Preparing the Real-Time Advisor Environment

This chapter provides an overview of Real-Time Advisor environment preparation and discusses how to:

Build the Real-Time Advisor environment.
Enable a daemon group in PeopleSoft Enterprise Process Scheduler.

Note. This final step occurs outside the Set Up navigation component of PeopleSoft Enterprise Customer Relationship Management (PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM). Its purpose is to accelerate the performance of the recommendation engine. This step must be done to enable the daemon process and ensure accurate and up-to-date recommendations for deployed dialogs.

See Also

Setting Up Real-Time Advisor Dialogs

Understanding Real-Time Advisor Environment Preparation

The PeopleSoft system provides statuses, steps, actions, and several predefined types for enabling Real-Time Advisor automatically. To take full advantage of the Real-Time Advisor, you should review all business processes and determine if there are any additional advisor types or characteristics that are appropriate for the recommendation scenarios and the dataset.

There are two parts to preparing Real-Time Advisor for use by the dialog creators who create the actual recommendation experience in the Advisor Workbench tool:

Define the Real-Time Advisor environment parameters to make dialog building blocks available for the dialog creator.

Environment preparation also ensures that the dialog creator operates under the proper constraints. This preparation includes defining actions, steps, statuses, types, and mapping characteristics.
Create and start Process Scheduler on the application server.

Create a daemon and add it to the application server that is running Real-Time Advisor. This ensures that data is managed effectively and is up-to-date for deployed dialog versions.

See Also

Enterprise PeopleTools 8.48 PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Process Scheduler

Building the Real-Time Advisor Environment

To build the Real-Time Advisor Element, use the Define Steps (RAD_STEPS), Define Actions (RAD_ACTIONS), Define Statuses (RAD_STATUS), Advisor Workbench (RAD_ADVISOR), Define Type (RAD_ADVISOR_TYP), and Define Characteristic Mapping (RAD_CHARA_MAP) components.

This section discusses how to:

Define actions.
Define statuses.
Define steps.
Define the dialog type.
Define characteristic mapping.
Test characteristic mapping.

Pages Used to Build the Real-Time Advisor Environment

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Define Actions	RAD_ACTIONS	Set Up CRM, Product Related, Advisor, Define Actions	Define all available actions. Action buttons control what an end user can do within dialogs.
Define Statuses	RAD_STATUS	Set Up CRM, Product Related, Advisor, Define Statuses	Define all available statuses. Statuses indicate allowable stages for dialog creation.
Define Steps	RAD_STEPS	Set Up CRM, Product Related, Advisor, Define Steps	Define the steps that are necessary to create a dialog.
Define Type	RAD_ADVISOR_TYP	Set Up CRM, Product Related, Advisor, Define Type	Define the type of dialog to create. The type controls the use and functionality of a dialog.
Define Characteristic Mapping	RAD_CHARACTER_MAP	Set Up CRM, Product Related, Advisor, Define Characteristic Mapping	Define mappings to retrieve the data that the Real-Time Advisor recommendation uses.
Test Characteristic Mapping	RAD_REC_ENT_TEST	Set Up CRM, Product Related, Advisor, Define Characteristic Mapping Click the Test Characteristic Mapping link, select either Stored Location or Value Location, and click the Test button.	Test the characteristic mapping of the current definition.

Defining Actions

Access the Define Actions page.

Actions control the flow of a dialog. They are associated with a given page, and they are available to the user to make a decision.

Action Definitions

Action	Create the actions that are available for selection in the Advisor Workbench tool. The dialog creator can select which actions appear on a page based on the defined actions. Actions ultimately appear as buttons on the runtime pages. The PeopleSoft system provides these predefined actions: Next, Recommend, Save, Start Over, Exit, Answers, and Back. There is a 30-character limit.
Sequence	Specify the order of the buttons at runtime. Enter the sequence numerically with the lowest number appearing on the left side of the Real-Time Advisor runtime page.
Label	Enter the name that appears on the action button at runtime. In most cases the action name is the same as the label. There is a 75-character limit.
Description	Enter a description of the action. There is a 254-character limit.
Action Type	Select to determine the behavior of Real-Time Advisor when you click the action button. The values are: Answers: Displays the View Answers page. Back: Displays the preceding page. Exit: Quits the dialog and returns the user to location from which Real-Time Advisor was called. Next: Displays the next page in the dialog, based on the transitions for the page. Recommendation: Provides a list of recommendations based on answers to previous questions and conditions. Save: Prompts the user for a save name and saves the dialog session in its current state. Start Over: Clears all of the existing answers and restarts the dialog.

Defining Statuses

Access the Define Statuses page.

The status indicates the development stage of the dialog. User-defined statuses provide flexibility.

Status Definitions

Description

Enter text that on the Advisor Workbench page and describes the state of the dialog. There is a 30-character limit.

Status Type

Select to specify the state of the dialog version.

Values are:

Archived: The dialog is not currently active.

No version of the dialog is available to be run. This status is for all versions of the dialog.
Deployed: The dialog version can be run by a calling application.
In Progress: The dialog version is in the process of being created or modified.

It is not currently available for calling applications, because it is not yet validated and deployed.
Past Deployed: The dialog version was deployed, but a new version has taken its place.

This version is available only if a saved session requests the version; otherwise, the deployed version of the dialog runs.
Validated: The dialog version has been validated and is ready to be tested or deployed.

Note. If a dialog is deployed, then the deployed version is available to calling applications. If the dialog is edited after deployment, a new version is created and used by the Advisor Workbench tool. The deployed version is still available for use by a calling application and is not changed.

If the edited version or the version in progress is subsequently deployed, then that version automatically becomes the deployed version. Any in-progress versions are not available to calling applications until they are validated and deployed.

If the status of the dialog is set to Archived, then all versions of the dialog are inactive and no longer available to run.

Defining Steps

Access the Define Steps page.

Advisor types can have different dialog creation steps.

Step Definitions

Description

Enter the name of the step. There is a 30-character limit.

Step Explanation

Enter the description of the step. This description appears to the dialog creator in the Advisor Workbench tool. There is a 75-character limit.

Step Type

Select what the Advisor Workbench tool does when the step is activated.

Values are:

Define Target Groups: Define the target groups that are in the weighting model.
Page Management: Lay out dialog pages and the transitions between them.
Select Characteristics: Select the object characteristics to include in the weighting model.
Select Conditions: Select external conditions to influence target groups and transitions.
Select Questions: Select the questions to include in the dialog.

Select questions from an existing question library or create new questions.
Test Dialog: Preview how the dialog appears to users.
Validate Dialog: Check the dialog for errors. This validation must be done before testing or deploying the dialog.

This step automatically saves the dialog before validation.
Weighting Model: Create a recommendation model that targets specific users for recommendations.

Defining Type

Access the Define Type page.

The Define Type page enables you to determine which dialog can be created. You define the recommended object and the steps to use in the dialog. You can use any record in the database as the base recommendation table.

Note. The PeopleSoft system provides the predefined Product Advisor type to recommend products. However, you can set up the system to recommend any object in the database.

Type Details

Advisor Type Name	Enter the name of the advisor type. This name is available from the drop-down list box in the Advisor Workbench tool. There is a 50-character limit. Advisor type is important because it determines the object that a dialog recommends and the kind of dialog you are creating. The PeopleSoft system provides the predefined advisor type called Product Advisor. You use this type to recommend products from the PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM product data model.
Status	Select Active or Inactive for the dialog type.
Description	Enter a description of the type for reference purposes. There is a 254-character limit.
Base Record	Enter the record that contains the information for the recommended object. The system accesses this record to return recommendations.

Cache Options

Cache functionality enhances the performance of the Real-Time Advisor recommendation engine by performing calculations and recommendations only as necessary. After the dialogs are created, the environment creator must perform additional setup from within Process Scheduler. The steps are outlined in the final section of this chapter.

Dialog Refresh (Minutes)

Enter how often the cache refreshes for the dialog type.

Number to Cache

Enter the number of objects to be cached for each target group. The default value is 500. This means that if there are 10 target groups for a dialog, 50,000 objects are cached. This represents the top 500 for each target group.

Cache Record

The Real-Time Advisor recommendation engine uses this table to store the recommendations. The PeopleSoft system provides RAD_PRDCACHE as the cache record for the advisor type named Product Advisor, which is delivered as system data.

To recommend objects other than products, create the advisor type by using a base record other than PROD_ITEM. You must then create a new cache record in the database, and it must contain the following information:

The subrecord RAD_GENKEY_SBR, which is provided with the PeopleSoft system.

Use this subrecord as delivered.
A subrecord that contains the keys for the recommended objects.
The existing field RAD_SCORE.

Use the new record in the Cache Record field.

Base Record Key Fields

Field Name	Select the unique keys to extract from the base record. These keys uniquely identify the recommendable object.
Sequence	Enter the order in which the fields are returned.

Note. The field values are SETID and PRODUCT_ID for the advisor type called Product Advisor, which uses the PROD_ITEM as its base record. These are the keys that identify products in the CRM product data model.

Advisor Steps

Enables you to select the steps that you want to appear and the order in which you want them to appear.

Description	Displays an explanation of the different steps in the type.
Sequence	Enter the order of the steps in the type.
Step Usage	Select Hidden if the step does not appear. Select Shown if the step appears but is optional. Select Required if the step appears and is required.

Note. Advisor types for dialogs that are only used to collect data must contain these required steps: Select Questions, Page Management, Validate Dialog, and Test Dialog.

Advisor types for dialogs that are used to collect data and also provide recommendations should contain these steps: Select Questions, Page Management, Define Target Groups, Select Characteristics, Weighting Model, Validate Dialog, and Test Dialog. Include the Select Conditions step if you want conditions to influence the recommendations or page flow.

Advisor types for dialogs that are used for recommendations (without asking questions) should contain these steps: Select Conditions, Define Target Groups, Select Characteristics, Weighting Model, Validate Dialog, and Test Dialog.

Advisor Status

Description	Displays statuses that are defined in the status definition and enables the user to select the statuses to use for the advisor type.
Show	Select these check boxes to show the dialog creator which statuses to use in the Advisor Workbench tool.

Note. Include a status of every status type when defining the advisor type. The various statuses are required so the Advisor Workbench tool can accurately determine the state of the dialog.

Detail Information

When an end user drills into a recommendation, Real-Time Advisor needs information about the type of information to present and how to present it. In the Detail Information group box, you specify the PeopleCode that the system launches when the user drills into a recommendation.

Application Class ID	Enter the application class that Real-Time Advisor launches at runtime when the user requests more information about a recommended object. The class ID should be Drill, in the advisor type Product Advisor. The advisor type Product Advisor uses the Product Catalog Details page to display details of the recommended object. If the advisor type recommends objects other than products, use the RAD_PRODUCT drill class as an example to create the integration.
Application Class Path	Enter the application package that stores the application class. The class path should be RAD_PRODUCT in the advisor type Product Advisor.
Package Tree Viewer	Click this link to find a specific method for a given path and application class.

See Also

Working with Application Classes

Defining Characteristic Mapping

Access the Define Characteristic Mapping page.

Characteristics are needed to create dialogs to recommend objects. A characteristic is an aspect of the recommended object; it is similar to an attribute or a property. Characteristic mapping enables the dialog creator to create dialogs without needing to understand the technical features of Real-Time Advisor or the underlying data model of the recommended objects.

Note. Use characteristic mappings to retrieve information from any PeopleSoft record. This flexibility enables Real-Time Advisor to expand with the data model.

Characteristic Details

Description	Enter a description that appears to dialog creators in the Advisor Workbench tool. There is a 30-character limit.
Status	Select either Active or Inactive.
Advisor Type	Select to specify the advisor type that uses the characteristic.
External Label	Enter label text that appears in the Real-Time Advisor runtime environment when the recommended object appears in a recommendation.
Test Characteristic Mapping	Click this link to verify that the mapping is valid. Test mappings to ensure that they encompass the appropriate objects and values. Otherwise, recommendation models may not have access to the necessary recommendable objects. Click the Test Characteristic Mapping link to return the objects or values matching the mappings.

Characteristic Types

This information indicates where the characteristic is used in the Real-Time Advisor dialog.

Display	Select to associate the characteristic with a display template. The display template is used at runtime to show information about a given object.
Recommendation	Select to use the characteristic in a recommendation model. In the Advisor Workbench tool, the dialog creator can use the characteristic in a weighting model.
Description	Enter a description for the characteristic. There is a 100-character limit.

Characteristic Stored Location

The recommendation engine uses this location to determine valid objects to recommend based on the Source Record, Field Name, and Where Clause fields.

Source Record

Enter the record from which Real-Time Advisor retrieves valid objects. If you use the PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM product data model, you can enter PROD_ITEM.

Field Name

Select the field for the characteristic. Fields come from the source record.

Where Clause

Select a formatted logic clause to restrict the objects used to recommend products, services, or solutions.

A Where clause enables the use of Boolean logic to limit what the dialog creator can select. The logic at save-time ensures that the Where clause is properly formatted and that values correspond to the field data types. Violations are then identified and appear on the page.

Note. If a table is set-controlled and the restriction is necessary, a characteristic must resolve this restriction in the Where clause.

Characteristic Value Location

The Advisor Workbench tool uses this information in the recommendation model. Objects that match the value are included in the recommendation object pool and are available for recommendations.

