Recommendations

Summary

Product Recommendations is currently in BETA! If you would like to participate in the Beta Pilot Program, please contact Mobile Development at Bazaarvoice

This page describes how you configure the Recommendations in your Android Studio project so you can begin to use the funcionality of the Recommendations SDK module.

NOTE: Make sure you have your Shopper Advertising API Key and Client ID before initializing the BVSDK!

Install the SDK

App Gradle - Add dependencies

Include Maven Central repository and add Common and Advertising modules to dependencies

dependencies {
    compile 'com.bazaarvoice.bvandroidsdk:recommendations:3.2.0'
}
repositories {
    mavenCentral()
}

Configure the Recommendations Module:

Extend Application

Create a class that extends android.app.Application and initialize the SDK using its builder. Full list of build options are found in BVSDK.java

public class BVApplication extends Application {

    @Override
    public void onCreate(){
        super.onCreate();

        // Builder used to initialize the Bazaarvoice SDKs
        BVSDK bvsdk = new BVSDK.Builder(this, YOUR_CLIENT_ID)
                .bazaarEnvironment(BazaarEnvironment.PRODUCTION) //Either staging or production. Use corresponding API keys
                .apiKeyShopperAdvertising(YOUR_SHOPPER_ADVERTISING_API_KEY) //Required for Recommendations
                .logLevel(BVLogLevel.INFO)
                .build();
    }
}

###AndroidManifest - set the name of the class for the application entry and request internet permission

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />

    <application
        android:name=".BVApplication">
    </application>

Use the Recommendations API

Set User Information

Once a Recommendations instance has been created, you can also set an authenticated user for profile matching. Please refer to User Authentication for steps on how to accomplish this.

This step is not required, however, the end-user will receive trending product recommendations over personalized recommendations.

To set authenticated user call setUserWithAuthString on your Recommendations instance:

BVSDK.getInstance().setUserAuthString("USER_AUTH_STRING);

Get Recommendations

At this point you should be able to fetch a shopper profile with product recommendations.

BVRecommendations recs = new BVRecommendations();

recs.getRecommendedProducts(20, new BVRecommendations.BVRecommendationsCallback() {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess(List<BVProduct> recommendedProducts) {
       Log.d("Demo", recommendedProducts.toString());
    }

    @Override
    public void onFailure(Throwable throwable) {
       Log.d("Demo", throwable.getMessage());
    }
});

Refer to BVRecommendations.java methods for getting recommendations based on a categoryId or productId. Refer to RecommendationsFragment in the app module for a demo implementation.

Recommendations UI Containers

In order to provide Bazaarvoice with feedback about user interaction that can help produce easier Return On Investment reports, and more accurate future recommendations, you should use one of the provided views to wrap either a single recommended product view, or a group of recommended products views.

Wrap a single recommended product view

Suppose you had the following layout to display a single BVProduct after fetching it as described above,

<LinearLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="horizontal"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="90dp">
        <ImageView
            android:id="@+id/image"
            android:layout_width="90dp"
            android:layout_height="90dp"/>
        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/text"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="90dp" />
</LinearLayout>

In order to take this and provide Bazaarvoice with feedback you should wrap the LinearLayout with the provided BvView,

<com.bazaarvoice.bvandroidsdk.RecommendationView
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@+id/recommendationView"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content">
    <LinearLayout
        android:orientation="horizontal"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="90dp">
            <ImageView
                android:id="@+id/image"
                android:layout_width="90dp"
                android:layout_height="90dp"/>
            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/text"
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="90dp" />
    </LinearLayout>
</com.bazaarvoice.bvandroidsdk.RecommendationView>

Finally, in the code, associate the inflated RecommendationView object with the BVProduct it correlates to. An example of when you would do this is in the getView method of an Adapter

class MyAdapter extends ArrayAdapter<BVProduct> {
    private List<BVProduct> bvProducts;

    @Override
    public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
        ...
        BVProduct currentBvProduct = getItem(position);
        RecommendationView recommendationView = (RecommendationView) convertView.findViewById(R.id.recommendationView);
        recommendationView.setBvProduct(currentBvProduct);
        ...
    }
}

Wrap a group of recommended product views

Suppose you had the following layout to display a group of BVProducts after fetching them as described above,

<android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@+id/recommendationProdRecyclerView"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>

In order to take this and provide Bazaarvoice with feedback you should swap the RecyclerView with the provided RecommendationsRecyclerView,

<com.bazaarvoice.bvandroidsdk.RecommendationsRecyclerView
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@+id/recommendationProdRecyclerView"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>

Extra options to wrap a group of recommended product views

If you wanted to use other ViewGroups in place of a RecyclerView the three other options in the SDK are...

RecommendationsListView

<com.bazaarvoice.bvandroidsdk.RecommendationsListView
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@+id/recommendationProdListView"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>

RecommendationsGridView

<com.bazaarvoice.bvandroidsdk.RecommendationsGridView
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@+id/recommendationProdGridView"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>

RecommendationsContainerView - If you wish to use a different ViewGroup than ListView, GridView, or RecyclerView (such as a LinearLayout) to display RecommendationView objects, than you can simply wrap that with a RecommendationsContainerView.

<com.bazaarvoice.bvandroidsdk.RecommendationsContainerView
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@+id/recommendationProdContainerView"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content">

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content">

        <com.bazaarvoice.bvandroidsdk.RecommendationView
            android:id="@+id/recommendationView1"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content">
            <LinearLayout
                android:orientation="horizontal"
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="90dp">
                    <ImageView
                        android:id="@+id/image"
                        android:layout_width="90dp"
                        android:layout_height="90dp"/>
                    <TextView
                        android:id="@+id/text"
                        android:layout_width="match_parent"
                        android:layout_height="90dp" />
            </LinearLayout>
        </com.bazaarvoice.bvandroidsdk.RecommendationView>

        <com.bazaarvoice.bvandroidsdk.RecommendationView
            android:id="@+id/recommendationView2"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content">
            <LinearLayout
                android:orientation="horizontal"
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="90dp">
                    <ImageView
                        android:id="@+id/image"
                        android:layout_width="90dp"
                        android:layout_height="90dp"/>
                    <TextView
                        android:id="@+id/text"
                        android:layout_width="match_parent"
                        android:layout_height="90dp" />
            </LinearLayout>
        </com.bazaarvoice.bvandroidsdk.RecommendationView>
        
    </LinearLayout>
    
</com.bazaarvoice.bvandroidsdk.RecommendationsContainerView>