CX Capabilities rolling out in April 2020
- Ben Clark
Capabilities rolling out April 2020
Alterian Real-Time CX Platform
Released 8th April 2020
Journey Orchestration
Updated Functionality
Rules
The Rule Logging screen will now show the full log result by double clicking on the row.
Rule Designer
Rule API Testing
You can now directly open the API Testing screen from within Rule Designer, It should open the Rule you are editing. The API testing functionality has an improved look and feel following an upgrade to the latest version.
Rule Groups
Alterian Journey Analytics previously had a section called Journeys. This provided two separate functionalities:
Provided a way for Rules to be grouped together and called in the same invoke with the results provided back in a prioritized list. (Previous to Journeys this was called Delivery Groups)
Provided a way for parameter values to have functional controls. Ensuring these are hidden from certain user groups within Journeys. Confidential, hidden etc.
We have redeveloped this area to provide a more focused set of functionalities.
The ability to set functional controls on the Parameters in a Journey has been removed and has now been moved to Global Parameters. The functionality in Global Pararmeters has been enhanced with more options and control. This now allows the parameter controls to be applied to many more screens, Rules, Rule Designer, Rule Groups etc improving security.
The ability to group together Rules to be called in the same invoke with the results provided back in a prioritized list continues as before. This is now the key function of Rule Groups.
One minor difference here is that the Journey name (now Rule Group) and invoke URL could previously be different. To aid simplicity in the future these will now be created the same with the Rule Group name equalling the Rule Group invoke name.
DDE
Plugins
Realtime Input Step
When creating Rules I can set a maximum exectution time in the Realtime Input step. If the invoke call to this Rule exceeds the timeout then currently the default value is returned.
You can now select different values to be used when a Rule times out and when a Default value is used. You will get the timeout value and HTTP code for a timeout and the default value when this is required.
For backwards compatibility we use the existing default value as both the default and the timeout value if the timeout value is not found.
Access Cache
Access Cache allows quicker addition of fields
The Access Cache plugin has been updated to also make Reading, Deleting or Updating fields in the Cache much smoother following enhancements to writing fields in the last relase. A new “Get Fields” button at the top of the screen pops up a dialogue. Simply select the fields you want in your selection. You can now apply your selection to the screen. We now also default the appropriate column names to match the field name and automatically default the “Timestamp” value to be Timestamp. Both of these defaults can still be changed by the user if required.
Alterian Multi-Armed Bandit Processor
Multi-Armed Bandit now supports setting the Statistical Significance
The Multi-Armed Bandit now allows the user to change the Statistical Significance required before it will make a decision on a “Winner”. This is useful as part of the testing process.
Multi-Armed Bandit now has Parameters for Key elements
The Multi-Armed Bandit now supports Parameters for various key attributes including Table and Statistical Significance. This will allow you to automatically change the statistical significance when in test mode to get results more quickly.
Multi-Armed Bandit now outputs data to allow review of its calculations
The Multi-Armed Bandit step makes calculations each time it runs to decide on the result. Our users may want to examine the results to understand the decisions made and allow further analysis. The Multi-Armed Bandit step will now output fields highlighting the result and the reason for the decision. These are:
MAB_StatisticalSignificance = The Statistical Significance it calculated
MAB_IsSignificant = Did the Statistical Significance it calculated meet the level required by the Rule?
MAB_DidExperiment = If the Result was Statistically Significance, did it experiment?
MAB_OriginalWinner = Once your Rule hits Statistically Significance this is always set to the original winner. If the Rule did experiment, this will be different than the field output.
MAB_Options = The options it considered when selecting a winner and the successes and attempts of each
Other Features
DEV-1687 | A Journey / Rule Group has a number of prioritised outputs - each of which is the JSON provided by one rule. These outputs are ranked (by priority) and deduped (by the response data returned). If two rules return exactly the same data then the duplicate will be omitted from the response. The user can now choose NOT to dedupe the results. To do so simple add a “nodedupe” parameter to the Rule Group query string. The value does not matter it just needs to exist. |
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DEV-1879 | Rules that are deleted are now automatically removed from any Journeys / Rule groups in which they sit. |
Fixes
Multiple fixes within the new functionality.
Rule Groups cannot now have Rules in mixed Targets.
Further Changes
Kettle
As we improve our products to make them more performant and stable we also need to take advantage of updates to the applications that are complementary to our solutions to ensure these are also as effective and stable as possible.
To meet these goals as part of this release the standard version of Pentaho Kettle that we provide will be upgraded from version 7.1 to version 8.3.
We will also from this version onwards be designing specifically for version 8.3. We would recommend our customers download the newest version using the standard download link to benefit from the latest improvements.
Report Issues
To report an issue with the application not detailed here, please contact Technical Support. Please use our Service Desk to report issues.