🛠️ [Troubleshooting] How to Force the Display of a Variation?

You may want to switch from one variation to another or force the display of a variation. In this article, you will find three different ways to do so.

 

 

Using the QA Assistant

 

We recommend using the QA Assistant to switch from one variation to another as this is the easiest method. Start by launching the QA Assistant.

 

From the platform: 

  1. Access the QA & Overview step of your campaign.
  2. Click Open QA Assistant. The URL entered in the Main information step opens in a new tab and the QA Assistant opens in a panel at the bottom of your page.

 

Or directly from your website: 

  1. Access your website.
  2. Press [Alt+Q+A] (for Windows) or [Ctrl+Q+A] (for Mac). The QA Assistant opens in a panel at the bottom of your page.

 

The Campaigns tab is displayed by default and divided into two sections: 

  • A list of all the campaigns you are assigned to is shown under "Live campaigns on this page";
  • A list of all the campaigns currently running on your website, whether you are assigned to them or not, is shown under "Live campaigns on this website”.

 

You must be assigned to the campaign in order to switch to another variation. The dropdown menu next to the campaign name allows you to select the variation you want.

 

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Allocating 100% of the traffic to the desired variation

 

From the Traffic allocation step of your campaign, you can allocate 100% of the traffic to the variation you want to see. After saving the modification, you must refresh the tag for your changes to be taken into account in production.


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You can then go to your targeted page where should be able to see the variation. 

 

Heads up ⚡

Modulation changes on a live campaign apply to first-time visitors only (those who are viewing the campaign for the first time). Visitors who have seen one variation will always see the same variation during their sessions since the allocation information is stored in the AB Tasty cookies.

If you have previously been allocated to a variation and want to QA another one, you must clear your cookies or open a window in private mode (with all other windows closed) to be considered a first-time visitor. 



Modifying the ABTasty cookie value

 

AB Tasty works thanks to 2 first-party cookies. One is used as a tracking cookie, and the other is a technical cookie used for various technical purposes and is stored during the current visitor session only.

 

Name 

Purpose

Time-to-live (TTL)

ABTasty

Gathering campaign data: visitor ID, campaignHistory, timestamp, and account settings

13 months

 

The ABTasty cookie has two parts. The first part includes data and details about the visitor.

 

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The second part includes information about the campaign the visitor has been allocated to.

 

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The Campaign ID and Variation ID can be found in the editor.

 

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Once you retrieve the Variation ID, you can force the variation by changing the AB Tasty cookie value in your browser.

  1. Access the URL of your campaign, right-click Inspect, or press [Ctrl+Shift+I] (in Windows) or [Cmd+Shift+I] (in Mac).
  2. Open the Application tab and click Cookies in the left panel.
  3. Select the URL of your website.
  4. Search for the “ABTasty” cookie and click the corresponding line.
    You can see the cookie value with its different parameters.

 

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In this example, the value 757345 corresponds to the test ID and the value 0 corresponds to the Variation ID.
The original variation will always display the value 0 as a variation ID.

 

To force the display of variation 1, you need to change the Variation ID parameter. In our example, it corresponds to value 941354

To replace the variation ID, double-click the Value column, retrieve the parameter you want to change (th), and modify it.

 

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Refresh the page. You should be assigned to the variation.

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