Forms E2E Testing Protocol

Forms E2E Testing Protocol 

 Purpose 
 This protocol defines the mandatory end-to-end validation steps for all contact forms, waitlist submissions, and user-facing form handlers. HTTP 200 response is NOT sufficient evidence of success — inbox delivery or database persistence MUST be verified. 

 Scope 
 Applies to: 
 
 Contact forms (alai.no, snowit.ba, merdzanovic.ba, etc.) 
 Waitlist/signup forms (getdrop.no, product landing pages) 
 Feedback forms 
 Any form that sends email or stores user data 
 

 Test Levels 

 Level 1 — HTTP Layer (Necessary but NOT Sufficient) 
 
 Submit form via browser (real user flow) 
 Verify HTTP response: 200 OK or 201 Created 
 Verify UI feedback: success message displayed 
 ⚠️ STOP: This is NOT proof the form works. Proceed to Level 2. 
 

 Level 2 — Delivery Verification (MANDATORY) 

 For Email-Based Forms 
 
 Submit test form with known test data (e.g., test@example.com , subject: "E2E Test YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM") 
 Check target inbox within 60 seconds:
 
 Via Himalaya CLI: himalaya search --account info@alai.no --folder INBOX "subject:E2E Test" 
 Via webmail: Log into one.com or Gmail, verify message received 
 Via IMAP client: Thunderbird, Apple Mail, etc. 
 
 
 Verify message contents: 
 
 All form fields present in email body 
 From address is correct (e.g., noreply@alai.no or form submitter) 
 Reply-to is user's submitted email (if applicable) 
 
 
 Verify SMTP logs (if accessible):
 
 Check Resend dashboard (for Resend API) 
 Check Cloudflare Email Workers logs 
 Check backend logs ( journalctl -u form-handler or PM2 logs) 
 
 
 

 For Database-Based Forms (e.g., waitlist with D1) 
 
 Submit test form with unique identifier (e.g., email test+TIMESTAMP@alai.no ) 
 Query database: 
 
 CF D1: wrangler d1 execute drop-waitlist --command "SELECT * FROM submissions WHERE email LIKE 'test+%'" 
 PostgreSQL: psql -h localhost -U user -d dbname -c "SELECT * FROM waitlist WHERE email = 'test@example.com';" 
 SQLite: sqlite3 ~/path/to/db.sqlite "SELECT * FROM forms WHERE email = 'test@example.com';" 
 
 
 Verify record fields: 
 
 Timestamp is recent (within last 2 minutes) 
 All form fields stored correctly 
 No NULL values where data expected 
 
 
 

 Level 3 — Error Handling (Recommended for Production Forms) 
 
 Submit invalid data: 
 
 Missing required fields 
 Invalid email format 
 XSS/SQL injection attempts (if validation implemented) 
 
 
 Verify error responses: 
 
 HTTP 400 Bad Request (not 500 Internal Server Error) 
 Clear error message to user ("Email is required") 
 No server crash or 500 error 
 
 
 Simulate backend failure: 
 
 Temporarily break SMTP credentials or DB connection 
 Verify graceful failure (user sees "Failed to send, please try again" — not silent success) 
 Verify logging of failure (so ops team can detect issue) 
 
 
 

 Himalaya CLI Setup (for Email Verification) 

 Install 
 brew install himalaya
 

 Configure Account 
 Add to ~/.config/himalaya/config.toml : 
 [accounts.info-alai]
default = false
email = "info@alai.no"
display-name = "ALAI Info"

[accounts.info-alai.imap]
host = "imap.one.com"
port = 993
encryption = "tls"
login = "info@alai.no"
passwd.cmd = "bw get password 'Email - info@alai.no' --session $(cat /tmp/bw-session)"

[accounts.info-alai.smtp]
host = "send.one.com"
port = 587
encryption = "start-tls"
login = "info@alai.no"
passwd.cmd = "bw get password 'Email - info@alai.no' --session $(cat /tmp/bw-session)"
 

 Usage 
 # List recent messages
himalaya list --account info-alai --folder INBOX --page-size 20

# Search for test submissions
himalaya search --account info-alai --folder INBOX "subject:E2E Test"

# Search by sender
himalaya search --account info-alai --folder INBOX "from:noreply@alai.no"

# Search by date
himalaya search --account info-alai --folder INBOX "since:2026-04-21"
 

 Credentials: Store IMAP password in Bitwarden item "Email - info@alai.no" 

 Pre-Deployment Checklist 
 Before marking any form handler as "ready for production": 
 
 [ ] Level 1 HTTP test passed (200 OK + UI feedback) 
 [ ] Level 2 delivery test passed (inbox check OR database record confirmed) 
 [ ] Level 3 error handling tested (invalid input returns 400, backend failure does NOT return silent success) 
 [ ] Form submission logged to application logs (even if email/DB write fails) 
 [ ] Monitoring/alerting configured (e.g., Grafana alert if zero submissions for 7 days) 
 [ ] Documentation updated (which inbox receives submissions, which DB table stores records) 
 

 Migration Checklist (Static Hosting Migrations) 
 When migrating sites from Vercel/Netlify to Cloudflare Pages: 
 
 [ ] Inventory all POST endpoints (forms, webhooks, API routes) 
 [ ] Verify each has CF Pages Function equivalent ( /functions/*.js ) 
 [ ] Update form action URLs if needed (e.g., /api/contact → CF Pages route) 
 [ ] Run full E2E test (this protocol) BEFORE declaring migration complete 
 [ ] Monitor inbox/DB for 24 hours post-migration to catch silent failures 
 

 Known Silent Failure Patterns 

 Pattern 1: Catch-All Webhook Returns False Success 
 
 Symptom: HTTP 200 + {ok: true} but no email sent 
 Cause: Reverse proxy or tunnel routes form POST to wrong backend (e.g., Documenso webhook with app.post('/*', ...) ) 
 Example: alai.no contact form incident (2026-04-21, MC #8587) 
 Prevention: Audit all catch-all routes; prefer explicit path matching 
 

 Pattern 2: Serverless Function Not Migrated 
 
 Symptom: 404 Not Found or 200 OK (if static fallback serves index.html) 
 Cause: Vercel API routes ( /api/contact.js ) not ported to CF Pages Functions ( /functions/contact.js ) 
 Prevention: Explicit checklist during migration (see above) 
 

 Pattern 3: SMTP Credentials Not Migrated 
 
 Symptom: Backend logs show "SMTP authentication failed" but frontend receives 200 OK 
 Cause: Environment variables not set in new hosting platform 
 Prevention: Verify env vars (RESEND_API_KEY, SMTP_PASSWORD) before testing 
 

 Related Pages 
 
 Email Pipeline Runbook 
 Incident — 2026-04-21 alai.no Contact Form Failure 
 Static Hosting Migration — Progress Log 
 Definition of Done 
 

 MC Task References 
 
 #8587 — alai.no contact form fix + documentation (this page) 
 #8538 — Master quality gate (references forms E2E testing requirement) 
 #8591 — snowit.ba contact form migration (same risk) 
 

 

 Authored: 2026-04-21 | Owner: Skillforge (QA protocol) + Proveo (enforcement) | Approved: Angie Jones