Dry Runs | Yext Hitchhikers Platform
Overview
Dry runs allow you to run a connector and view the results without actually applying the results to the account.
When a dry run is initiated, Yext will process the data flowing into the connector, including all selectors, transforms, and mappings. However, these updates will not be sent to Content. Rather, Yext will simply display the results of what changes would occur should the run be executed. Updates are only sent to Content once a dry run’s results are approved by the user.
Triggering a Dry Run
Any connector run can be initiated as a dry run. This can be set in the following ways:
- When manually triggering a run
- On scheduled runs
- By adding the query parameter
dryRun=truewhen sending a request to the/triggerendpoint - By adding the query parameter
dryRun=truewhen sending a request to the/pushendpoint
Reviewing a Dry Run
Once a dry run completes, it will be in the status “Ready for Review.”
The counts of data updates can be viewed in the Connectors UI, or via the API. In the UI, dry run results will be noted with a “Dry Run” pill, to easily distinguish them from updates made by actual connector runs. Detailed results of a dry run are available for download as part of the Results file.
A completed dry run can either be approved or abandoned. If a dry run is approved, the data will not be re-processed. This means that:
- Any changes to the connector configuration or source data made between initiating and approving the dry run will not be reflected in the account.
- If any content included in the dry run is modified between initiating and approving the dry run, the end result of the data in the account may not exactly reflect the displayed results of the dry run. For example, if Entity A was to be updated by the dry run, but then a user deleted Entity A before approving the dry run, Entity A would be processed as a new entity instead of an updated entity.
Dry runs can be approved or abandoned via the Connectors UI or via their respective API endpoints (
/approve
or
/cancel
).
Users have seven days after the dry run was initiated to approve or abandon the run. After seven days, the run is automatically abandoned. Any dry runs that are not in a status of Completed or Completed with Errors cannot be approved.
Limitations
Categories, Google Attributes, and Folders
These fields may be valid in the dry run but ultimately fail on an actual connector run. This is due to additional validation that occurs in downstream services. For example, the system will not validate whether a given category is actually eligible on an entity based on the Yext account subscription.
Additionally, the system cannot detect whether a value in these field types is updated or unchanged compared to the current value. If all other fields on the entity in the dry run are considered unchanged (in addition to any Categories, Google Attributes, and Folders that may be present in the dry run), the entity will be registered in the dry run as “Unchanged.” It will also have a warning indicating that a comparison was not done, and an update could occur to any Categories, Google Attributes, or Folders during an actual connector run.