Getting StartedGoing Live

Going Live

This guide covers what you need to do to move from local development to a production deployment serving real traffic.

1. Set Up Your Data Collection Domain

In production, events should be sent to a subdomain you own (e.g. data.yourdomain.com) rather than localhost. This is important for:

  • First-party data collection — the browser sees your subdomain, not a third-party domain
  • Safari ITP compliance — server-set cookies on a first-party domain have no expiry restrictions
  • Ad blocker resilience — first-party traffic is not blocked

DNS Configuration

Create a DNS A record (not CNAME) pointing your data collection subdomain to your Datafly Signal server’s IP address:

data.yourdomain.com  →  A record  →  YOUR_SERVER_IP
⚠️

Use an A record, not a CNAME. Safari ITP treats CNAME-cloaked third-party domains differently from true first-party A records. With an A record, cookies set by the Ingestion Gateway are treated as genuine first-party cookies with no expiry restrictions.

2. Configure the JS Collector for Production

Update the Datafly.js snippet on your website to point to your production endpoint:

_df.load("YOUR_PIPELINE_KEY", {
  endpoint: "https://data.yourdomain.com"
});

Make sure:

  • The endpoint uses https:// (SSL is required in production)
  • The pipeline key matches your production pipeline
  • The snippet is loaded on every page of your site

3. Verify Production Events

Before sending real traffic:

  1. Open the Real-time Debugger in the Management UI.
  2. Visit your production site in a browser and trigger some test events.
  3. Verify that events appear in the debugger and show the correct data.
  4. Check the delivery status — events should show as successfully delivered to each vendor.

Checking Vendor-Side

After verifying events flow through Signal, confirm they arrive at each vendor:

VendorWhere to check
Google Analytics 4GA4 DebugView (Admin > DebugView) or Realtime report
Meta CAPIMeta Events Manager > Test Events
TikTokTikTok Events Manager > Test Events
BigQueryQuery your destination table

For GA4 debugging, you can enable debug_mode in your integration’s defaults. This makes events appear in GA4’s DebugView for real-time inspection. Remember to disable it after testing.

4. Configure the Organisation Data Layer

Before going live with real traffic, review and configure your Org Data Layer settings under Settings in the Management UI:

Consent Enforcement

If your site uses a consent management platform (OneTrust, Cookiebot, etc.), configure consent settings so that events are only delivered to vendors the user has consented to.

Bot Filtering

Enable bot filtering to remove non-human traffic. Signal provides three layers of bot detection:

  • Known bot user agents
  • Data centre IP detection
  • Behavioural analysis

PII Handling

Configure how personally identifiable information is handled:

  • Pass through — send PII as-is (when permitted by the vendor and your privacy policy)
  • Hash — SHA-256 hash PII before delivery (required by Meta CAPI, Google Ads Enhanced Conversions, etc.)
  • Redact — replace PII with a placeholder
  • Drop — remove the field entirely

5. Go Live Checklist

Before removing your existing vendor tags and relying solely on Datafly Signal:

  • Data collection domain is configured with an A record and SSL
  • Datafly.js snippet is on every page with the correct pipeline key and endpoint
  • All required integrations are installed and configured
  • Events are appearing in the Real-time Debugger
  • Events are arriving at each vendor destination (verified vendor-side)
  • Consent enforcement is configured (if applicable)
  • Bot filtering is enabled
  • PII handling is configured
  • Team members have been invited with appropriate roles

Consider running Datafly Signal alongside your existing vendor tags for a period before removing them. This lets you compare data and ensure parity before cutting over.

6. Remove Legacy Vendor Tags

Once you’re confident events are flowing correctly through Datafly Signal, remove the individual vendor JavaScript tags from your site:

  • Google Analytics (gtag.js or analytics.js)
  • Meta Pixel (fbevents.js)
  • TikTok Pixel
  • Any other vendor-specific scripts

Datafly Signal now handles all event collection and delivery server-to-server.

Next Steps

  • Deployment — Production deployment options (Kubernetes, Coolify, AWS, GCP, Azure)
  • Security — Encryption, authentication, RBAC, and consent enforcement
  • Processing — Fine-tune the Org Data Layer and Pipeline Transformation Engine
  • Integrations — Browse the full Integration Library for 120+ vendor destinations
Adding IntegrationsOverview