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DEV & Testing Workflow

Testing a CMP before going live requires a disciplined setup. This guide walks you through the recommended approach for developing and testing Waulter without affecting your production environment.

The DEV / PROD configuration pair

Create two configurations in the Waulter dashboard:

  • [PROD] My Site — your live configuration, serving real visitors
  • [DEV] My Site — an identical copy used only for testing

The [DEV] and [PROD] prefixes make it impossible to confuse them in the dashboard and in GTM variables.

Never test on your PROD configuration

Testing purposes, GCM mode changes, or text modifications on your production configuration creates noise in your consent statistics and can temporarily affect live GCM signals. Always test on a separate DEV configuration.

Setting up DEV / PROD separation

Option 1: Scenario-based targeting

Create a scenario that routes DEV traffic to the DEV configuration and PROD traffic to PROD:

Rule Condition Target
Rule 1 url contains "staging.example.com" [DEV] configuration
Rule 2 customField1 equals "dev" [DEV] configuration
Fallback — [PROD] configuration

This way, a single Scenario ID in your SDK deployment automatically selects the right configuration based on the environment.

Option 2: Separate Configuration IDs

Use different Configuration IDs in your DEV and PROD environments:

// DEV environment
window.WaulterConfig = { id: "AG0001", useGtm: true }; // DEV config

// PROD environment
window.WaulterConfig = { id: "AG0002", useGtm: true }; // PROD config

In GTM, use a Lookup Table variable to select the right ID based on the hostname:

Input (hostname) Output (Configuration ID)
staging.example.com AG0001 (DEV)
www.example.com AG0002 (PROD)

Whitelisted domains and testing

Your DEV domain (e.g. staging.example.com) should be whitelisted in your DEV configuration. This way:

  • DEV consent events appear in DEV statistics (not polluting PROD stats)
  • You get real data on banner impressions and consent rates during testing

Whitelisting does not gate banner display

Forgetting to whitelist your DEV domain does not prevent the banner from showing. It only means DEV sessions won't be counted in statistics. The banner still works — consent is collected and GCM signals fire.

GTM Preview mode testing

  1. Open GTM Preview for your container.
  2. Navigate to your test site.
  3. Verify in the Tag Assistant panel:
Check Expected
Waulter tag fires On Consent Initialization trigger
gtm.init_consent event Present in the data layer
Default consent state All signals show denied
Accept All Waulter:Decision with decision: "allow", signals change to granted
Reject All Waulter:Decision with decision: "reject", signals remain denied
Mixed consent Waulter:Decision with decision: "mixed", only relevant signals granted
  1. Check the Consent tab in Tag Assistant to verify GCM signal states.

Testing with Google Tag Assistant

For a deeper GCM verification:

  1. Install the Google Tag Assistant browser extension.
  2. Open your test site.
  3. Tag Assistant shows the consent state for each Google tag.
  4. Verify that tags respect the consent signals (fire after consent, blocked before consent).

Copying configuration between DEV and PROD

Once your DEV configuration is finalised:

  1. In the dashboard, use the Duplicate action on your DEV configuration.
  2. Rename the copy with the [PROD] prefix.
  3. Update whitelisted domains to PROD domains.
  4. Update the Configuration ID in your GTM PROD setup (or update the scenario to point to the new config).
  5. Publish your GTM PROD container.

Never manually re-create PROD from scratch

Always duplicate from DEV. This ensures no setting is missed and both environments are identical (except for domain-specific values).

Checklist before go-live

  • [ ] PROD configuration has correct legal texts in all active languages
  • [ ] PROD configuration is active
  • [ ] PROD domain(s) are whitelisted
  • [ ] GTM PROD container uses PROD Configuration ID (or Scenario ID)
  • [ ] GCM mode is set to the agreed mode (Basic or Advanced)
  • [ ] Consent banner tested in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge
  • [ ] Consent banner tested on mobile devices
  • [ ] GTM Preview confirms correct data layer events
  • [ ] Google Tag Assistant confirms GCM signals
  • [ ] Consent-dependent tags fire only after consent
  • [ ] ?no_waulter_cb suppresses the banner on cookie policy pages
  • [ ] Re-open button (openWidget()) works on all pages
  • [ ] Accessibility spot check completed

Debugging tips

Issue How to debug
Banner not appearing Check browser console for errors; verify Configuration ID; check whitelisted domains
Wrong configuration loading Verify Scenario ID and rules; check custom field values; enable debug: true
GCM signals not updating Verify useGtm: true; check GTM container is published; review Tag Assistant
Events not in data layer Check useGtm: true; ensure the tag fires on Consent Initialization
Consent not persisting Check vaswaulter cookie; verify consent duration settings; test in a non-incognito window