request form in the quick-start guide.

Simulate an alert – 2 : Send the alert

Simulate the sending of an alert by calling our sendalert API using one of the following methods (see the API guide for more details):

  • An HTTP POST to https://sandboxapi.alert.alertinghub.co.uk/api/json/sendalert
  • An email with JSON attachment and a subject line of ‘sendalert’ to sandboxapi@awsemail.alertinghub.co.uk

In fact to use the sandbox for any API call all you need to do is add ‘sandbox’ to the front of ‘api’, highlighted above.

Simulate an alert – 3: Collect results

See the quick-start guide on how to collect results or have them posted to you. Remember, if collecting the results using the collectevents API make sure you use the sandbox address rather than the live address.

The main way the sandbox differs from live use is that Alerting Hub simulates results rather than actually issuing the alert itself. The following results will be provided when using the sandbox:

  • For SMS you will receive a sent indicator and a delivery note.
  • For emails you will receive a sent indicator.
  • For voice calls you will receive a call complete indicator as if a ‘1’ had been pressed.

Sandbox vs live: Useful information

  1. Using the storage APIs (where you can store recipient lists, sms/email/audio content or alerts for later use) is independent of the sandbox. This means you can store an alert for future use, test it in the sandbox and use the same stored alert for live working afterwards. You can use either the live api route or the sandbox api route when using the storage API methods.
  2. In most cases your API key(s) will allow a greater number of sms/emails/voice-calls to be simulated in a given period of time than would be allowed in live use.
  3. Use of the sandbox does not count against your existing credit with Alerting Hub and will not incur any additional charges.
  4. To use the sandbox simply make the API address ‘sandboxapi’ rather than just ‘api’ in either the HTTPS URL or the mailto address.
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