Testing an Advertiser's Katalys Plugin

The following outlines how Katalys technology functions with your ecommerce platform (or “store”), and how to test an integration with Katalys software to ensure proper setup.

You either installed or are developing a Katalys plugin. How does one validate it’s working correctly?

What the plugin does, and for what purpose:

1. When a user visits your store via a Katalys affiliate link:

   1. The Katalys plugin should record the user’s visit to the store via the affiliate link using JavaScript running on public pages. See: Custom Integrations | Part-1:-Visitor-Reporting

      1. Why is this important? The affiliate link contains a Traffic Source ID which will get associated with the potential conversion. Without it, the affiliate connection would be lost and the sale would not be attributed to that affiliate.

2. When a user buys a product within your store:

   1. When the “thank you” page is show, the plugin should report the conversion from the thank you page using JavaScript running on the thank you page. See: Custom Integrations | Part-2:-Order-Reporting[inlineExtension]

      1. Why is this important? The previous step already connected the session with the affiliate, but now we need to know that the sale happened and its value, so the commission for the affiliate can be calculated.

3. The store processes the order and changes its state

   1. When the store’s back-end processes the order it changes the order’s state. This state change should be reported by the plugin’s back-end code. See: Postback Implementation | HTTP-Postback

      1. Why is this important? The order might be canceled for any reason; the plugin needs to catch this change and cancel the conversion within Katalys’s data, too.

Preconditions

The following are configuration details that need to be accounted for before an advertiser is able to look at data from the test transaction, that can confirm the integration was successful.

1. The Advertiser Organization has to exist.

2. The Integrator/Tester has to have access to the Advertiser Organization.

3. The Program associated with advertiser has to exist

4. That Program must point to a target page that the integrator manages, where a purchase can be performed.

5. The “Offer” has to be “Active” (visible to Katalys only)

6. The Affiliate has to be known - chose one

7. The Affiliate has to be approved to work with the Advertiser

8. The Payout Stack(s) have to exist in KMP (for Katalys to confirm)

   1. NOTE: If the Payout Stack is 0, the conversion will be marked as ignored

9. The Payout Stack has to work for the chosen Affiliate (for Katalys to confirm)

10. The Integrator/Tester needs an affiliate link to visit and initiate the test

11. A unique tracking value has been added to the affiliate link. ex: aff_sub=test001 , that will be a recognizable indicator of the test transaction.

Testing

1. Paste the affiliate link into the browser and go to that page.

2. Having gone “through” that link, buy a product.

3. Get the order ID from the confirmation email.

Verify via Katalys Marketing Platform (KMP)

1. Login to advertiser’s view

   1. https://app.katalys.com/

   2. If you don’t have an account reach out to Katalys' end ensure the preconditions above are met

2. Verify:

   1. Entry to the store was reported correctly

      1. Navigate to Statistics Reports

         1. 

      2. In Statistics Reports, use filters to find the ___ event.

         1. 

   2. Conversion was reported correctly

      1. Navigate to Conversions Reports

         1. 

      2. In Conversions, use the tools available to find your test conversion

         1. 

   3. Verify the right affiliate was attributed RESUME HERE

      1. TODO: What should I loog for

   4. Order states reports from the plugins back-end (not browser)

      1. TODO: How do I get there

      2. TODO: What should I loog for

Via Kibana - katalys devs

Via Logging - integration developer