Value Type	Select the value type of the characteristic, which is either Numeric or Mapped Value. With the numeric type, the dialog creator can select a range of allowable numbers. With the mapped answer type, a list of values is displayed.
Source Record	Enter the name of the record containing valid answers for the Stored Record field.
Description Field	Select the valid field that stores values for the dialog creator to view (as opposed to what you enter in the Value Field, which is used in the actual evaluation of the recommendation). The dialog creator views this information as a list.
Value Field	Enter the name of the value field. This information is stored and is used for the recommendation. Unlike the description field, the dialog creator cannot view values in this field. It is used in the actual evaluation of the recommendation when comparing the characteristic value against the recommendable objects. Note. In most cases, the value field is the same as the description field.
Value Where Clause	Define a formatted logic clause to limit the answers that appear to the dialog creator. A Where clause enables the use of Boolean logic to limit what the dialog creator can select. The logic at save-time ensures that the Where clause is properly formatted and that values correspond to the field data types. Violations are then identified and appear on the page. Note. If a table is set-controlled and the restriction is necessary, a characteristic must resolve this restriction in the Where clause.

Example: Mapping Attributes

Here is an example characteristic mapping to create a recommendation characteristic that uses product attributes:

Note. Create a SQL view in PeopleSoft Enterprise Application Designer before using attributes in characteristics. These views have already been created for products in the CRM product data model. Use the PROD_ATTR_D_VW view to map product attributes that do not have predefined answers (such as numeric or character), and use the RB_PRDATTMAP_VW view to map product attributes that do have predefined or mapped answers. These views—or the views that you create—can access the attribute base records and the record that contains the attributes attached to the recommended object.

To create the mapping for mapped attributes:

Enter RB_PRDATTMAP_VW as the source record in the Characteristic Stored Location group box.
Select ATTR_ITEM_ID as the field name.
Select ATTRIBUTE_ID as the field name in the Where Clause group box.
Select = as the operator.
Enter the name of the attribute ID in the Character Value field.
Select Mapped Value in the Characteristic Value Location group box.
Enter RB_PRDATTMAP_VW as the source record.
Select ATTR_ITEM_Value as the value in the Description Field.
Select ATTR_ITEM_ID as the value in the Value Field.
Select ATTRIBUTE_ID as the field name in the Where Clause group box.
Select = as the operator.
Enter the name of the attribute ID in the Character Value field.

To create mapping for unmapped attributes:

Enter PROD_ATTR_D_VW as the source record in the Characteristic Stored Location group box.
Select the appropriate field name for the attribute type that you are mapping.

Values are:
- If the attribute type is Numeric, select ATTR_NUMBER.
- If the attribute type is Character, select ATTRIBUTE_VALUE.
- If the attribute type is Date, select ATTR_DATE.
Select ATTRIBUTE_ID as the field name in the Where Clause group box.
Select = as the operator.
Enter the name of the attribute ID in the Character Value field.
Select Mapped Value for date and character attributes in the Characteristic Value Location group box.

Select Numeric for numeric attributes.

Note. If you select Numeric here, then mapping is complete. Otherwise, continue with these final steps.
Enter PROD_ATTR_D_VW as the source record.
Matching the previous selection, select ATTR_NUMBER, ATTRIBUTE_VALUE, or ATTR_DATE as the Description Field and as the Value Field.
Select ATTRIBUTE_ID as the field name in the Where Clause group box.
Select = as the operator.
Select the name of the attribute ID in the Character Value field.

Testing Characteristic Mapping

Access the Test Characteristic Mapping page.

Select either Stored Location or Value Location, and click the Test button to test the characteristic mappings. The test of the characteristic mapping only tests the most recently saved definition.

Characteristic Test Options

*Test	Select either Stored Location or Value Location. Selecting the Stored Location option returns the objects that match the mapping defined in the characteristic stored location. Selecting the Value Location option returns the values that match the mapping defined in the characteristic value location.
Test	Click this button to test the characteristic mapping.
Number Of Test Results	Enter a value to limit the number of test results returned.

Note. If the characteristic is marked as having a value type of Numeric, no values are returned if the Value Location option is selected in the Test field.

Enabling a Daemon Group in Process Scheduler

This section provides an overview of the daemon and discusses how to:

Define a daemon group in Process Scheduler.
Activate the daemon group on the application server.
Run Process Scheduler.

Understanding the Daemon

The Real-Time Advisor recommendation engine uses a cache to precompute recommendations for deployed dialogs. The cache ensures dialogs are run efficiently for the end user. Dialogs that are not yet deployed take longer to run because the recommendation engine uses a series of searches to find the objects to recommend (as opposed to reading directly from a cache). Deployed dialogs always use the cache for recommendations, and they do not perform searches. Therefore, if the dialog versions are deployed, you must run the daemon to ensure recommendations are available and refreshed.

