Release Summary – May 16, 2024 (24.10)

The following key features and improvements, along with bug fixes, have been released in Algonomy CXP products in the release version 24.10 during May 03, 2024 - May 16, 2024.

New UI for Guided Selling

We've launched a comprehensive new UI for Guided Selling, now accessible under the Content section in the portal's left navigation. This update significantly enhances usability and provides a visually appealing, intuitive interface that simplifies access to the Guided Selling feature.

New Features Added:

  • Improved UX: The new UI features visual grouping for easier navigation of elements like catalog mapping interactions. It also reduces the number of clicks needed to edit variations, now requiring only two clicks, resulting in a smoother and more user-friendly experience.

  • Branching Option: Previously, there was only a single path option. Now, we have dynamic question paths based on selected answers, allowing personalized quiz paths. For example, in a Gift Finder quiz, for the question "Whom are you gifting?", users can select from several answers such as "child" or "adult." If "child" is selected, the next question will relate to the child's age. If "adult" is selected, the next question will pertain to adults.

  • Improved Code Editor: Offers better capabilities for customizing and managing quizzes.

  • No Limit to the Number of Screens and Answers: Unlike the previous version, which was limited to five questions and five answers per question, the new UI has no such limitations, providing greater flexibility in quiz design.

In addition to the new features, all existing features, including multi-answer selection and log answers to UPS, are retained in the new UI.

Jira: ENG-28121, ENG-27880, ENG-27901, ENG-27878, ENG-27812

Enterprise Dashboard

Composite Outfit (Ensemble AI) - UI changes based on changed API response

To enhance the clickstream tracking capabilities of the Composite Outfit (Ensemble AI) feature, we have implemented UI changes to accommodate the updated API responses. Previously, the API provided only a product ID, but now it sends a comprehensive product object that includes both an ID and click URLs.

The updated API now returns two types of URLs for each product: the clickTrackingUrl and the clickUrl. The clickTrackingUrl helps in logging the click events, while the clickUrl directs users to the respective product pages. This improvement ensures that every product within an outfit on the webpage has both these URLs integrated, allowing for seamless tracking and enhanced user experience.

Jira: ENG-28038

Ensemble AI - Change "Composite Outfit" to "Ensemble AI"

To better reflect the branding and functionality of our feature, we have updated all references of "Composite Outfit" to "Ensemble AI" across the product interface.

The term "Ensemble AI" is now used universally in place of "Composite Outfit" in all areas, including list views, style creation and editing flows, and model options navigation. This update also extends to any other options and settings that previously referenced "Composite Outfit."

Jira: ENG-28074

Support multiple message types for List/Cart/Recs

We have enhanced the List/Cart pages and recommendations to support multiple message types. This allows digital optimization managers to display various messages, ensuring that even if one message type does not meet the threshold, others can be shown.

Now, on list and cart pages, you can:

  • View all available message types.

  • Change the order and priority of messages via drag-and-drop.

  • Show or hide messages as needed.

  • View and edit text and threshold values.

  • Set intervals for message display.

This feature works similarly to the item page, allowing for single or multiple messages to be displayed. If a single message is selected, the highest-priority message meeting the threshold will be shown. If multiple messages are selected, all meeting the threshold will be displayed in priority order.

Jira: ENG-27091

Use backend playservice parameter for enabled, disabled filter selection

We have improved the Search Terms Expansions page by updating the filter functionality for "Enabled in Production" and "Disabled in Production." Previously, filtering was handled via client-side JavaScript, which led to a poor user experience.

Now, selecting these filters triggers a call to the backend playservice, ensuring accurate retrieval of filtered results and maintaining the correct page size of 25 rows. Pagination also correctly interacts with the backend service, ensuring consistent updates.

Jira: ENG-27751

Added support for userAttributeReplace to the p13n.js library

We have added support for userAttributeReplace to the p13n.js library. This update allows customers to dynamically replace user attributes at runtime using the client-side implementation. This feature is already supported for server-side implementations using the recsForPlacements API.

Jira: ENG-24703

Find

Find Response Reporting

We have introduced comprehensive enhancements to the Find Response Reporting feature, empowering merchandisers and Digital Optimization Managers to gain detailed insights into search query results, product positions, and click rates.

Key features include:

  • Identifying product positions: View which products are returned for each search query, their positions, and click counts in each position.

  • Analyzing click data: Determine how often a product appears in specific positions, how many times it is clicked, and identify the most clicked positions for each product and query.

