Tracking and Debugging Events

The Ours platform provides tools to help you track and debug events as they flow through the system. This guide will walk you through:

1. How to track events and verify they’re being received.
2. Debugging tools available in the dashboard.
3. Best practices for identifying and resolving issues.

Verifying Tracked Events

You can verify events have been sent in your Recent Events Dashboard. This dashboard gives you complete visibility into how events are processed.

How to Access the Dashboard

1. Navigate to the Recent Events section in your Ours account.
2. Search for your event by name (e.g., "FormSubmit").
3. Click on the event to view its details, including:
   • Event Properties: Key-value pairs describing the action.
   • User Properties: Information about the user, such as email or city (hashed or redacted).
   • Destinations: The platforms the event was forwarded to.

Debugging Event Issues

If your event doesn’t appear in the Recent Events dashboard or doesn’t behave as expected, follow these debugging steps:

1. Check Your Installation

• Verify that the tracking script or server-to-server integration is set up correctly. See the Installation guide for details.
• Confirm that the script is loaded on all pages where events are tracked.

2. Confirm the Event is in your Allow List

• Ensure the event is added to your Event Allowlist in the dashboard. Only events allowed for a destination are dispatched to that destination. For more details, see Adding Events to Your Allowlist.

3. Inspect the Browser Console

• Open your browser’s developer tools and look for errors related to the ours function.
• Use console.log to verify that your event properties are being sent correctly.

4. Review Mappers and Privacy Rules

• Check if a custom mapper is modifying your event data before it’s sent to destinations. See Data Mapping for more details.
• Ensure that privacy rules, such as hashing or redaction, are not unintentionally altering critical data.

5. Inspect Destinations

• Confirm that your destinations are correctly configured in the Ours dashboard. Each destination may have specific requirements for the event structure. See the Destinations Overview.

Using Test Tokens for Debugging

The Test Token feature allows you to debug events without forwarding them to destinations. Events tracked with a test token are logged in the dashboard but ignored by destinations.

How to Use a Test Token

1. Copy your test token in the Test Token section.
2. Add the token as a parameter to your tracking script or server-to-server requests.
3. Track events as usual and verify them in the Recent Events dashboard.

Using a test token is a safe way to ensure your events are tracked correctly without affecting production data.

Common Debugging Scenarios

Missing Event in Dashboard

• Cause: The script isn’t properly installed or your trigger is not sending the event to Ours.
• Solution: Check your GTM setup or custom track code setup to make sure Ours is loaded and sending the event.

Incorrect User Properties

• Cause: User properties are not being set or formatted correctly.
• Solution: Ensure the ours('track', 'Event Name', {color: 'red'}, {email: '[email protected]' }) function includes the correct user properties. See User Properties Overview.

Event Not Forwarded to Destinations

• Cause: Destination configuration issues, event name is missing from allow list.
• Solution: Verify destination setup and check custom mapper rules in Data Mapping.

Best Practices for Tracking and Debugging

1. Use the Test Token:
   • Debugging with a test token helps avoid cluttering production data.
2. Add Events to Allowed Event List Early:
   • Add events to your Event Allowlist before tracking them.
3. Inspect Events Regularly:
   • Use the Recent Events dashboard to monitor event flow and catch issues early.
4. Validate Destinations:
   • Test each destination’s setup to ensure events are formatted and sent correctly.
5. Leverage Custom Mappers: