The sandbox testing server is a copy of the ORCID Registry software, and only contains testing data. It was designed to provide a place to try things out without affecting any real ORCID iDs, particularly if you are working with the ORCID API and need a place to test your work. You can create user accounts and test out API calls on the sandbox without needing to worry about affecting production data or accidentally spamming researchers.
You do not even need to be an ORCID member to try out the member API in the sandbox. All are welcome to request sandbox member API credentials and try out the full features available with the member API.
You can request sandbox Member API credentials to build and test your application. These credentials allow you to make calls to the sandbox member API to read, write to, and update ORCID records. Access to the sandbox testing environment is freely available to anyone, even if you’re not an ORCID member organization.
Note: If you are using a third-party system that already supports ORCID, you may not need to register for sandbox API credentials.
The sandbox lets you create test user accounts and develop your integration without having to worry about affecting data on the live (production) ORCID Registry. The sandbox behaves the same way as the production ORCID Registry with a few exceptions.
Creating a test account
In order to test the ORCID API and API calls, such as a reading and adding information to an ORCID record, you will also need to create a test ORCID record in the sandbox. This can be done through the user interface, much like on the production ORCID Registry. Go to https://sandbox.orcid.org/register and register for an account.
Mailinator email addresses
The sandbox server sends notification emails only to Mailinator (@mailinator.com) email addresses in order to not spam mail servers unintentionally. You will not receive a verification email or password reset notification unless you use a @mailinator.com address, and verification is required in order to make any manual edits to sandbox records. Find out more about their free to use public inboxes here. If you do not wish to use a Mailinator address, then please make note of your username and password (as you will be using them to grant authorization to your application when testing), and contact us to request assistance with verification.
Mailinator is an email service that has a public free service and a private paid service. For testing you can use the completely free public service. Find out more about their tiers here.
Mailinator is a third party service that is not managed or maintained by ORCID. We recommend that you review how this service works and its limitations before using these addresses.
The site and APIs will not be as reliable as they are for the production servers. We make no guarantees about data on the sandbox; they are not backed up and may be deleted. The sandbox may also contain some experimental functionality that is not yet on the production servers so you can try things out before they exist in the Registry.