You can trigger test events directly within the journey builder in Interactions programs.
When you are testing programs with generated test data, make sure it contains the appropriate the data type. If you selected the Trigger attributes type in the Decision or Decision splitter node and the test data contains incorrect data type (e.g. strings instead of numbers), then contacts who do not meet the selected criteria will continue their journey in the program.
Prerequisites
- Check if the Access Contact Data permission is enabled in your user role:
- Go to Management > User Management, select your user role and click Edit.
- On the Contacts tab, check if Access Contact Data is enabled among your Contacts permissions. If not, please contact your Account Administrator.
- Select the Only Test Contacts, Sent Manually option.
- Configure the Node and Program settings, click Save Settings.
Triggering a test event
Here is what you need to do to trigger a test event:
- To configure the test event, click Send Event.
- Select a test contact. The selected event will be matched with the test contact.
Notes:
- You can only select a contact from the Emarsys database. Any contact information in the event data will be ignored. Contact information is only taken into account at Decision nodes based on event data or content personalization. Any marketing communication from any triggered program will be sent to the selected test contact.
- Only the selected contact can receive any marketing communication from any triggered programs
- You can check and edit the selected contact’s data by clicking the Edit icon.
- Select the event that will trigger your Interactions program. The program’s trigger event is displayed by default but you can change it. The test event will only trigger the program if the selected event is the same as the trigger event.
Important:
- Please keep in mind that test events behave like real events meaning that they can trigger other programs using the same trigger event as well. In this case, only the selected test contact will receive marketing communications from the triggered programs. Interactions also stores test events in its historical decision storage. Test events can also trigger the Wait for event nodes in other programs if the selected contact waits for the specific event at these nodes.
For example, let's say you would like to see if the event would only continue the journey and trigger the upgrade offer if the contact triggered at least 3 running workout events in the last 2 weeks. In this case, you can test the program by triggering 3 workout events with the required attributes and values. In this case, the trigger event meets the required conditions, so it will continue the journey.
- Please keep in mind that you can also trigger other active programs with test contacts. If you need to double-check your message content, you can quickly trigger a test event matching with your test contact that triggers your recently activated program.
- Test events are not stored in Google BigQuery event tables, so they are not published to Open Data. Test events are stored in the Automation reporting tables.
You can select any event from any event source to test historical decisions in the programs or to trigger the Wait for event node.
- You can see how many programs will be triggered by the selected contact and event. To review those programs, click Review triggered programs.
You can open a specific program by clicking the Edit icon next to it.
Important:
The event will be matched with the selected test contact regardless of the personal data (e.g. email address) displayed within the sample event. The program will only be triggered with the selected test contact to avoid sending campaigns unintentionally to other contacts.
What does it mean from the perspective of personalization, Decision and channel nodes?
- External event personalization will display details from the sample event data (that might contain data of another contact).
- Contact personalization will display data of the selected test contact.
- Historical Decision nodes will check the event history of the selected test contact.
- Decision nodes using the Trigger attributes type will work based on the sample event.
- Decision nodes using the Included in segment type will look for the selected test contact.
- Emarsys will always send messages to the selected test contact regardless of the personal data displayed in the sample event.
Notes:
- Sample events are actual events coming from your account that match the selected event source and event. The displayed sample event represents the structure of the event (i.e. along with fields and sample values) so that you can tailor the event to your needs. For instance, you can change the
product_id
in the Updated cart event to test different product scenarios in the content with product source personalization or to modify the attribute values for testing different decision scenarios and event personalization. - You can also replace the sample event payload. Paste your own sample event to trigger the program if you haven’t received any such event yet. For more information, see Interactions - Event payload examples.
- If the selected event has not been received yet, then the following notification is displayed: “Emarsys cannot provide an event data example as this event hasn’t been sent yet.”
- Check if the JSON structure is valid and whether you have selected a test contact before clicking Continue.
Notes:
- When sending the event, Interactions only validates the structure of the JSON but it does not check if the event attributes match with the ones contained by the events received previously.
- Interactions does not save attributes of test events so they won’t be shown in attribute filtering.
- After clicking Continue, check your test contact and event configurations on the Confirm Sending Test Event dialog.
Please note that clicking Send Event might result in sending messages that potentially contain personal data. By proceeding, you confirm that you are aware of this risk and you made sure you selected a test contact to start the program. For more information, see All you need to know about personal data when testing Automation programs.
- After confirming the test configurations, click Send Event. The selected event will be sent and it will trigger the current program and others with the selected test contact.
- Make sure your program works as expected and check your messages. You can trigger the event multiple times. To do so, click Send Event.
- You can check the test results on the Program Reporting page.
You might need to refresh the Program Reporting page to see the most recent results. Please, take into account that there is an approximately 2-minute delay on this page.
- When you are finished with testing, check What to do after testing a program?