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Testing guide

Test email flows with Selenium without opening Gmail

Selenium recommends using an email provider API instead of automating Gmail or another mailbox interface. PNTR separates those jobs: WebDriver exercises your application, while a small API poll retrieves the message.

Explore PNTR's disposable email for developers
Create the Selenium inbox

Python inbox helper

import os, time, requests

def wait_for_email(recipient):
    url = f"https://api.pntr.dev/api/subdomains/{os.environ['PNTR_SUBDOMAIN_ID']}/emails"
    headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['PNTR_TOKEN']}"}

    for _ in range(30):
        response = requests.get(url, headers=headers, timeout=10)
        response.raise_for_status()
        match = next((e for e in response.json() if e["recipient"] == recipient), None)
        if match:
            return match
        time.sleep(1)

    raise AssertionError(f"No email received for {recipient}")

Setup

  1. 1

    Prepare the PNTR inbox

    Create an email-enabled PNTR subdomain and generate an API token. Put the token and subdomain ID in the test runner's secret environment, not in the repository.

  2. 2

    Generate a per-test address

    Create an address such as selenium- plus a UUID at your PNTR subdomain. No inbox setup is required for each local part because PNTR receives them all.

  3. 3

    Drive only your application with Selenium

    Enter the generated address, submit the form, and assert the application's immediate success state with WebDriver's normal explicit waits.

  4. 4

    Poll PNTR outside the browser

    Use your language's HTTP client to query PNTR until the exact recipient appears. API polling is faster and less fragile than opening a third-party mailbox with WebDriver.

  5. 5

    Continue the browser journey

    Fetch the matching email body, extract the expected link or code, then return to Selenium to complete the verification flow and assert the final signed-in state.

Before you ship

Do not automate a Gmail or Outlook login as part of this test. It introduces another site's authentication, selectors, and anti-bot behavior into a flow that only needs the delivered message.

Primary documentation