Debugging Overview | Yext Hitchhikers Platform

What You’ll Learn

In this section, you will learn:

• Frontend vs backend debugging
• What to look out for in each debugging scenario

Frontend vs backend debugging

As a reminder, the Algorithm partners with the backend Search Configuration to understand how to interpret the data in the Knowledge Graph. From there, a result set is selected for a given query and visually displayed based on what we have defined in the frontend. It’s important to remember these relationships as you go through debugging your Search experience so you can understand where the issue is coming from. Is it a frontend issue, or is it a backend issue?

If there is an issue with how something is displayed (like colors, icons, section titles), it is likely a frontend issue. If there is an issue with the result set (nothing being returned when you think it should, queries producing incorrect results, etc..), that’s probably a backend issue!

Debugging and optimizing queries is one of the most important jobs of an admin or developer. This unit will review the tools you have at your disposal, like Experience Training, Search Details screen, and the frontend Code Editor logs, that will make this easier for you.

Here are some common issues you might run into:

Backend issues:

• The number of results in your saved filter is different from the number of results in a given vertical
• Results are unexpectedly matching to a NLP filter
• Entering a search query produced “no results” unexpectedly (e.g., you have the underlying KG content configured but the results are not coming back when searching)
• Data mappings are not appearing on the card (note: this could be a frontend card mapping issue or backend API issue)

Frontend issues:

• Vertical tabs are not appearing
• Vertical section titles are not appearing
• Vertical page is missing a meta title or meta description
• “View all” links lead to a dead page
• Entering a search query produced a blank page
• Data mappings are not appearing on the card (note: this could be a frontend card mapping issue or backend API issue)