Preview & QA
Check variations, targeting and goals before an experiment goes live, and share previews with your team.
Before real visitors see an experiment, check it. ABlyft offers a Preview mode that shows an experiment only to people who open a special link, and a quality assurance (QA) tool that shows which pages, audiences, experiments and goals are active on a page and lets you switch variations.
Start the preview mode
- Open the experiment.
- In the status controls at the top of the page, choose Preview mode and confirm.
The experiment now has the status Preview and a Preview box appears above the cards. An experiment in preview behaves like a running one, but only visitors who activate the preview see it.
The experiment needs at least one variation, page and goal, see Before you can preview or start.
The Preview box
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| Variation to preview | The variation you want to see. By default the first variation that is not the baseline. |
| URL to preview | The page to open. It starts with the example URL of the experiment. You can change it, for example to check another page. |
| Exclude other running experiments | On by default. Other running experiments are then not shown during your preview, so they do not influence what you see. Switch it off to see how your experiment works together with the experiments that are already live. |
| Open preview directly in browser | Opens the preview in a new tab. |
| Open with quality assurance tool | Opens the preview with the QA tool. See QA tool. |
| QR code (Scan to preview) | Scan it to preview on a phone or tablet. |
| Preview/Sharing URL | The complete link. Copy it with the copy button and share it with colleagues. |
| Camera icon (Take screenshots) | Creates screenshots of the variation for desktop and/or mobile. Optionally dismiss cookie banners and capture the full page. Depending on your plan; otherwise ABlyft asks you to contact them. |
When you open the preview link, the page behaves as follows:
- You see the selected variation, regardless of traffic allocation and exclusion groups.
- For experiments in the status Preview, audiences are not checked, so you see the experiment even if you are not part of the audience. The experiment's pages and environments must still match.
- Goals are not tracked and no results are collected from your preview visits.
- The preview stays active in your browser session, also when you move to other pages. Closing the tab or browser ends it.
Snippet required
The preview works through the snippet. If the page does not contain the ABlyft snippet, nothing will change. See Embed the snippet.
Preview links and URL parameters
The preview link is your example URL plus URL parameters that the snippet reads:
https://example.com/product?ablyft_preview=12345678_98765432The parameters are described in URL parameters: ablyft_preview
(<experiment ID>_<variation ID>), ablyft_exclude_running and ablyft_qa_token. ABlyft adds the last two
automatically when you switch off Exclude other running experiments or use Open with quality assurance tool.
To preview several experiments together, paste an existing preview link into URL to preview. The new link then contains both combinations.
Treat the QA link with care
The ablyft_qa_token is specific to your project. Anyone with the link can open the QA tool and see the names of
your pages, audiences, experiments and goals. Share it only internally.
QA tool
The QA tool is a panel on your own website. It shows live what ABlyft does on the current page: which pages and audiences match, which experiments run with which variation, and which goals fire. You can also switch between variations directly on your site.
Open the QA tool
You need:
- The ABlyft snippet on the page you want to check.
- The QA link from ABlyft. The link belongs to your project.
- Open the experiment.
- In the Preview box, choose the Variation to preview, enter the URL to preview and decide with Exclude other running experiments whether other running experiments stay active.
- Click Open with quality assurance tool.
Your website opens in a new tab in preview mode, with the QA tool at the bottom of the page.
Stays active in this tab
The QA tool stays active while you browse your website in the same browser tab, also after reloads and page changes. It ends when you close the tab or the browser session ends.
Tabs
Each tab shows a live counter in its label, for example Pages 2/15 (2 of 15 pages active). All values update every
second, also after page changes in single-page applications and for goals that fire later.
The link icon next to each name opens the page, audience, experiment or goal in ABlyft in a new tab.
Pages
All pages of your project. The counter shows active pages / all pages.
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Name | Name and ID of the page |
| Trigger | How the page is activated |
| State | active if the page matches the current URL, otherwise inactive |
Audiences
All audiences that your experiments use. The counter shows matching audiences / all audiences.
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Name | Name and ID of the audience |
| Rules | Types of targeting rules, for example device or URL |
| Experiments | Experiments that use this audience |
| State | matching, not matching or not evaluated (not checked on this page yet) |
Experiments
All experiments of your project. The counter shows active experiments / all experiments.
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Name | Name and ID of the experiment |
| Variation | The variation you see, or - if the experiment is not active |
| Preview | Dropdown to switch the variation, see Switch variations |
| Status | Status of the experiment in ABlyft, for example Running |
| State | active if the experiment runs on this page, otherwise inactive |
Switch variations
Choose a variation in the Preview dropdown. The page reloads and shows the selected variation in preview mode.
–means that you have not chosen a preview variation for this experiment yet.- You can preview several experiments at once. If you change the variation of one experiment, the previews of all other experiments stay.
- If you were not in preview mode before, all other running experiments keep running normally.
- Long variation names are shortened. Hover over the dropdown to see the full name.
Goals
All goal events that fired during your QA session, the latest at the top. The counter shows the number of recorded goal events.
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Name | Name and ID of the goal |
| Type | Goal type, for example click, pageview or custom |
| Counting | Counting method of the goal |
| Value | Value passed with the event, or none |
| Triggered | When the event fired, for example 12 secs ago |
- The list keeps growing across page changes. Click Clear list to empty it, for example before a new test run.
- Goals are recorded in preview mode only. They are not counted in your experiment results, so testing does not change your data. See Check goals with the QA tool.
Adjust the panel
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Grip bar (edge of the panel) | Drag it to change the height. Double-click it to reset the height. |
− / + | Minimize the panel to a slim header bar, or expand it again. Clicking a tab while minimized also expands it. |
▲ / ▼ | Move the panel to the top or bottom of the page. |
x | Hide the panel for the current page view only. It appears again on the next page load. To keep it out of the way, minimize it instead. |
Height, position, minimized state and the active tab are remembered while you browse in the same tab. On mobile, the panel takes up at most 40% of the screen height by default.
What to check
Use the QA tool to answer questions such as: Is my page targeting matching on this URL? Does my audience match? Did the experiment start, and with which variation? Is my click goal firing, and with which value? If something is wrong, see Experiment does not appear and Verify measurement.
Force a variation
Besides the preview, developers can force a specific variation for a visitor with code, for example to test the real flow,
including goals, in an automated test. See forceVariation.
End the preview
Use the status controls to choose Start to run the experiment, or open the status menu (for example Experiment is in preview) and choose Set back to draft. See Start, pause & finish.
Checklist before the start
- Every variation looks and works correctly on desktop and mobile.
- The experiment runs only on the intended pages (Pages card) and, if used, environments.
- The Audiences tab of the QA tool shows
matchingfor the audiences you expect. - The QA tool shows your goals firing at the right moment.
- Traffic Split & Distribution is as intended.
- Other experiments that run on the same pages do not conflict, see Exclusion groups.