Event alerts

In this guide, you will learn about the event alerts dashboard, how to use these alerts, and how to debug them.

The event alerts dashboard lets you know how healthy your Bloomreach pixel integration is.

It answers the following questions:

Is my site sending the appropriate number of page views and events?
Are my page views and events sending their associated required parameters?
Which Bloomreach features are affected by event data issues?

During integration, the event alerts dashboard helps you understand if your site is sending the appropriate pixel fires and required information so that you know your development work is complete. Post integration, it helps you track and ensure that your site is behaving as expected.

See the feature status section to learn which features are affected by your current event alerts.
See the dashboard actions section to learn how to filter out healthy events, set custom thresholds, and subscribe to email notifications.
See the debugging section to understand pixel alerts and learn how to resolve pixel issues.

Permissions required

If you're assigned the Catalogs & events admin role, you have read and write access to the dashboard. You can view the email list (adding or removing other users' subscriptions) and change the alert threshold.
If you're assigned any other role for the Search product, you have read-only access to the dashboard. These roles let you see the dashboard and subscribe to alerts.

Feature status

The Feature status section shows which Bloomreach features rely on events that currently have issues. Use it to decide which pixel fixes to prioritize and to explain the business impact to your technical team.

Each feature has a status indicator:

Red: at least one event alert that the feature relies on is failing.
Green: none of the event alerts that the feature relies on is failing.

A red feature also shows a short message describing the impact, for example “Performance signals or user identification is degraded.”

Feature status covers the following features: Search ranking, Category ranking, Personalization, A/B tests, Insights reporting, Autosuggest, Recommendations, and Real time segments.

To see what each event alert means, see Event alert definitions.

Note
Feature status is calculated from the same checks and thresholds as the event alerts. A feature can show red if it relies on an event you don’t track, such as Quick View. A green status means no alert has fired, not that every value is correct: many checks only test for missing or empty parameters. If the data still looks wrong, use Event diagnostics.

Dashboard actions

This section introduces you to the operations that you can perform in the event alerts dashboard.

See only events with issues

By default, the dashboard lists every event and its alerts. To focus on what needs fixing, turn on the Only show events with issues toggle. The list then shows only events that have at least one failing alert. Turn it off to see all events again.

Expand an alert to see its failure count and a 30-day chart of failed events.

Set error thresholds for pixel alerts

For each event alert, the error threshold can be customized for each pixel alert. The default error threshold is different for each type of pixel alert.

To set the error threshold, go to a pixel alert and input a value in the Adjust Threshold section. You can leave an optional comment in the Reason for change box. Click Update to save the custom error threshold.

Note
Changing a threshold only changes when the alert fires. It doesn’t fix the underlying issue, and the affected features keep using the same incomplete or incorrect data. Don’t change a threshold to silence an alert that points to a real problem on your site, adjust a threshold only when you know a certain level of variation is normal for your site.

Get email notifications

You can subscribe to email notifications that inform you of pixel failures. Click Subscribe to alerts to subscribe to email notifications.

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You get notifications only for event alerts that are enabled.

If you have the Catalogs & events admin role, you can view the email list. This list contains the emails of all subscribed users. From the email List, you can subscribe or unsubscribe users and adjust the frequency of notifications (daily or weekly).

All registered users for an account, regardless of the role, are eligible to subscribe to email notifications.

To change monitoring settings for event alerts, click the bell icon (see the screenshot below). A blue icon indicates the event alert is currently enabled, and a grey icon indicates it's currently disabled.

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Permissions required
You must be assigned the Catalogs & events admin role to enable or disable the alerts.

Debugging pixel issues

Page view and event volume alerts

The following alerts use this check:

Page views

Category page view volume
Search page view volume
Product page view volume
Conversion page view volume
Homepage page view volume
Thematic page view volume
Other page view volume
Content page view volume

Events

Search event volume
Add to Cart event volume
Suggest event volume
Quick View event volume

This traffic monitor compares the average number of page views or events over the past 14 days of a particular page or event type (for example, product page, category page, or search page) and alerts when a greater than 80% drop in page views occurs. You can customize this threshold.

For example, the alert turns red if your product page view count average over the past 14 days is 7,500 and today's count of product page views is 1,500 or less. There's no alert if you have less than 14 days of data.

