Self Serve Batch Testing

Alloy offers a Testing Suite for Journeys which includes Self Serve Batch Testing that can be completed via the Alloy dashboard or the API. Using an Alloy-provided CSV template, a batch of entities can be processed through a Journey with a simple file upload from the dashboard. The file upload tool checks for the required formatting and surfaces any errors directly to users. After the file is accepted, Alloy makes an API call to the Journeys batch endpoint which creates Journey Applications that are viewable in the Application Queue. This functionality is useful for batch testing in Sandbox with fake PII or backtesting in Production with real PII. 

While this article documents how to use this feature in the Alloy dashboard, please refer to our developer documentation for the technical details of batch testing via the API.

Self Serve Batch Testing in the Alloy Dashboard

Follow the steps below to complete batch testing in the Alloy dashboard:

1. Navigate to the Journey version to be batch tested. 
2. Click the Test button.
3. The Testing Suite will open. Select the Batch Test Application Run option, and then click Next.
4.  Select which mode to run the test Sandbox or Production. While Sandbox is ideal for general testing with fake PII, Production is meant for backtesting real customer PII. 
   
   Set a number or leave the Delay between applications option blank. This is an optional field. It's helpful to add a delay between each application if the data services you're running has strict API rate limits. Smaller batch runs of less than 100 applications can typically skip this step, but it will depend on which data services are configured to the Workflows.
   
   Click Next.
5. Click Upload Data.
6. You can upload data by CSV or enter manually. Download a CSV template by clicking the Download Template. Click Choose a file to choose a properly formatted CSV file. 
7. If you upload a CSV file, you'll need to configure the file headers. 
   • Step 2. Set Header - confirm which row in your file has column header names by clicking on the row and then Confirm selection and continue. Click The file has no column names option if your file does now have a row with column names.
   • Step 3. Match Columns - match the column names to an Alloy standard field. Correct any fields that were matched incorrectly. If a row is unmatched and there is no standard option in the drop down, select the Add custom option in the drop down. All unmatched column names or required column name errors must be resolved.
   • Step 4. Bulk Fix - correct any errors with errors. Show rows with errors can file to just show rows with errors.
   • Step 5. Review and submit - submit file once all steps have been completed.
8. After successful file upload, a confirmation message will be displayed in the dashboard. Click Run Test to process the file. Alloy will then submit the file to the Journeys batch endpoint and create Journey Applications for each entity within the file.
9. A loading screen will display the progress of the Journey Application processing. Once this has completed, click View Results. All past tests and results can be viewed from the Test History tab under the Journey versions page.
10. The Application Queue will load filtered for the Journey Applications in the batch. Click the Export CSV button to download a report of these applications and their details.