DMF: QA'ing your Data Layer

This article describes how to QA your Data Layer and any new Data Maps you're ready to deploy.

Deployment Configuration

Now that you have created a Data Map in your account, be sure to set it's dependency on the "Data Manager Framework" custom rule.  This framework powers the entire Data Layer for your site and needs to run first, ideally in your "Global Rule".  Your new Data Map can be delivered to targeted pages or globally as well, depending on the nature of the data that you're mapping, but it must be dependent on the "Data Manager Framework" rule.  If your account does not already contain this custom rule, request it from your Account Manager or open a support ticket by sending an email to support@ensighten.com requesting that the "Data Manager Framework" custom rule be added to your account. 

Once you have the "Data Manager Framework" custom rule loaded and your Data Map set to be dependent on it, you can complete the remainder of your deployment configuration and publish your new Data Layer in order to begin the QA process.

QA Testing Your Data Layer

Here are the chain of QA steps that you might find useful to start with, in order to properly QA or triage your implementation once it has been deployed:

1. Navigate to the page on your site where your new Data Map should be active.  Confirm that you do not, in fact, have a related Javascript error on the page.  This is unlikely because Ensighten wraps all rules with error catching so that the error never bubbles up into your page, but it never hurt to confirm.
2. Next launch the Ensighten Visual Tagger and click on the "Debug" toolkit icon at the bottom.  From there, click on "Rules Inspector" and check to see if any Ensighten-caught errors are displayed.  If so, click the error to see the message and correct your code accordingly.  If not, continue.
3. Next click the "Show Javascript" button in the "Rules Inspector".  A popup should fire with all the rules listed out and uncompressed that are currently being deployed on the page.  Do a quick search and confirm that your rule was even deployed and delivered.  If not, you may not have met your rule's targeting criteria to trigger its delivery.  If this is the case, return to Ensighten Manage and double check your targeting for your Data Layer.  If this is not the case and you do see your code delivered, continue.
4. Return to the "Main Menu" of the Ensighten Visual Tagger and navigate to the "Data Layer > view Data Layer" section.  If your Data Map has been successfully delivered and is functional, you should see your Data Map Name as a button.  Click the button and you will see all the data elements that have been compiled.  Mousing-over each will show you their value at the bottom of the list or, alternatively, clicking each will alert their values. 

If you have delivered more than one Data Map, you will see each as a separate button; simply drill down into each to validate their data.

You can also leverage another handy debug feature to view your Data Layer.  If your Data Maps were compiled using the Ensighten Visual Tagger, you can also reload your page with "?ensightenDebug=1" in the URL and your data elements and their values of your Data Layer will be logged into the browser's developer console.  However, be advised that some older browsers do not have a developer console in which case they do not support this feature and, if your Data Layer was configured manually or without leveraging the Ensighten Visual Tagger, your manual Data Map may not support this feature either.

Once you have resolved your deployment issues and have confirmed that your Data Layer has been populated with data, your Data Layer is now ready to be integrated into other tags or leveraged as you see fit.