Preview Mode / Perform Quality Assurance

Learn about the Preview Mode

On this page

Start and end the Preview Mode

To start the preview mode, use the dropdown at the status button on the experiment page.

ablyft-experiment-start-preview-mode

To end the preview mode, use button in the preview mode box (see below).

Please note When a preview is called using the corresponding URL parameters, this information is stored for the current session.
This makes it possible to continue the preview even after a page change.
After closing the browser tab or the browser, the session is ended and the preview is closed for the user.

Share and open the Preview URL

As soon as the preview mode has been started, a box with further options is available in the overview of an experiment.

ablyft-use-preview-mode

Functionality Overview

  1. URL to preview
    Enter here the URL you want to open with the preview.
    (Default is the URL specified in the experiment)
  2. Variation to preview
    Select the variant you want to open in the preview.
    (Default is the first variation)
  3. Preview URL
    This is the resulting preview URL that can be opened in the browser.
    It can either be copied or opened in a tab by clicking the "Open Preview URL" button.
    To easily open the URL on a smartphone or tablet, the QR code can also be photographed.

End the Preview Mode

To exit Preview Mode, click the "End Preview Mode" button in the box.
In the dropdown that then opens, three options are available:

  • Start Experiment: Experiment is started
  • Pause Experiment: Experiment is paused
  • Set Experiment back to draft: Status is set back to draft

Things to know

Criteria for showing the Preview

  • The environment has to match.
  • Pages and Audiences of the experiment has to match if provided.
  • Exclusion Groups and Traffic Allocation are ignored.

Preview of multiple Experiments in Combination

To display several experiments in combination in the preview, you can insert a preview URL as a base (URL to preview).
The preview URL provided then carries both combinations.

Behavior of a Preview

An experiment with the status "Preview" basically behaves like an ongoing experiment. The difference is that this experiment is only played to the users who have activated the preview mode.
Timing etc. are otherwise exactly the same as for a running experiment.