Has anybody test automated Verifone Terminals?

Question

We do Point of Sale testing, we have verifone payment processing terminals -- i.e. we see normally almost everywhere in every grocery store, shop etc.. Since it is a part of POS testing, wondering if we have any tool that I can use to automate my verifone device regression test cases

Thanks a million! Appreciate your help!

Answer 1

You don't automate the device testing

There are two reasons for this:

1. You have no control over the device firmware. That is written by, provided by, and (hopefully) tested by Verifone.
2. You have no control over the payment gateway. That is also written by, provided by, and (hopefully) tested by the payment provider the devices use.

The piece you can control and test is the interface between your PoS software and the device.

Your options for automated regression

• Don't automate credit card/debit card payments - This is the obvious answer, because you can't automate card swipes through the device, smart card reads, or PIN pad entries without getting entirely too complex. It's the answer my team defaulted to when I was working with Point of Sale software that had multiple payment gateways.
• Use a simulator - If you need to perform regression testing against the interface between your software and the device (which should be rare, because that kind of software tends to be stable once configured and set up - I don't recall many changes to the interfaces between specific device types in the software I tested), you need to use a simulator that can send and receive the same range of messages the device uses. If Verifone does not provide a simulator, you will need to write your own, using the specifications provided for your system to work with the device.
  • If you use a vendor-provided simulator - In my experience vendor-provided simulators tend to be updated less often and have more bugs than the live firmware, so you would need to monitor firmware updates for changes that aren't implemented in a vendor-provided simulator.
  • If you write your own simulator - You will need to manage changes to the device firmware and messaging by updating the simulator as needed. In my experience, the priority placed on simulator updates tends to be fairly low.

Answer 2

Old thread but if you're still looking for for an automated testing tool, look up Abrantix, they make robots for regression and EMV level 3 testing on Verifone and other POS terminals.