Product Recommender

Disclaimer

Please do not email me about this project without reading the disclaimer above.

This project is an add-on for a webstore that sells a product that comes in many different forms. A typical example would be Brodart that sells a zillion different kinds of covers to protect the dust covers of your books. How does a customer figure out which model to order? There are hints scattered all over the website, but the process is so intimidating I gave up looking for a cover for my Concise Oxford English Dictionary Luxury Edition.

Let’s say the Brodart people came to you asking for an Applet or Servlet to make the process easy for the customer. The Applet might ask question such as:

• How big is your book in cm/inches width × height?
• How wide are the flaps on the dust jackt that fold around to the inside in cm/inches?
• Is this for a circulating library or a private collection?
• How many books of this size do you want to cover?
• Is the cover damaged or new?
• Is it a hardcover or softcover?
• What is the ISBN (International Standard Book Number) of the book? Perhaps there is a database somewhere of book dimensions by ISBN. If not, you might be able to create one from information on number of pages, or by tracking whatever your customers tell you about their book measurements.
• …?

Then the program recommends the suitable models, with extended prices. If you hit buy, the program hands the information off to the webstore’s order processor as a chunk of XML (extensible Markup Language).

Let’s say you complete this project, then a Fair Trade coffee online webstore asks you to do the same thing to help people select a coffee. The same basic logic applies:

• How many packages of what size do you want to buy?
• Do you like robusta or arabica (described in terms of taste.)
• Do you like light, medium or dark roast?
• What kind of coffee maker do you have: Melitta, Bodum, drip, percolator…
• …

The structure of the program would be quite similar. The wording of the multiple choice questions would change and the graphics. The hidden catalog numbers passed to the order processor would change. The links to the products to find out more info would change. The decision table rules matching answers to products would change. Perhaps you could describe the program with a script and use the exact same program!

That way the owner of the webstore could fine tune or maintain the Applet himself. You could also write this as a script-driven Servlet. However, a Servlet would be more tedious to write and it would not react as quickly to the customer. The advantage is the customer would not need Java installed in his browser.

Alternatively, you could stomp out a custom Java program from a script, then do some fine tuning to add custom goodies. The problem then is you lose your customisations if you change the script and restomp.

The same logic could apply to webstores that sell sticky labels, paper stock, socks, heritage seeds, marijuana seeds, pepper grinders, blank CDs/DVDs, motherboards, video cards, mice, cook books …

You might approach a number of webstores offering to provide them a program free in return for their help and patience. You write it as a conventional Applet, without using any script. After you have done several stores, you might have a better idea what your script and your run time has to be capable of.

Your program could also be used by affiliates, who don’t own their own webstore, but make money from commissions for referring people to specific products in various webstores.

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