The page view or event volume chart shows a 30-day historical view and allows you to switch between a Total Count View and a Percentage Change from Moving Average view.

To debug this traffic alert, it's important to understand where the drop comes from. Sometimes, your site may have a lot less views or conversions that day, and it's advisable to check with your in-house analytics systems to see if this is the case. If your site doesn't have a significant drop that day, go to the next level of debugging other potential root causes.

The Bloomreach pixel dropped on pages or events

Root cause Debugging guidelines

Traffic drop on all page types If you see a traffic drop alert on all page types (Product, Category, Search, Conversion), the Bloomreach pixel could have been dropped on all page types or the entire site.

Traffic drop on a specific page type

Root cause	Debugging guidelines
Traffic drop on all page types	If you see a traffic drop alert on all page types (Product, Category, Search, Conversion), the Bloomreach pixel could have been dropped on all page types or the entire site.
Traffic drop on a specific page type	If your product pages show a large traffic drop, check if the Bloomreach pixel still fires on product pages. If you have different product page templates, check at least one URL from each template. You can use the Bloomreach Pixel Validator Chrome Extension for easy debugging. If you can confirm that the `USER.BR` Pixel no longer fires: Make sure that the Pixel is still integrated. If the pixel is still integrated but doesn't fire, check if there's an error that prevents it from firing. This can happen when a script or other third party pixel fails before the Bloomreach pixel can fire.

If your product pages show a large traffic drop, check if the Bloomreach pixel still fires on product pages. If you have different product page templates, check at least one URL from each template. You can use the Bloomreach Pixel Validator Chrome Extension for easy debugging.

If you can confirm that the USER.BR Pixel no longer fires:

Make sure that the Pixel is still integrated.
If the pixel is still integrated but doesn't fire, check if there's an error that prevents it from firing. This can happen when a script or other third party pixel fails before the Bloomreach pixel can fire.

The Bloomreach pixel dropped on top traffic pages

Root cause	Debugging guidelines
Traffic drop on top traffic pages	This may indicate that the Bloomreach pixel has been dropped on your top traffic pages. Check your analytics system to find your top traffic pages for the particular page type and check if the pixel still fires. You can use the Bloomreach Pixel Validator Chrome Extension for easier debugging.

The Bloomreach pixel page type classification has changed

Root cause Debugging guidelines

The ptype parameter in the page view pixel has changed The Bloomreach pixel expects a ptype parameter for each page type. The valid page types are 'product', 'category', 'search', or 'thematic'. If there's no classification, the parameter defaults to 'other'. For a detailed list of ptype classifications, see the Global Variables Checklist.

The alert may indicate that a ptype classification has changed. For example, a product page whose ptype parameter was 'product', now is 'other'.

Go to a page type that shows the alert and verify the ptype parameter. You can use the Bloomreach Pixel Validator Chrome Extension for debugging.

Root cause	Debugging guidelines
The `ptype` parameter in the page view pixel has changed	The Bloomreach pixel expects a `ptype` parameter for each page type. The valid page types are 'product', 'category', 'search', or 'thematic'. If there's no classification, the parameter defaults to 'other'. For a detailed list of `ptype` classifications, see the Global Variables Checklist. The alert may indicate that a `ptype` classification has changed. For example, a product page whose `ptype` parameter was 'product', now is 'other'. Go to a page type that shows the alert and verify the `ptype` parameter. You can use the Bloomreach Pixel Validator Chrome Extension for debugging.

The drop is caused by weekend or promotion fluctuations

Root cause	Debugging guidelines
Weekend fluctuations	This happens especially on B2B sites where the traffic on weekends drops significantly. If you observe this as a regular pattern, you can ignore the alert.
Promotion fluctuations	A sale or promotion can cause a large spike in traffic, which raises the 14-day average. When the promotion ends and traffic returns to normal, the alert can show this as a drop. If the alert starts shortly after a promotion ends and traffic is back to its usual level, you can ignore it.

The drop is caused by testing

Root cause	Debugging guidelines
Fluctuations caused by testing	A drop & spike pattern can happen if you perform load or stress tests on your site and the test IP is not blocklisted on the Bloomreach analytics system. Let your Bloomreach Integrations Project Manager know about any IPs that you are using for load and performance testing on your production site, so they can be blocklisted from event alerts.

