Theme Development
Overview
Elevate works seamlessly with Shopify's theme architecture, but there are some important considerations when making updates to your themes to ensure your A/B tests and theme development workflows continue to run smoothly.
Avoiding conflicts with theme development workflows
Elevate has built-in methods to ensure that visitors participating in theme tests are properly managed when tests conclude or when they shouldn't be included in testing. However, these methods may sometimes interfere with normal theme development and preview workflows. Follow the guidance below to minimize these interferences and keep your workflows running smoothly.
How to use the 'eabUserPreview' parameter to exclude yourself from test behaviors
When a theme test has concluded, Elevate will redirect any visitors from the B variant back to the main theme. This redirection also applies to store owners and developers if your browser was included in the test.
Additionally, if a website visitor is not being tracked by Elevate and is viewing a theme preview, Elevate will redirect them back to the main theme to prevent confusion. This includes store owners and developers previewing themes when your browser doesn't contain Elevate tracking data.
To bypass this behavior when previewing themes, you can append an eabUserPreview=true
parameter to your theme preview URL. This parameter will set an eabUserPreview
cookie in your browser that tells Elevate you are a store owner/developer, and the automatic redirect behavior will be disabled.
Example preview URL with the parameter:
https://yourstore.myshopify.com/?preview_theme_id=1234567890&eabUserPreview=true
This parameter works for:
Preview links you share with team members
Incognito/private browser sessions
Automated testing tools that use browsers (like Selenium or Puppeteer)
How to remove the 'eabUserPreview' exclusion
To reset and re-enable normal visitor redirect behavior, you'll need to remove the eabUserPreview
cookie from your browser:
Open developer tools in your browser (Chrome:
Cmd + Shift + C
on Mac,Ctrl + Shift + C
on Windows)Navigate to the Application/Storage tab and locate the Cookies section
Find your store's domain and look for the
eabUserPreview
cookieDelete the cookie by right-clicking on it and selecting "Delete"
This will remove the exclusion and restore the redirect behavior intended for regular website visitors.
How to check your current 'eabUserPreview' status
If you need to verify whether you're currently excluded from Elevate's redirect behavior, you can check your browser's cookies:
Open developer tools in your browser (Chrome:
Cmd + Shift + C
on Mac,Ctrl + Shift + C
on Windows)Navigate to the Application/Storage tab and locate the Cookies section
Find your store's domain and look for a cookie named
eabUserPreview
Check the value:
If the cookie exists and is set to
true
, you're excluded from redirect behaviorIf the cookie doesn't exist or is set to
false
, normal visitor redirect behavior applies
Troubleshooting
If you encounter issues with your A/B tests after theme updates:
Clear browser cache: Hard refresh your store to ensure you're seeing the latest changes
Check for JavaScript errors: Open browser developer tools and look for any console errors
Use preview parameter: Add
?eabUserPreview=true
to exclude yourself while testing
For additional support, contact our team through the Elevate app dashboard or email support.
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