Troubleshooting: Web activity does not display in store preview

After you create a web activity, you open store preview to see the results in the e-Marketing Spot. However, the information that is specified in your web activity does not display.

Possible causes, and actions to take

There are many reasons why a web activity might not display when you preview your store. The following table lists some of the most common causes, and suggests actions that you can take.
Tip: To troubleshoot your activity, review the store preview information windows that give details about the data displayed in each e-Marketing Spot on the page. The details include the web activities that were evaluated, the data that was returned to the e-Marketing Spot, and the results of targets. For more information about accessing the information windows in store preview, see Previewing a store.

If your web activity uses the Display Top Browsed or Display Best Sellers action, see also Troubleshooting: Web activity does not display top-browsed or best-seller lists in store preview

Possible causes Actions to take
Your web activity is not activated. Activate your activity by following the instructions in Activating or deactivating an activity.
Your web activity is scheduled to run in the future, but you are viewing store preview by using the current date and time. In the Store Preview Options window, set the date and time according to when your web activity is scheduled to run.
Your web activity is starting and ending at the wrong times. Ask your site administrator to ensure that the time is synchronized between the application server and the database. Your web activity might not display at the correct time if there is a significant time difference between the WebSphere Commerce server and the time returned from the database.
Your web activity contains a target, and you did not meet the target criteria in store preview. Use store preview to meet the target criteria. For example, consider a web activity that uses the Shopping Cart target. If the target criteria is shopping cart contains the AromaStar Deluxe coffee maker, then add the coffee maker to your cart before you view the web activity in the e-Marketing Spot. For more information, see Tips for testing targets in web and dialog activities.
A higher priority web activity is scheduled for the e-Marketing Spot, and that web activity is displayed instead. Use the activity calendar to check whether other web activities are scheduled for the e-Marketing Spot during the same time period. If so, check the value in the Priority column for the other web activities. If the priority of the web activity that you are testing is lower, you can either raise its priority or deactivate the higher priority web activities.
Your site administrator did not enable the Management Center marketing features. As a result, the Marketing tool does not track and record customer behavior, which is required for targeted marketing and personalization. Ask your site administrator to review the configuration information in Enabling Management Center marketing features.
The code in your store pages uses an incompatible format that is preventing certain targets and actions from detecting customer behavior. For example, the Current Page, Online Behavior, and Catalog Browsing Behavior targets, and the Display Recently Viewed action, use specific data in the page URL to detect the store pages that customers are currently viewing or previously browsed. If your store page URLs do not contain compatible data, these targets and actions do not work. Some customization might be required to get the targets and actions working correctly for your store.
Your web activity uses the Recommend Promotion action; however, the promotion that your web activity references is not activated. Ensure that the referenced promotion is activated. To learn about other reasons why a web activity that uses the Recommend Promotion action might not display your content, see Action: Recommend Promotion.
If the web activity does not display certain categories or products, consider the following possible causes:
  • The category or product is not included in the current (default) catalog.
  • The target customer is not entitled to the category or product, for example, because a catalog filter is applied to the customer's contract.
  • The preview date is after the end date for the product.
 If necessary, adjust the web activity or the applicable products, categories, or catalog.