Testing your email before using it in a live campaign is extremely important to ensure that your email works as intended for multiple recipients.
Testing an email in the Channels module is a quick way to see the layout of an email without having to set up any Flow logic. However, we always recommend you test an email through a Flow before executing the Flow on Production to make sure that it works as intended.
In this article, you will find information about:
What Works When Testing an Email in the Channels Module
Not all features work when testing through the Channels module. See the table below for the specifics.
Content test with no recipient ID | Content test with recipient ID | Flow Execution | |
Activity is stored | Yes (uses first auto generated test recipient) | Yes | Yes |
Shows Person Data parameters | Yes (e.g. FIRSTNAME) | Yes | Yes |
Functional Links | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Shows Propositions | Yes (uses first auto generated test recipient) | Yes | Yes |
Shows One-to-Many data | No | Yes | Yes |
Shows Global Data Table blocks | No | Yes | Yes |
Shows Data lookup blocks | No | Yes | Yes |
Hides inactive Propositions | No (shows same proposition as seen in the browser when sending) | No | Yes |
Activity shown in reporter | No | No | Yes |
Functional webcopy link | No | No | Yes |
Functional reply-to address | No | No | Yes |
Inserts UTM Parameters | No (UTM Source and UTM Medium is set but UTM Campaign has utm_campaign=preview set) | No (UTM Source and UTM Medium is set but UTM Campaign has 'TempEmail_timestamp' set in epoch format) | Yes |
Requires publish to see changes | No | No | Yes |
Attachment | No | No | Yes |
Testing in content with a recipient ID, without a recipient ID and through Flow Execution
How to Test an Email in the Channels Module
- Log into Staging.
- Open the Channels module.
- Open the email you want to test.
- Click the 'Test' panel in the right sidebar.
- Fill out the 'Email address(es) field' with your email address. Separate with a comma for multiple email addresses.
- Fill out the 'Recipient ID(s)' field with the recipient ID of a test-recipient. This ensures that the email will be sent to you on behalf of that recipient. Separate with a comma for multiple Recipient IDs. You will need to create one or more test recipients on your Staging environment to use as the Recipient ID(s) in this field. You can learn more about how to create a test recipient here.
- Optional: Choose a send date if you want to receive a test, based on a date in the past or future. To send the email based on 'today', leave the field empty.
- Click 'Send' to send the test email to your inbox.
- Verify that the email(s) look as intended for each test recipient's data.
Testing an email by sending the test to the email address: myinbox@agilliccandy.com on behalf of the recipient with the recipient ID me@agilliccandy.com
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