19.3 - 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 19.3 line, followed by the release notes
of previous FAS 19.3 releases.

FAS 19.3 supports Oracle Java 8 VMs. For detailed setup instructions please
refer to the Install Java.

Version: 19.3.2

Release Date: November 12, 2019

FAS 19.3.2 is a maintenance release that introduces: Increase the supported
number of result modifications that can be handled in the Visual Merchandiser.

Improvements & Resolved Issues 

Visual Merchandising Interface

[Fixed] Changed the VM communication with the query engine to a POST to
increase the number of result modifications that can be manipulated.

Version 19.3.1

Release Date: October 24, 2019

FAS 19.3.1 is a maintenance release that introduces: improvements to breadcrumbs
and facet aliases in them, improvements on the login process, bugfixes on
consistency, UI bugfixes, and a backport of the "exact location match" feature.

Facet Aliases in Breadcrumbs

• Aliases can be applied to ranges and lists of values, within a facet to
  an attribute. These can now be enabled in the breadcrumbs of the FAS response.
  They can be seen in both Preview Pages and the Visual Merchandiser.
• There are limitations to the functionality. Only aliases for triggered
• (lateral) facets are shown. The "Categories" attribute is not supported. "Detail" and "Compare" views should be configured additionally via Merchandising Studio in order to visualise the aliases in their breadcrumbs. It is recommended to avoid having multiple aliases for the same range or for the same list of attribute values of the same attribute (either in the same or in a different facet).
• In the release, this functionality is available via a feature toggle (in system.xml) which is off by default.
• More information available in Facet Aliases in Breadcrumbs

Improvements & Resolved Issues

Visual Merchandising Interface

[Fixed] Breadcrumbs for multiselect facet values display incorrect removal links
in Visual Merchandising Interface.

[Fixed] Breadcrumbs for locations with attribute values in Visual Merchandising
Interface: cases "Any value" and "No value".

[Fixed] Result Modification with conflated attribute is not applied correctly when
there is more than one filter.

[Fixed] Error page when blocking second product in Visual Merchandising Interface.
(FAS-16548)

Indexing

[Fixed] Timeout on start of full reindex.

Merchandising Studio & Preview Pages

[New] Limit of login attempts for a certain period of time, based on IP address.
This is in order to avoid brute force attacks in Merchandising Studio. Number of
retries per second can be configured.

[Fixed] Exception when very short time between consecutive login attempts.

[Fixed] Failure during publication of large number of customers.

[Fixed] CSRF functionality issue blocks saving Navigation Index page.

[Fixed] "Allow exact location match" functionality is ported back to FAS 19.3.1.

Merchandising

[Fixed] An A/B tested ranking in a FAS response does not have the id of its A/B
test.

[Fixed] Can't create ranking cocktail if only one scope is defined.

Version 19.3.0 

Release Date: August 30, 2019

FAS 19.3 is a major release. The Query and Data APIs in this version are backward compatible with versions FAS 7.5.x, 8.x.y. and 19.x.y. The Configuration API is backward compatible with FAS 8.x.y and 19.x.y.

The headline feature of the release is the Rankings A/B testing functionality.

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

A/B testing of Ranking Cocktails and Rankings

• From the A/B tests page in the Merchandising studio, you can create an A/B
  tests for item campaigns or ranking rules. You need to select the test type
  as the first step after clicking the "New" button.
  Note: to use A/B testing, your platform needs to integrate with Fredhopper
  Insights.
• You can create an A/B tests for two or more (up to 10) alternative rankings. You can allocate the traffic among the tested rankings. Each alternative ranking can receive 10% to 90% of traffic.
• The rankings you set up in the A/B test will also appear on the Ranking rules page. However, you can manage their content only via A/B test page. On the Ranking rules page, you can change the priority of an A/B tested ranking among other rankings which would be shown on a page.
• If you want to run an A/B test for Ranking Cocktails, you need to create alternative rankings based on the Ranking Cocktails you want to test.
• Publishing of A/B tested rankings works the same way as publishing of A/B tested item campaigns.
• 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 ranking. Once selected, the A/B test along with all its ranking will be deleted, and the winning ranking will appear as a new entry on the Ranking rules page.                                                                                              Note: you will need to publish the deletion of the A/B test and creation of a new ranking.
• 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

Visual Merchandising Interface

[Improved] Improved performance of Visual Merchandiser.

[Fixed] Converting result modification group to handpicked items would add
maximum of 20 items.

Merchandising Studio & Preview Pages

[New] Implemented basic event logging for Merchandising Studio - for login,
password updates and CRUD operations on users.

[Improved] Security improved by CSRF (Cross-site request forgery) prevention
for Merchandising Studio.

[Fixed] Duplicate entity copy created when a label was assigned after copy
operation was performed.

Merchandising

[Fixed] FAS not rendering some campaigns returned by CRU.

Known Issues & Limitations

You cannot select which ranking from a rankings A/B test will be applied on
Preview Pages in the prepublished environment.