  • Click position analysis: Analyze the number of clicks each product receives in different positions and the overall most clicked positions for a given query.

The report can be filtered by date range with options for Week, Month, Quarter, and Year. The table displays data including: Event Date, Search String, Total Number of Queries, Product Name, External Product ID, Product Position, Total Product Position Count, Total Number of Clicks, Product Position %, and Position Click Rate.

Jira: ENG-27701, ENG-27702, ENG-28128

Engage

Engage Reports - Do not show "All currencies" as an option for KPIs that require currency

We have refined the Engage Reports to ensure accuracy in currency filtering for certain KPIs. Previously, "All currencies" was incorrectly available for KPIs that require a specific currency.

The following KPIs will no longer show "All Currencies" in the currency dropdown and will default to the site's default currency:

  • Site Wide: Average Order Value, Revenue Per Visit, Sales

  • Content Overview: Average Order Value, Revenue Per Visit, Sales

  • Campaign Overview: Average Order Value, Revenue Per Visit, Sales

  • Tag Overview: Average Order Value, Revenue Per Visit, Sales

Jira: ENG-28098

Data Engineering

Merchandising Report - Add Overall Items as a Metric

We have added a new metric, Overall Items, to the Merchandising Report. This allows merchandisers to view the total number of items sold for each product alongside other key metrics.

Jira: ENG-27929

Other Feature Enhancements

The following feature enhancements and upgrades have been made in the release version 24.10 during May 03, 2024 - May 16, 2024.

Jira #

Module/Title

Summary

General Availability

ENG-28042

Enterprise Dashboard:

Show if a selected placement has been deleted in Strategy and Merchandising rules

 

We have added a feature to help optimization managers identify if their rules are pointing to a deleted placement. This allows for timely adjustments to ensure rules are targeting active placements.

For Strategy, Recommendation Restriction, and Recommendation Boosting rules:

If a placement is deleted, a red "Deleted" label will appear next to the placement name on both the list page and the rule detail page. Deleted placements are shown as "placementName (Deleted)," e.g., "Add to cart page.pgtestD1 (Deleted)."

For Advanced Merchandising rules:

Deleted placements are indicated as "placementId (Deleted)," e.g., "1234 (Deleted)," since only IDs are saved with the rule data.

16-May-2024

ENG-27909

Enterprise Dashboard:

Enable Social Proof UI using "social proof data storage enable" config option

 

We've updated the Social Proof feature to provide more control to merchandisers by introducing the "social proof data storage enable" configuration. This replaces the previous "social proof api service enable" configuration, allowing for greater flexibility in enabling and disabling social proof.

This new configuration allows merchandisers to conduct more effective A/B testing by toggling the social proof data storage option. When the "social proof data storage enable" option is checked, the Social Proof UI becomes available, allowing for an easier and more controlled testing environment. This change ensures that social proof can be disabled as part of the control group without affecting other configurations.

16-May-2024

ENG-25912

 

Data Engineering:

Composite Outfit (Ensemble AI) - Logging

 

We've implemented logging for the Composite Outfit (Ensemble AI)I feature to track user interactions and performance. This includes logging views and clicks for products within composite outfits on item pages and other relevant pages. The system now logs experiences played, styles viewed, and product clicks within each outfit, recording the associated outfit and style.

 

The compositeOutfitRecs API has been updated to accept userId, sessionId, and rcs, and the response now includes click URLs for tracking events.

16-May-2024

ENG-27673

 

Data Engineering:

Review Engage max views data pipeline

We've enhanced the content frequency data pipeline in Engage to ensure the view count in Cassandra aligns more closely with the Content report. This update addresses discrepancies in view counts between different data pipelines, improving accuracy.

16-May-2024

ENG-28166

Find:

Search query to vector conversion for Find

We've implemented a batch job to convert search queries into vector representations for use with Find. This job runs daily and processes site-specific files, saving the original search queries and their vectors for Find to utilize.

16-May-2024

ENG-27989

 

Find:

Changes to accommodate reference content event processing in SFI

We've made code fixes in SFI to accommodate reference content event processing. This includes end-to-end validation of reference content type snapshots and data validation in Solr.

16-May-2024

ENG-27141

 

Find:

Handling category events based on propertyStyle

We've updated the system to handle category events based on propertyStyle, ensuring backward compatibility. The updates include support for category names set as baseOnly, fullyCoveredOverride, and overrideWithDefault in category PDC.

