Create test profiles

Last update: April 8, 2025
CAUTION
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This documentation refers to legacy Journey Orchestration materials which has been replaced by Journey Optimizer. Please contact your account team if you have questions about your access to Journey Orchestration or Journey Optimizer.

Test profiles are required when using the test mode in a journey. To learn how to use the test mode, refer to this section.

There are different ways to create a test profile in Adobe Experience Platform. In this documentation, we focus on two methods: uploading a csv file and using API calls. You can also upload a json file in a dataset, refer to the Data Ingestion documentation.

These import methods also allow you to update profile attributes. This way, you can turn an existing profile into a test profile. Simply use a similar file or API call and only include the “testProfile” field with the value “true”.

Creating a test profile is similar to creating regular profiles in Adobe Experience Platform. For more information, refer to the Real-time Customer Profile documentation.

Prerequisites

In order to be able to create profiles, you first need to create a schema and a dataset in Adobe Experience Platform.

First, you need to create a schema. Follow these steps:

  1. In Adobe Experience Platform, click Schemas, in the left menu.
  2. Click Create schema, in the top right, then select a schema type, for example XDM Individual Profile.
  3. Choose a name for your schema.
  4. In the Mixins section, click Add.
  5. Select the appropriate mixins. Make sure you add the Profile test details mixin. Click Add mixin.

    The list of mixins is displayed on the schema overview screen.
  6. In the list of fields, click on the field that you want to define as the primary identity.
  7. In the Field properties right panel, check the Identity and Primary Identity options and select a namespace. If you want the primary identity to be an email address, choose the Email namespace. Click Apply.
  8. Select the schema and enable the Profile option in the Schema properties.
  9. Click Save.
NOTE
For more information on schema creation, refer to the XDM documentation.

Then you need to create the dataset in which the profiles will be imported. Follow these steps:

  1. In Adobe Experience Platform, click Datasets, in the left menu, then click Create dataset.
  2. Choose Create dataset from schema.
  3. Select the previously created schema then click Next.
  4. Choose a name then click Finish.
  5. Enable the Profile option.
NOTE
For more information on dataset creation, refer to the Catalog Service documentation.

Creating a test profile using a csv file

In Adobe Experience Platform, you can create profiles by uploading a csv file containing the different profile fields into your dataset. This is the easiest method.

  1. Create a simple csv file using a spreadsheet software.
  2. Add one column for each needed field. Make sure you add the primary identity field (“personID” in our example above) and the “testProfile” field set to “true”.
  3. Add one line per profile and fill in the values for each field.
  4. Save the spreadsheet as a csv file. Make sure commas are used as separators.
  5. In Adobe Experience Platform, click Workflows, in the left menu.
  6. Choose Map CSV to XDM schema, then click Launch.
  7. Select the dataset you want to import the profiles into. Click Next.
  8. Click Choose files and select your csv file. When the file is uploaded, click Next.
  9. Map the source csv fields to the schema fields, then click Finish.
  10. The data import begins. The status will move from Processing to Success. Click Preview data set, in the top right.
  11. Check that the test profiles have been correctly added.

Your test profiles are added and can now be used when testing a journey. Refer to this section.

NOTE
For more information on csv imports, refer to the Data Ingestion documentation.