Journey builder email send activity exclusion script issue

Question

I am trying to use an exclusion script in an email send activity to inject data to a data extension. I have no intention of sending the email.

I have tried with both upsertDE() (the email send version of the function) and upsertData() (the script activity and landing page version of the function).

It works 100% of the time when running the script in an email send, script activity or landing page, but does not seem to work as an exclusion script within journey builder.

Exclusion script: TreatAsContent(ContentBlockByKey("test_script"))==1

Content Block with Key 'test_script':

%%[ 
Var @subkey, @content, @name, @result
Set @subkey = _subscriberkey
Set @name = "John"
Set @content = "Hello World"
Set @result = 1
UpsertDE(
"test_script_de"
,1
,"subscriberkey",@subkey 
,"name", @name
,"content",@content
) 
]%% 
%%=v(@result)=%%

Answer 1

You can do this with a little less creativity - the "hacky" approach does have its downsides as stated.

Another suggestion:

You can use an Update Contact Event to write into a separate Data Extension.

Your separate DE needs to have the following configuration:

• Sendable
• A field with the exact name of "SubscriberKey"
• Subscriber Relationship on SubscriberKey = Subscriber Key
• other fields to your liking

Configure the activity in such a fashion that all the "other" fields are populated, but simply ignore the SubscriberKey field in the activity. It will auto-populate in this setup. This will help you track your dynamic journey setup in many cases.

Hope this helps!