Data Design Previews Don't Function as Expected

Definitely noticed this! I’ve ended up previewing each data set, rather than the merge.

At least it’s more functional than the participant preview in Dynamic JO… I’ve found it more useful to build out a Data Design template that I can run a report on to preview the full participant list, and then pull that template into a query to take advantage of the in-program sync when the program runs.

I filter down to one or two records that I know should end up in my final merge at every data point. Then I can preview the final and make sure those 2 records followed through the process.  Once I get the result I expect then I remove those filtered records and run the whole thing.  I have wasted endless hours searching for missing records when they weren’t really missing, it was just the preview decided not to show them. 

There has to be a better way for this to work. One of the big benefits of horizon rules was supposed to be the ability to preview each step of the dataset. But when the preview hardly ever works, we just have to test run the rule and download a bunch of CSVs anyway just like we used to.

Hi @kelly I understand your frustration with the preview function, especially when dealing with complex merges and large data sets. This issue you are encountering relates to how the preview functionality is designed to work.

The Merge Preview function operates by randomly selecting a subset of records to display in the preview. This subset is not always representative of the entire data set or the results of the merge operation. As a result, if the randomly selected records do not meet the filters or merge conditions set in rule, the preview can appear empty or not reflect the actual results you would get from running the actual rule. 
 

One workaround for now as suggested by @lori_dinardo would be to add a filter condition of the records that could satisfy the conditions and then running a preview, i know that this is not an ideal solution but we are looking into ways specifically from UI on how to make this preview function more effectively

​@Dheepak G , we just ran into a case where filtering to a particular person/company still does not give an accurate preview of the data set. We’ve used the filtering trick for awhile to test and troubleshoot new data designs, but it’s not working now. See Ticket # 357823. Can you update us on the work that’s being done to create an accurate preview? I wasted a lot of time testing and then opened the ticket, which wasted your support team’s time. Mentioning ​@lori_dinardo , ​@dayn.johnson , ​@kelly , and ​@spencer_engel in case they don’t get an automated update. 

Are there plans in the roadmap for the merge preview to show data we’d expect to see when we’re building DDs that include one (or more) merges? In all honesty, I’ve found myself building advanced JO queries just so I’m able to download a participant list and generate a “report” that way.