19.2 - Fredhopper Access Server Release Notes

Introduction

These release notes provide an overview of the resolved issues and improvements
of the most recent release of the FAS 19.2 line, followed by the release notes
of previous FAS 19.2 releases.

FAS 19.2 supports Oracle Java 8 VMs. For detailed setup instructions please
refer to the Fredhopper Learning Center. 

Version: 19.2

Release Date: June 18, 2019

FAS 19.2 is a major release. The Query and Data APIs in this version are backward compatible with versions FAS 7.5.x and 8.x.y. The Configuration API is backward compatible with FAS 8.x.y and 19.1.

This release introduces the following notable changes:

• Improved personal data storage and handling
• A/B testing of Item Campaigns

For a complete list of features, improvements, and fixes, see below.

Improved personal data storage and handling

To provide better security and privacy we're introducing an improved system for storing users' data, and authentication in the Merchandising Studio. It is only available for our cloud customers.

Besides improved security and privacy, this also includes the following
changes:

• Merchandising Studio users will now login with their email instead of a
  username.
• A single set of credentials will be stored for each user. This means, that
  users will no longer have to register and validate their email for each
  different environment.

This feature is not enabled by default and will be rolled out gradually.

A/B testing of Item Campaigns

There is a new "A/B Tests" page in the Merchandising Studio.

Note: to use A/B testing, your platform needs to integrate with Fredhopper Insights.

• From that page, you can create an A/B tests for two or more (up to 10) alternative item campaigns. You can allocate the traffic among the tested campaigns. Each alternative item campaign can receive 10% to 90% of traffic.
• The campaigns you set up in the A/B test will also appear on the Campaigns page. However, you can manage their content only via A/B test page. On the Campaigns page, you can change the priority of an A/B tested campaign among other campaigns which would be shown on a page.
• You can publish an A/B test like any other rule. After that, shoppers will see different campaigns from the test, according preconfigured traffic allocation.  (Note: a shopper will always see the same campaign from the A/B test) (Note: on the Preview Pages of the Merchandising Studio, you will see all campaigns from the A/B test together)
• After an A/B test is published, you will be able to analyse insights about the test on the Fredhopper Insights page. This analysis will enable you to pick a winning test. Please refer to the Fredhopper Insights release notes for details.
• Once a winning option has been identified, you can convert the test to a standalone campaign. Once selected, the A/B test along with all its campaigns will be deleted, and the winning campaign will appear as a new entry on the Campaigns page. (Note: you will need to publish the deletion of the A/B test and creation of a new campaign)
• Just like any other rule in the Merchandising Studio, you can edit, delete, or restore an A/B test. Please note that changing the content of campaigns and re-publishing an A/B test may lead to distortion of the results of the test.

Improvements & Resolved Issues

Merchandising Studio & Preview Pages

[New] If your system is integrated with Fredhopper Insights, you can reach the Insights Dashboard from the Merchandising studio.

[Improved] Saving rules in the Merchandising Studio works faster.

[Improved] Make FAS more resilient if there's corrupted data during a publication.

[Fixed] Removed possibility of cross-site scripting (XSS) in Preview Pages.

[Fixed] Various small UI fixes in Merchandising Studio and Visual Merchandising.

[Fixed] Resolved issue with the search test page not working.

[Fixed] Improved performance of Preview Pages when there are custom
triggers with many values.

[Fixed] Some rules didn't trigger after reindex until published again.

[Fixed] Invalid location error when trying to save a rule, which is in a scope with a locale trigger containing a wildcard.

Merchandising

[Fixed] Invalid ranking attributes on higher priority rules not failing gracefully to lower priority rules.

Search and Navigation

[Improve] Remove duplicate log messages when using instant publications.

[Fixed] Redirecting causes errors to be written in the log.

[Fixed] Failure when using the attribute-select-campaign-filter extension.

Upgrading & Migration

FAS 19.2 requires Deployment Agent 2.2.0 or later.