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, experiments and goals are active on a page.
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. Share links with the QA tool only with people who may see your
experiments' setup.
QA tool
Open it with Open with quality assurance tool. A panel with the ABlyft logo appears on the page with three tabs. It updates every second while you click through the page.
| Tab | Shows |
|---|---|
| Pages | All pages of the project with their Trigger and whether they are currently active or inactive on this page. |
| Experiments | All experiments with the Variation you see, the Status and whether the experiment is active or inactive. |
| Goals | "Goal events on this page": each goal that fires. See Check goals with the QA tool. |
The names link to the matching entry in ABlyft. Close the panel with the X in the top right.
Use it to answer questions such as: Is my page targeting matching on this URL? Did the experiment start? 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 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.