Warnings vs. Errors

[jess-watson]

Hi Paste team,

We're working on improving error handling in Segment Journeys and I'm looking to better understand if these situations would be a warning, an error, a warning that becomes an error, etc.

Types of issues that can occur before publishing a journey:

• Configuration warnings/errors
  Things wrong with my journey setup/structure. I can save my journey if there are configuration warnings/errors, but I need to resolve these in order to publish.
  Example: I have reached my maximum journey limit for my workspace, I haven’t added a destination, I haven’t finished configuring a step.
• Recommendations or warnings (we don't have this yet, but may implement it in the future)
  Surfacing information that could impact the journey, but is not required to publish. Surfacing recommendations on how users can improve/optimize their journey configuration.
  Example: An activation is disabled and we recommend that users enable it before publishing. They can publish whether they enable it or not.

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Based on how warnings vs. errors are described in the Paste docs, my understanding is that we would first surface a configuration issue (like telling the user a step needs input) as a warning, and if the user clicks "Publish" those warnings would become errors. Is this an accurate understanding? Or would these always be errors, regardless of if the user has tried publishing or not?

I understand that the second type of issue (information that could impact a journey's performance but isn't required to publish) would always remain as a warning or as an informational recommendation.

[dosubot[bot]]

The Paste design system differentiates between warnings and errors based on the severity and impact of the issue. Errors are critical and require immediate attention, while warnings indicate issues that can be avoided or need corrective action ^[1][2].

For the first type of issue you mentioned—configuration warnings/errors—it's reasonable to initially surface these as warnings, allowing users to save their journey but requiring resolution before publishing. If a user attempts to publish without resolving these warnings, they could escalate to errors, preventing publication. This approach aligns with the Paste design system's use of warnings for issues that need corrective action and errors for critical issues that must be addressed.

For the second type of issue—recommendations or warnings that aren't required for publishing—these would remain as warnings or informational recommendations, as they don't prevent the journey from being published. This distinction helps maintain clarity and consistency in user experience.

To continue talking to Dosu, mention @dosu.

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[TwilioPasteBot]

Disclaimer: This is a very experimental bot using OpenAI's GPT-4. The answers may not be correct, a human will review the answer and update it if necessary.

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Based on the information provided in the Paste documentation, your understanding of how to handle warnings and errors in Segment Journeys seems accurate.

For configuration warnings/errors that prevent a journey from being published (e.g., maximum journey limit reached, a destination not added, or a step not fully configured), these should initially be presented as warnings. This approach aligns with the Paste guideline to use an error state after a problem occurs, such as when a user attempts to publish a journey without resolving these configuration issues. At that point, the warnings would escalate to errors, indicating that the user must address them to proceed with publishing the journey. This strategy helps in proactively calling the user's attention to issues that need resolution without immediately presenting them as errors, which could be perceived as more critical or urgent.

For recommendations or warnings about potential impacts on the journey's performance that are not mandatory for publishing (e.g., a disabled activation that is recommended to be enabled), these should consistently be treated as warnings or informational recommendations. This is in line with the Paste guideline to use warnings to proactively inform users about situations that could lead to undesirable outcomes or to suggest optimizations, without necessarily blocking an action like publishing a journey.

In summary, your interpretation aligns with the Paste documentation's guidance on using warnings to proactively inform users about issues that could prevent successful actions (like publishing a journey) and escalating those to errors if the action is attempted without resolving the issues. Recommendations or optimizations that don't block publishing should remain as warnings or informational messages.

For more details on handling errors and warnings, you can refer to the Paste documentation on error states: https://paste.twilio.design/patterns/error-state#general.

I also did a search, and I managed to find these other Discussions that might be similar or related to your question. Give them a read to see if they answer your question. If they do, head back here and update this discussion and mark it as answered, pointing others to the related discussion:

• List view data grid questions (updated: 03/21/2025, similarity score: 83%)
• Builder node/step component (updated: 06/10/2024, similarity score: 83%)
• Error functionality recommendation (updated: 04/09/2023, similarity score: 83%)

[hajohnston]

Following up with a specific example here - hypothetically, let's say a user has already published 10 journeys within their workspace (the max limit). The new draft journey the user has started in the screenshot is considered the 11th. Would the notice of "Maximum number of journeys reached" be considered a warning or error? The user can save the journey as draft but they can not publish until they delete at least one of the journeys in their workspace.