Test Mode: How it works, what it does, how to send signals in test mode

winsmith commented 2 years ago

Reason

While you develop and/or test your TelemetryDeck-enabled app, you'll also send signals
but these signals are not from actual users
so your analytics results are skewed, which is not cool.
But not sending any signals means you won't be able to find errors in the configuration of the TelemetryDeck SDK
not sending signals means you don't know if things work until you release the app
Not sending signals means you can't prepare your insights for any new signal types or payload types until you've released the app
So we've created Test Mode to distinguish between real signals and signals sent during development and testing

How it works

every signal has an isTestMode parameter that can either be true or false
in the dashboard use the "Test Mode" toggle to either only show signals with isTestMode == true or isTestMode == false

How to send signals in test mode

The SDKs try to infer the isTestMode parameter as best as they can, for example if a DEBUG parameter is present in your development environment, that is used as the value for isTestMode
You can also override the isTestMode parameter just as you would add any other payload parameter to a signal
Note: since signal payloads only support strings, the parameter needs to be either "true" or "false"

Manually set Test Mode in Swift SDK

// An example variable to manually set test mode.
// Set this to `true` or `false` depending on your app's configuration
// or environment or state
let customTestModeParameter = true

TelemetryManager.send(
    "pizzaModeActivated",
    for: "myUserIdentifier",
    with: ["isTestMode": customTestModeParameter ? "true" : "false"]
)

Manually set test mode in JavaScript SDK

// Example initialisation of TelemetryDeck SDK
td = new TelemetryDeck({
  app: ENV.APP.telemetryAppID,
  user: this.user.current?.email ?? 'anonymous',
});

// In our example, the app has a `send` function wrapping the TelemetryDeck SDK
send(payload) {
  // ENV.APP.telemetryIsDebug is an example variable that represents your app's
  // configuration or environment. Replace it with an implementation that fits your
  // app's needs.
  if (ENV.APP.telemetryIsDebug) {
    this.td.signal({...payload, isTestMode: "true"})
    return;
  }

  this.td.signal(payload);
}

winsmith commented 2 years ago

@voidedmain I've updated the ticket with a bit more information -- sorry for the delay. Let me know if you have any questions about the content!

winsmith commented 2 years ago

Just realised there is already an article on test mode: articles/test-mode.md! I think we should update that article instead of writing a new one

voidedmain commented 2 years ago

Thanks for letting me know! Will have a look at it as soon as possible.

TelemetryDeck / docs