Troubleshooting - Why can't I publish my rules from staging to production?

Having trouble publishing your rules from staging to production? Here are a couple of things to check to help you troubleshoot.

Before troubleshooting, it’s important to understand the publishing workflow outlined in the documentation here:

Publishing Workflow

1. A rule is saved.
2. The rule is automatically pushed to your staging site where it can be tested.
3. The saved rule is funneled into the approval queue, where the details of the rule can be viewed in summary.
4. The Approver, Approver & Publisher, or Administrator level user approves the rule.
5. The rule goes into the publishing queue.
6. In the publishing queue, the Admin, Publisher, or Approver & Publisher level user must publish the rule before it goes live.

If you change a published rule, the changes are not published to the site until they have been funneled through the approval process.

This process ensures that only approved rules and rule revisions are published to your live site. The approval process also retains all past and present revision information. Retention makes it easy to follow a rule’s history and pin-points when an issue has occurred

Once you have verified the rule in question has undergone the full publishing workflow, you can start to troubleshoot further. Below are some frequently asked questions pertaining to rules.

F.A.Q.s

My rule is showing as published, but isn't actually getting published.

The first step is to check the history of the rule. You can check the rule by logging in to DTM and editing the rule in question. At the top of the page, there is a box with “Revision #” in it (# corresponds to the revision number for that rule). Click this box to view the rule’s history.

The history page has two columns where you can compare different revisions of the rule. On the latest version of the rule (the highest revision number), check to make sure that the rule indicates that it has been published. Look for message similar to “Published <Publish Date> by <publisher>" in the first section of the column.

If the history is showing as published and you are not seeing the changes on your production site, wait one hour to ensure that the system has time to propagate your changes. If you still experience issues, contact customer care for further troubleshooting.

There is latency in my rule publishing

Start by verifying that the rule has been published using the steps described above. If the rule is showing as published, check to see which hosting option your web property is using.

You can check which hosting option your web property is using by visiting the “embed” tab inside DTM. There is a green check mark next to the hosting option(s) that are currently active.

If your web property is using the Akamai hosting option for library delivery, there can be up to an hour delay between publishes. Typically a publish happens immediately and takes no more than a few minutes to be reflected on the live site. However, if you continue to experience latency over an hour, contact customer care and consider switching to a self-host option.

If you are using one of the self-host options, check your server to ensure that you are serving up the latest library build. You can check the back end or on the live site by using a console command.

To check the version of DTM being served on the site, open the developer console in your favorite browser and type “_satellite.buildDate”. This command returns the date and time that this library was built (within a few minutes of the publish time). You can match the time with the history tab inside DTM to understand which version of the library is being served. Keep in mind the time shown inside DTM is time zone specific whereas the time in the console is UTC time.

My rule is updating in staging but not in production

This issue is usually a sign that the rule has been saved and possibly approved, but hasn't been published. Follow the steps above to verify that the history of the rule shows as published. Next, check to verify the publish being reflected on the site is the most recent publish using the steps above. If the rule is showing as published and the latest publish is being reflected on the site, contact customer care for further troubleshooting.

Tips for troubleshooting

• A change is instantly available via the Staging Library (staging embed code) regardless of if it has been approved or published.

• To check the last time your library has updated, type _satellite.buildDate in the web console and hit enter. This command returns the time and date the file was last updated.

• If Adobe Analytics is correctly installed, then the tool loads in the web console when debugging – ‘_satellite.setDebug(true)’ -  is enabled. The console shows: ‘SATELLITE: Adobe Analytics: loaded.’

If t are set up and functioning correctly, contact Support for further assistance.