16-May-2024

ENG-27999

Recommend:

Change the options in the email image quality Site Config

We've updated the email image quality Site Configuration to align with the new email stack, which now only supports two options: Medium and High.

For sites previously set to Low, the configuration has been updated to Medium. Sites set to Plus Ultra have been updated to High. The Low and Plus Ultra options have been removed, with Medium set as the default value.

16-May-2024

ENG-27817

 

Science:

Modify Image Tagging Enrichment Process to Use Site-Specific Catalog Management Schema

We've enhanced the Image Tagging enrichment process by implementing a site-specific catalog management schema to improve scalability and performance. Existing data has been migrated to the new site-specific tables.

 

Producers and consumers of catalog enrichment jobs now write to the new schema, while the UI/dashboard continues to operate seamlessly without any changes. The system can be rolled back if any issues are identified.

16-May-2024

ENG-27988

Streaming Catalog:

Streaming Catalog to Handle New Snapshot Types

We've enhanced the Streaming Catalog to create snapshots for boost, link, merchandising rules, and autosuggestions. This update ensures comprehensive snapshot capabilities for better data management.

16-May-2024

ENG-28105

 

Deploy top_views, top_products, and top_sellers to production

We've deployed code changes to switch from Yarn to Spark for the top_views, top_products, and top_sellers processes. This involved copying the rrHadoop core jar into the normal directories in Azkaban in production.

16-May-2024

Bug and Support Fixes

The following issues have been fixed in the release version 24.08 during Apr 05, 2024 - Apr 18, 2024.

Jira#

Title

Summary

General Availability

PLAT-3800

 

Find:

Wisdom of Crowd Job - Error on Calling Enrichment Ingest

We've resolved an issue in the Wisdom of Crowd (WOC) job that caused errors when calling the enrichment ingest service. The problem was due to temporary service unavailability from the enrichment ingest endpoint, leading to failed requests.

To resolve this, we've updated the WOC and Global Rank jobs to use the latest rover version (3.8.4). This includes a retry handler in the HTTP client, which automatically retries failed requests up to three times before failing.

16-May-2024

PLAT-3807

 

Find:

Fix for deleteUntouched Scoped Action Deleting Newly Ingested Items

We've fixed an issue where items ingested during a scoped action with the deleteUntouched onClose action were being incorrectly deleted when the scoped action was closed.

Previously, items added after opening a scoped action were deleted upon closing the action. This fix ensures that only untouched items are deleted, preserving newly ingested items as intended.

16-May-2024

PLAT-3804

 

Streaming Catalog:

List Site Subscriptions - Only Active Calculations

We've fixed an issue where subscriptions for inactive calculations were being listed. Now, only subscriptions for active calculations are displayed.

16-May-2024

ENG-28135

 

Find:

Querytag PDC Not Required for Creating Boost, Links, Merchandising Rule, and Autosuggestion Snapshots

We've fixed an issue where creating boost, link, merchandising rule, and autosuggestion snapshots required a querytag PDC for sites with query understanding enabled. This requirement has been removed, allowing snapshots to be created without needing a querytag PDC.

16-May-2024

ENG-28059

 

Find:

SFI Goes Down - Error While Updating Schema Payload on Scoped Action

We've fixed an issue where SFI would go down due to errors while updating the schema payload on a scoped action. This error occurred when attempting to execute schema updates, resulting in service interruptions.

The solution ensures that schema updates are processed correctly without causing errors or service disruptions.

16-May-2024

ENG-28152

Find:

Enable Autocomplete for Product ID

We've enabled the return of product IDs in autocomplete responses for a specific client. Previously, searches by product ID returned empty responses.

We modified the autocomplete fields and config to include product IDs and ensured that TopTrends indexing includes product IDs without causing errors. Sites can now use "PRODUCT_ID" as an indexed type by updating the site config.

16-May-2024

ENG-28011

 

Find:

Bump Streaming Catalog Dependency for SFI

We've resolved an issue in SFI-Solr7 where a NullPointerException occurred during new snapshot requests for boost. This was due to the streaming catalog not properly handling these snapshot types.

We updated the streaming catalog dependency to a higher version for SFI-Solr7, ensuring compatibility and resolving the error.

16-May-2024

ENG-28227

 

Find:

Enable Autocomplete for Product ID

We've resolved an issue related to enabling the return of product IDs in autocomplete responses for a specific client.

16-May-2024