What is Preview Mode?
You can check any tracking URL (ad impression, click, conversion, CAD) calling it in preview mode. A preview tracking request will be processed as closely as possible to the regular one. Some processing parts like the spider treatment have to be skipped. On the other hand, there are some additional checks such as the extended basket evaluation, especially in the preview mode.
No request processing results are stored or counted, so the same tracking URL can be called several times in preview mode. Processing results will be sent back as a JSON object containing all input parameters and calculated values like redirecting location URL and error information.
Working with Preview Mode
Preview mode is activated by adding of parameter preview_mode set to 1 or true to the regular URL.
Preview response always has the HTTP status 200 (OK), regardless of whether a processing error occurs.
Response content is a Json object containing
params - all request parameters like amc
validated parameter values like normalized basket
request specific calculated values like click channel or best matching voucher id on conversions
redirecting location URL
error - object (on processing error) containing code, reason and optional message
attribution information on conversions
explanation of why a click is filtered out due to custom click filters
The error object is always present if processing was unsuccessful
Example CAD preview response:
{ "params" : { "cfd" : "2020-12-14 17:26:49" , "cfs" : "cnf" , "cid" : "186125995" , "ctg" : "New Customer" , "mkey" : "061e6833-d3b6-4fd4-af49-e92e3d99406f" , "preview_mode" : "1" , "trc" : "Tous les supports publicitaires" , "tst" : "1607963209" , "typ" : "d" , "unqid" : "1bec1888-d157-379e-809e-5757d18818ec"} , "real_request_type" : "ConversionAdditionalData" , "request_subtype" : "AdditionalData" , "cfd" : "14.12.20 17:26:49" , "np_free" : { "mkey" : "061e6833-d3b6-4fd4-af49-e92e3d99406f" , "preview_mode" : "1"} , "conversion_id" : "186125995"}
Preview Mode on onpage clicks / conversions
You can let onpage clicks and conversions be called in Preview Mode using internal preview cookie which can be manually set before testing and should be removed afterwards. All tracking requests having this cookie set are treaded as called in Preview Mode.
To set the preview cookie call the following URL:
https://[tracking_domain]/ts/[advertiser_ID]/tsv?settrackingpreviewmode=a
After you have replaced the tracking domain and the ID of the advertiser, the tracking URL will look more or less like this:
https://marketing.net.advertiser.com/ts/i1234567/tsv?settrackingpreviewmode=a
To remove the preview cookie call the following URL
https://[tracking_domain]/ts/[advertiser_ID]/tsv?resettrackingpreviewmode=a