Part 2: Coveo for Sitecore - ML Model - Product Recommendation (PR) - Prerequisites

This is the second part of the series where I write about Coveo ML model for commerce which offers personalized recommendations to enhance customer engagement. In the first article, we discussed various Coveo ML models, including the Product Recommendation (PR) model and its strategies.

In this blog, prerequisites for PR model is listed below.

Coveo Machine Learning Product Recommendation (PR) models leverage usage analytics (UA) events to get trained with user interactions. This will then recommend products based on the strategies used. Since these are related to products, commerce related UA events are necessary. 

Based on the strategies, required events are listed below.

• Strategy: Cart Recommender (cart)

This strategy is used in the cart page where recommendations are made based on the products which are already in the cart. This is based on the UA events from other similar users who either viewed the details page of the product and purchased the product along with the currently added cart products. 

UA Events: detail (viewed details page), purchase (completed the purchase of products)

• Strategy: Frequently Bought Together (frequentBought)

This strategy is used in the product details page or even in quick view page where recommendations are made to purchase along with the currently viewing product. 

UA Events: purchase (completed the purchase of products). Optional: add/remove product to/from cart. 

• Strategy: Frequently Viewed Together (frequentViewed)

This strategy is used in the product details page to recommend other products which are viewed along with the same product by other users.  

UA Events: detail (viewed details page). Optional: click (clicking product links from PDF or even from other recommended product lists)

• Strategy: Popular Items Bought (popularBought)

This strategy is used to recommend popular products based on the number of purchases happening at a particular period of time. This can be used in any section of the site where we want to showcase the popular items which are bought by other customers. Usually it is marketed as trending products. 

UA Events: purchase (completed the purchase of products)

• Strategy: Popular Items Viewed (popularViewed)

This strategy is used to recommend popular products based on the number of times a product is viewed at a particular period of time. This can be used in any section of the site where we want to showcase the popular items which are viewed by other customers. Usually it is used during a big sale event to showcase the popular items which are being viewed by other customers.

UA Events:  detail (viewed details page). Optional: click (clicking product links from PDF or even from other recommended product lists)

• Strategy: User Recommender (user)

This strategy is typically based on the behavior of the user. Recommendations are calculated based on user browsing pattern, product details page views, add/remove or purchase events. This can be used in any section of the site as it is purely based on the user's behavior. 

UA Events: detail (viewed details page). Optional: purchase (completed the purchase of products), add/remove to/from cart.

Based on the requirements, appropriate strategy can be used to get the recommended products. Even though we have multiple strategies, we can create one PR model to train the model with all UA events and then use separate searchHub to target a specific strategy and get recommendation based on the strategy. 

We will implement this in the next blog. 

Sitecore Symposium 2024 - My notes

Sitecore Symposium 2024 was a fantastic event this year! I had the chance to meet with Sitecore experts and learn about their latest products and plans. It was a great opportunity to network and stay up-to-date on the latest trends in digital experiences. I want to acknowledge CloudIQ Technologies for their support in making my participation in the Symposium possible. It was a memorable event.

As a Sitecore MVP, we got lot of insights about Sitecore's product decisions and quick preview of what is going to be shared in the Symposium in the MVP Summit. I was particularly impressed by the insights shared by the Sitecore leadership team. They talked about the future of digital experiences and how Sitecore is evolving to meet the needs of businesses.

Overall, Sitecore Symposium 2024 was a great experience. 

Highlights:

1. Sitecore Stream: A Game-Changer for Digital Experiences: Sitecore announced Sitecore Stream (in the keynote), a powerful new add-on module that can be integrated into any Sitecore ecosystem. This innovative tool is designed to enhance efficiency and productivity for all Sitecore users.

   Whether you're using Sitecore XP on-premises or in the cloud, Sitecore Stream can help you make better decisions faster. Its brand-aware AI ingests and analyzes all of your brand information, providing you with actionable insights that can be used to optimize your marketing campaigns.

   With Sitecore Stream, you'll have the power of AI at your fingertips, enabling you to make more informed decisions and achieve better results.
   
   

   
   
   
   

2. Sitecore DXP: A Strong Foundation for the Future: Despite the focus on cloud-based products and AI at Sitecore Symposium, it's clear that Sitecore DXP is still a vital part of the company's strategy. Many customers expressed interest in the future of DXP, and Sitecore is responding by investing in its development.

   Sitecore Stream is an add-on for XP as well. Sitecore plans to introduce new add-ons for DXP, along with cloud-based tools, to help customers modernize their XM and XP platforms. This approach will allow Sitecore to continue innovating while providing flexibility for customers who prefer on-premises solutions.

   The upcoming release of Sitecore 10.5 in October 2025 is another positive sign for DXP. Sitecore is also improving its XM to XM Cloud migration tools to make the transition easier for customers.
   
   

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

3. Sitecore XM Cloud: Rapid Improvements: 
   

   
   

   
   
   
   
   HIPAA Compliance:
   • This is a crucial factor for FinTech companies, ensuring they can safely handle sensitive customer data.