If none of the above root causes explain the issue, contact your Bloomreach Integrations Project Manager during integration or your Customer Success Manager post-integration.

Invalid or Missing Parameters

This parameter monitor tells you how many pixel requests Bloomreach received the previous day where a required parameter was missing or did not pass our validation and what percentage of the total requests are impacted.

The chart shows a 30-day historical view and allows you to switch between a Total Count and a Percentage Change from Moving Average view.
It also provides a Download Failure Examples link with pixel requests that failed the parameter validation to help with your debugging.

Debugging parameter alerts

All parameter alerts follow the same debugging steps. Use the table in the next section to find the parameter each alert checks and what a valid value looks like.

Expand the alert and check the chart. A sudden jump often points to a recent site release or tag manager change. A steady rate usually means the parameter has never been sent correctly.
Click Download Failure Examples below the alert graph. The file lists the URLs where the pixel fired without a valid value for the parameter.
Sort the file by device_type to see whether the issue is limited to one device type, such as mobile or a native app.
Open some of the URLs from the URL column and check the parameter with the Bloomreach Pixel Validator Chrome extension. Check whether the value is missing, sent as an empty string, or in the wrong format.
After your technical team fixes the pixel, check that the events arrive with valid values in Event diagnostics (Live mode, up to 2 hours’ delay). The alert updates after the next daily check.

Note
Most parameter checks only test whether a value is missing, empty or badly formatted. They don’t check that IDs match your catalog. If an alert is green but your data still looks wrong, check the values in Event diagnostics.

For details on what each parameter should contain, see the Pixel parameter reference.

Parameters checked by each alert

Pixel	Alert	Parameter	Valid value
Category page view	Missing cat_id parameters	`cat_id`	The category ID
Category page view	Missing cat parameters	`cat`	The category name
Search page view	Invalid search_term parameters	`search_term`	The search term
Product page view	Missing prod_id parameters	`prod_id`	The product ID
Conversion page view	Invalid basket parameters	`basket`	The list of ordered items, in the documented format
Conversion page view	Invalid basket_value parameters	`basket_value`	The order total, as a number greater than 0
Conversion page view	Invalid quantity / sku / price / prod_id parameters (in basket items)	`quantity`, `sku`, `price`, `prod_id` in each basket item	Quantity and price greater than 0; a valid variant ID and product ID
Conversion page view	Non-unit pricing for basket item price parameters	`price` in each basket item	The price of one unit, not price × quantity
Virtual page view	Empty / Invalid orig_ref_url parameters	`orig_ref_url`	The URL of the previous page
Search event	Invalid q parameters	`q`	The search term
Add to Cart event	Invalid prod_id parameters	`prod_id`	The product ID (not a category ID, such as one starting with `cat_`)
Add to Cart event	Invalid sku parameters	`sku`	The variant ID
Suggest event	Invalid q parameters	`q`	The suggested term the shopper clicked
Suggest event	Invalid aq parameters	`aq`	The text the shopper typed before clicking
Quick View event	Invalid prod_id parameters	`prod_id`	The product ID
Widget pixels (view, click, add to cart)	Invalid WRID / WTY / WID / WQ parameters	`wrid`, `wty`, `wid`, `wq`	The recommendation response ID, widget type, widget ID and widget query
Widget pixels (click, add to cart)	Invalid item_id parameters	`item_id`	The product ID
Widget pixels (add to cart)	Invalid SKU (variant) parameters	`sku`	The variant ID
Content page view	Invalid catalogs parameter	`catalogs`	The content catalog name
All pixels	Invalid uid in Cookie parameters	`uid` in the `_br_uid_2` cookie	A valid visitor ID

Event alerts for multisite accounts

If your account has multiple sites, each site is monitored separately. For example, Pacific Supply has multiple sites: Pacific Supply Master, Pacific Supply Industrial, and Pacific Supply Electrical, among others. The event alerts dashboard shows the pixel integration health of each of these sites on its own.

Note
In multisite accounts, event alerts are available only at the site level. They aren't available at the account level or the site group level.

Updated 27 minutes ago

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