Testing and Troubleshooting

Mixpanel provides a range of tools that can be leveraged to streamline the Quality Assurance process during implementation. These tools provide the ability to validate event triggers and property values in real-time, ensuring accurate data collection. Additionally, Mixpanel’s debugging and logging features can be employed to identify and rectify integration issues early in the development process.

Debugging and Logging

Enabling debug mode within the Mixpanel SDK aids in troubleshooting and identifying issues early in the implementation process. This generates detailed logs to the browser console or your development platform (e.g., Xcode, Android Studio) for each event and network call, providing valuable insights into the data being sent to Mixpanel. Mixpanel provides this debug mode option across a wide range of SDKs, including JavaScript, React Native, Android, iOS(Objective-C), iOS(Swift), Flutter, Node.js, and PHP.

For example, you can enable debug mode in the JavaScript library by setting the debug configuration to true when initializing the Mixpanel object.

// Create an instance of the Mixpanel object with debug enabled
mixpanel.init("YOUR_PROJECT_TOKEN", {
    debug: true  // enable debug log in console
    }
);

It’s a best practice to disable debug mode when deploying your code to production. This prevents unnecessary logging, which can impact application performance and potentially expose sensitive data. Alternatively, some SDKs allow you to programmatically control debug mode, enabling it only in development environments.

// Assuming you have a way to determine the current environment
const isDevelopment = process.env.NODE_ENV === 'development';
 
// Initialize Mixpanel with debug mode enabled only in development
mixpanel.init("YOUR_PROJECT_TOKEN", {
    debug: isDevelopment
    }
);
 
// Alternatively, you can set debug mode after initialization
mixpanel.set_config({
    debug: isDevelopment
    }
);

In addition to leveraging the debug mode offered by the SDKs, development teams should implement robust error handling for server-side integrations, including direct API calls and any third-party data ingestion tools used with Mixpanel.

Validating Events

Mixpanel’s Events report can be utilized to test and troubleshoot implementation by verifying that events are being triggered as expected and that properties are being populated with the correct values.

To use the Events report for testing and troubleshooting, you can follow the below tips to narrow down the data.

Utilizing the Events Report

See below for more ways to utilize the Events report for troubleshooting.

Inspecting Users

Mixpanel’s Users report can be employed to verify that user profiles are accurately populated, user properties are being tracked correctly, and that identity management is functioning as intended. This is particularly useful for debugging issues related to user identity, segmentation, and ensuring that user data is accurately associated with the correct profiles.

To use the Users report for testing and troubleshooting, follow the below tips to narrow down the data.

Utilizing the Users Report

See below for more ways to utilize the Users report for troubleshooting.

Tracing Identity Management

To accurately assess if a user’s identity is being associated correctly, the User Profile → Activity Feed report is essential, as it is the only report that reflects both pre- and post-login activities, even before the identity resolution process is fully complete.

However, If you suspect issues with user identity association on Simplified API, this Sample Insights report can also be helpful. By examining events sorted by time in a table visualization, and filtering on properties for the specific events in question, you can trace how $user_id and $device_id are being passed. Additionally, you can check for instances where the $identity_failure_reason property has a value of “errAnonDistinctIdAssignedAlready,” which indicates IDs passed are not being associated correctly.

If your Mixpanel project is not utilizing the Simplified API approach, please refer to Mixpanel’s Identity Management Overview guide for comprehensive details and alternative troubleshooting instructions.

Lexicon: Mixpanel’s Data Dictionary

Mixpanel’s Lexicon serves as a central hub for managing metadata related to both Tracked Data (events, event properties, and user properties) and Computed Data (Custom Events, Custom Properties, Lookup Tables, Formulas, and Behaviors) created within the Mixpanel UI.

During implementation and quality assurance tests, it can be invaluable for troubleshooting by allowing you to:

• Review Properties Tracked: Inspect which properties are being tracked for a specific event or compare properties across multiple events to ensure consistency.

• Identify New Events and Properties: Surface new events and user properties that may not have been included in your initial Tracking Plan, helping you maintain data governance.

• Check Naming Consistencies: Verify that event and property names adhere to established standards, preventing inconsistencies that can hinder data analysis.

While this module focuses on Lexicon’s role in testing and troubleshooting, it’s worth noting that Lexicon also plays a key part in Data Governance. This aspect is covered in depth within the Establishing Data Governance module, offered under the Mixpanel Onboarding learning path. For a more comprehensive understanding, refer to Mixpanel’s documentation on Lexicon.

For more in-depth guidance on troubleshooting and debugging your Mixpanel implementation, refer to Mixpanel’s documentation.