   Modern Tools:

   • Pages, Site Management, and Forms provide a robust foundation for building and managing digital experiences.
     
     
     

   Performance Enhancements:

   • The new publishing mechanism and support for WebP format contribute to faster load times and improved user experience.
     
     
     
     
     
     

   Data-Driven Marketing:

   • Analytics insights within Pages empower marketers to make informed decisions and optimize campaigns.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

   Generative Copilots:

   • These AI-powered tools streamline campaign setup, A/B testing, and publishing, making it easier for marketers to create effective content.
     

   Open-Source .NET Rendering SDK:

• This is a significant advantage for existing .NET customers, allowing them to leverage their existing skills and resources for XM Cloud migration without requiring extensive training in Next.js.
  
  
  
  
  
  
4. Developer Experience - Freedom of Choice: It has been a central focus at the Symposium. Sitecore's framework-agnostic approach, unlike solutions tied to a specific framework like Next.js, offers developers the freedom to choose the tools and technologies that best align with their project requirements.
   
   
5. OrderCloud: Trade-in, refurbished products and second-hand products have become increasingly popular in recent years. Though OrderCloud was not a prime showcased product in Symposium, Sitecore is working on feature like this. 

Sitecore XM Cloud CLI Cheatsheet updated

I created couple of cheat sheets for XM Cloud CLI earlier this year and it has been viewed more than 5000 times and it has been downloaded more than 1000 times. To keep the cheat sheet up to date, I have updated the cheat sheet and published it. 

To access XM Cloud Cheat Sheet, refer these two links below.

Sitecore XM Cloud CLI Commands List Cheat Sheet by nehem87

Sitecore XM Cloud CLI Cheat Sheet by nehem87

Introducing Sitecore XM (Cloud) Apps REST API

While XM Cloud Deploy APIs are useful to manage Deploy Apps related activities, Sitecore XM Cloud team has released a new set of APIs to manage XM Cloud Apps. This newly introduced APIs can help us to manage the XM Apps collections, sites, analytics, and languages. The online API console released by Sitecore works more like a postman (like in OrderCloud API console) and enables us to use the browser to send the request the environment. 

In order to use this API, JWT token needs to be created. In order to do that, we need to create the automation client in Deploy App and then /oauth/token endpoint is used to get the JWT token along with client id and client secret. Please note that to create client credentials in Deploy App, we need to have Organization Admin or Organization Owner access to Cloud Portal. 

XM Apps API:

• Sites
• List sites
• Create a site
• Retrieve a site
• Update a site
• Delete a site
• Duplicate a site
• Rename a site
• List sites that use an analytics identifier
• Unassign analytics identifiers from sites
• Retrieve the hierarchy of a site's main page
• Retrieve the hierarchy of a page
• List ancestors for a page
• List children for a page
• List hosts for a site
• Create a site host
• Retrieve a site host by host ID
• Update a host by host ID
• Delete a site host by host ID
• List site templates
• Upload a thumbnail for a site

• Collections
• List site collections
• Create a site collection
• Retrieve a site collection
• Update a site collection
• Delete a site collection
• Rename a site collection
• List sites in a site collection

• Jobs
• List site job statuses
• Retrieve a job status

• Languages
• List languages
• Add a language
• List supported languages
• Update a language
• Delete a language

API Console Features:

• Try it functionality to test the API via browser itself. 
• Provides a request payload with explanation of each attributes.
• Ability to set the environment variables
• Ability to set the authorization token.

Try it here. 

Coveo for Sitecore - Using Advanced Field Queries

In Coveo for Sitecore, there are scenarios where we need to create advanced complex queries to get specific results. Though we can achieve most of the search queries using basic queries, advanced queries helps us to narrow the search results. 

When dealing with Coveo Advanced field queries, 

• queries are performed against field values directly and not through the index. 
• can search for special characters in field values. In basic query (which is through index), special characters are not searchable. 
• can be only searched 'with special characters' against fields that have Facet options or Free text search options enabled. 
• drawback with advanced query is that response increases if the number of fields increases, field values and complexity of the query expression. 

Advanced Field Query Syntax

Advanced Query Field Operators

Wildcard Match (*=)

• Handles any wildcard characters (?, *).
• Can use one or more wildcard characters. 

Example: Intel processor containing I9

@processor *= "*I9"

Fuzzy Match (~=)

• Expands search results by permitting slight difference between search query and results. 
• Matches 20% difference from the search query.

Example: "Gigestive Capsules" results in "Digestive Capsules"

@medicine ~= "Gigestive Capsules"

Phonetic Match (%=)

• Transforms query into Phonetic codes, then results that shares similar phonetic code. 

Example: Flour results in Flour and Flower

@type %= "Flour"

Regular Expression Match

• Matches with the regular expression to get accurate results.

Example: Field containing URL with a subdomain URL. - https://prod1-cm.examples.com/product

@clickableuri /= "^https:\/\/[a-zA-Z0-9.-]*\.examples\.com\/.*$"

Scenarios