Understanding interactive flowchart test runs

Interactive flowchart test runs check the segmentation logic of an interactive flowchart. Interactive flowcharts are intended to run on a runtime server with one visitor at a time. However, you can test them in Unica Campaign to ensure that the interactive flowchart creates and assigns visitors to the segments you expect. For a complete test of your interactive flowcharts and how it interacts with your touchpoint, you must deploy the interactive flowchart to a test runtime server.

The method of testing interactive flowcharts is the same as testing batch flowcharts, that is, complete a test run. While the results might seem similar (each segment is assigned some number of members), the way the flowchart assigns the members is different. When you complete a test run of an interactive flowchart, the design environment uses a runtime environment. The runtime environment treats each row in your profile table as a visitor, running each visitor one at a time through the flowchart.

The runtime environment references the customer data that is supplied in tables that are referenced in interactive flowcharts and all real-time data available from event parameters, external callouts, and so on. During a test run, the design environment does not have access to actual real-time data. The design environment uses the data available in your test run table. You must work with your Unica Interact administrator to add sample data into the test run profile that can properly test your interactive flowcharts. For example, if you define segmentation logic that separates audience members that are based on the first digit of their postal code, make sure that you have one entry in your test run profile for each possible first digit.

By default, the Interaction process limits the number of input records in your profile table that is used in a test run, but you can adjust the number of records that are used as needed. The design environment selects the first number of records in audience ID order. For example, if you limit your test run to five records, the design environment uses the first five records in your test run profile table, which is sorted by audience ID.

Note: Interactive flowcharts are not optimized to run with thousands of records. If you start a test run to process a high number of records, the test run might take several minutes to complete.

You can view the results from the last test run only. the design environment deletes all data from the previous test run when starting a new test run. If there are over 1000 entries in your test run, or to view test run data after closing the test run window, the test run data is stored in the following tables in the database that is defined by the testRunDataSource.

  • TestAttr_n. Contains the audience IDs for the Test Run.
  • TestCount_n. Contains the data for the Test Run Cell Counts report, that is, the number of members in each cell.
  • TestError_n. Contains the data for the Test Run Errors report, that is, any errors, if they occurred, in the test run.
  • TestSeg_n. Contains the data for the Test Run Segment Data report, that is, the audience ID and the assigned segment.

The suffix _n indicates the flowchart ID. You can determine the flowchart ID by examining the UA_Flowchart table in the Unica Campaign system tables.