Engage Personalisation

Recommendation.md

Recommendation is the part of Engage Framework of OWCS. To work with recommendation we need to use commercecontext and vdm tags.

GENERAL STEPS TO FOLLOW

1. Create Visitor Attributes and group them into segments
2. Create a satellite:form to collect these visitor attributes
3. Write an element to fetch visitor attributes from form and use them to load recommendations

fetch form values:

String age = ics.GetVar("age1");

Writes the data for a visitor attribute to the Sites-Engage database

<vdm:setscalar attribute="user_age" value='<%=age%>'/>

Here,
user_age : name of the visitor attribute created   
<%=age%> : value retrieved from form

Retrieve and list the assets that match the recommendation constraints passed to the tag

<commercecontext:getrecommendations collectionid='<%=recommendationId %>' maxcount="4" listvarname="personalizedRecommendations"/>

Finally loop the list to fetch the associated assets

Demo code to write form and collect attribute values from user

<satellite:form>
	<input type="text" class="form-control" name="name" placeholder="Enter Name">
	<input type="radio" name="gender" value="M"> Male</label>
	<input type="radio" name="gender" value="F"> Female</label>
	<input type="radio" name="gender" value="O"> Other</label>
	<!--hidden parameters are used as action value's for form, these parameters are passed via url as GET request-->
	<input type="hidden" name="pagename" value="HomePage" />
	<input type="hidden" name="c" value="Page" />
	<input type="hidden" name="cid" value="1374098688016" />
	<input type="submit" value="GO" />
</satellite:form>

Demo code to fetch visitor attributes from form and use them to load recommendations

<%@page import="com.fatwire.system.SessionFactory"%>
<%@page import="com.fatwire.system.Session"%>
<%@page import="com.openmarket.gator.jsp.vdm.Setscalar"%>
<%@page import="java.util.Map"%>
<%@ taglib prefix="cs" uri="futuretense_cs/ftcs1_0.tld"%>
<%@ taglib prefix="asset" uri="futuretense_cs/asset.tld"%>
<%@ taglib prefix="assetset" uri="futuretense_cs/assetset.tld"%>
<%@ taglib prefix="commercecontext" uri="futuretense_cs/commercecontext.tld"%>
<%@ taglib prefix="ics" uri="futuretense_cs/ics.tld"%>
<%@ taglib prefix="listobject" uri="futuretense_cs/listobject.tld"%>
<%@ taglib prefix="render" uri="futuretense_cs/render.tld"%>
<%@ taglib prefix="siteplan" uri="futuretense_cs/siteplan.tld"%>
<%@ taglib prefix="commercecontext" uri="futuretense_cs/commercecontext.tld"%>
<%@ taglib prefix="vdm" uri="futuretense_cs/vdm.tld"%>
<%@ taglib prefix="searchstate" uri="futuretense_cs/searchstate.tld"%>
<%@ page import="COM.FutureTense.Interfaces.*,
                 COM.FutureTense.Util.ftMessage,
                 com.fatwire.assetapi.data.*,
                 com.fatwire.assetapi.*,
                 COM.FutureTense.Util.ftErrors"
%>
<cs:ftcs>
	<%-- Record dependencies for the Template --%>
	<ics:if condition='<%=ics.GetVar("tid") != null%>'>
		<ics:then>
			<render:logdep cid='<%=ics.GetVar("tid")%>' c="Template" />
		</ics:then>
	</ics:if>

<%
	String assetId = ics.GetVar("cid");
	String assetType = ics.GetVar("c");
	String age = ics.GetVar("age1");
	String male = ics.GetVar("male1");
	String female = ics.GetVar("female1");
	String others = ics.GetVar("others1");
	String recommendation = "" , recommendationType = "" , recommendationId = "" ; 
	out.println(age + " " + male + " " + female + " " + others);
	
	ics.ClearErrno();
	if(assetId != null && assetType != null){
		int errorNo = ics.GetErrno();
		out.println("Error : "+ errorNo + "<br/>");
		FTValList inList = new FTValList();
		inList.put("cid",assetId);
		inList.put("c",assetType);
		if(assetId != null && assetType != null)
			ics.CallElement("Logic/LoadAssetInfoEJ", inList);	
		else
			ics.LogMsg("Null Asset Id / Type passed in Load Asset to Call Get Asset from HomePage");	
		
		 recommendation = ics.GetVar("asset:feature_recommendation");
		 recommendationType = recommendation.substring(0,recommendation.indexOf(':'));
		 recommendationId = recommendation.substring(recommendation.indexOf(':')+1);
		 out.println("Reco : " + recommendation + " == " + recommendationType + " == " + recommendationId);
	}
	else
		ics.LogMsg("Null Asset Id / Type passed in HomePage from LoginPage");
		
	if(age != null && !"".equals(age)){
		out.println("In age "  + age);
%>
		<vdm:setscalar attribute="user_age" value='<%=age%>'/>
<%
	}if(male != null && !"".equals(male)){
		out.println("In male "  + male);
%>
		<vdm:setscalar attribute="user_gender" value='<%=male%>'/>
<%		
	}if(female != null && !"".equals(female)){
		out.println("In female "  + female);
 %>	
 		<vdm:setscalar attribute="user_gender" value='<%=female%>'/>
 <%	} %>
 		
 	<commercecontext:calculatesegments/> 
 	 
    <commercecontext:getrecommendations collectionid='<%=recommendationId %>' maxcount="4" listvarname="personalizedRecommendations"/>
 	<ics:if condition='<%=ics.GetList("personalizedRecommendations") != null && ics.GetList("personalizedRecommendations").hasData()%>'>
		 <ics:then>
		 	<ics:listloop listname="personalizedRecommendations">
		 		<ics:listget fieldname="assettype" listname="personalizedRecommendations" output="assetType"/>
		 		<ics:listget fieldname="assetid" listname="personalizedRecommendations" output="assetId"/>
				/*You ca also use asset and assetset tags to load these asets*/
		 		<ics:callelement element="Logic/LoadAssetInfoEJ">
		 			<ics:argument name="c" value='<%=ics.GetVar("assetType") %>'/>
		 			<ics:argument name="cid" value='<%=ics.GetVar("assetId") %>'/>
		 		</ics:callelement>
		 		Body Text : <%=ics.GetVar("asset:body_text") %><br/>
		 	</ics:listloop>
		 </ics:then>
		 <ics:else>
	 		<%out.println("<br/>personalizedRecommendations List Empty<br/>"); %>	
	 	</ics:else>
	 </ics:if>
 	Recommendation Error No: <ics:geterrno/><br/>
 	
 	<ics:clearerrno/>
 	<vdm:getscalar attribute="user_age" varname="varAge"/>
 	<vdm:getscalar attribute="user_gender" varname="varGender"/> 
 	Age 2 : <ics:getvar name="varAge"/><br/>
 	Gender 2 : <ics:getvar name="varGender"/><br/>
 	GetScalar Error No: <ics:geterrno/><br/>
 	 	  	
 	<a href="ContentServer?pagename=form"><button class="btn btn-primary">Back</button></a>
</cs:ftcs>

Refrences

1. Creating Visitor Attributes and Segments
2. Creating and configuring Recommendations
3. Demo on personalisation by Manifesto bloggers