The daemon enables the recommendation engine to fill and refresh its cache, as determined by the configuration settings and the advisor type. When deciding the configuration settings for the daemon, you must understand the dynamics of the recommended object set. In a deployed environment, the cache needs to be refreshed as the object set changes. For example, suppose that you recommend products from a catalog, and you have recently eliminated some products from the catalog. In that case, you would not want the recommendation engine to consider the eliminated products. If you have a highly dynamic set of recommended objects, you must refresh the cache frequently to ensure efficient operation of the engine. If the set of objects is relatively static, the cache refresh does not need to be as frequent.

Note. The daemon and Process Scheduler do not need to be activated for Real-Time Advisor until dialogs have been deployed.

Pages Used to Enable a Daemon Group in Process Scheduler

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Daemon Group	DAEMONGROUP	PeopleTools, Process Scheduler, Daemon Group	Define a daemon group in Process Scheduler.
Server Daemon Details	SERVERDAEMON	PeopleTools, Process Scheduler, Servers, Daemon	Activate the daemon group on the application server. Note. Process Scheduler may be running on multiple servers. Select a server from the Servers search page and access the Daemon page for the selected server.

Page Name

Object Name

Navigation

Usage

Daemon Group

DAEMONGROUP

PeopleTools, Process Scheduler, Daemon Group

Define a daemon group in Process Scheduler.

Server Daemon Details

SERVERDAEMON

PeopleTools, Process Scheduler, Servers, Daemon

Activate the daemon group on the application server.

Note. Process Scheduler may be running on multiple servers. Select a server from the Servers search page and access the Daemon page for the selected server.

Defining a Daemon Group in Process Scheduler

Access the Daemon Group page.

Daemon Group

Displays the program names for the BOBASICS daemon group, which is the default selection. Real-Time Advisor does not appear in this list until you add a row and a lookup program name. Select RAD_CACHE_DMN as the program name.

Note. Click Load All Programs to retrieve the RAD_CACHE_DMN group.

Load All Programs

Click to load the remaining daemon programs, which include the daemon RAD_CACHE_DMN.

Note. Click Lookup Program Name to retrieve the RAD_CACHE_DMN group.

Program Name

Enter the name of the daemon program. In this case, select the RAD_CACHE_DMN daemon group, which is packaged with Real-Time Advisor. Click the Lookup button to verify that the description is Cache Computing AE Daemon.

Activating the Daemon Group on the Application Server

Access the Server Daemon Details page.

Daemon Enabled

Select this check box. A daemon process is an Application Engine process that runs continuously when Process Scheduler is operational. It triggers other Application Engine processes based on the entered daemon group.

Daemon Group

Ensure that BOBASICS appears as the default value. BOBASICS should include the daemon group that you added on the previous page.

Daemon Sleep Time

Enter a sleep time to control the activity of the process. The daemon is a process that runs in the background, but it should not run continuously. The sleep time is the number of minutes that the daemon process waits before it checks for work. When the process becomes active, it checks for processes that have been run and process that need to be run on the process server.

Note. The sleep time should be less than the dialog refresh (in minutes) as defined in the advisor types.

Recycle Count

A cycle is the sequence of sleeping and working. The system automatically counts the number of times that it sleeps and works. When it reaches the recycle count value, the daemon process restarts itself.

Note. For processing errors and cache computation exceptions, check the PeopleSoft Real-Time Advisor log tables.

See Also

Enterprise PeopleTools 8.48 PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Process Scheduler

Running PeopleSoft Process Scheduler

Create and start a Process Scheduler server.

You must create and start a process schedule to finish enabling the daemon. Running Process Scheduler activates the daemon, which periodically updates the Real-Time Advisor cache.

See Also

Enterprise PeopleTools 8.48 PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Process Scheduler

Daemon Enabled	Select this check box. A daemon process is an Application Engine process that runs continuously when Process Scheduler is operational. It triggers other Application Engine processes based on the entered daemon group.
Daemon Group	Ensure that BOBASICS appears as the default value. BOBASICS should include the daemon group that you added on the previous page.
Daemon Sleep Time	Enter a sleep time to control the activity of the process. The daemon is a process that runs in the background, but it should not run continuously. The sleep time is the number of minutes that the daemon process waits before it checks for work. When the process becomes active, it checks for processes that have been run and process that need to be run on the process server. Note. The sleep time should be less than the dialog refresh (in minutes) as defined in the advisor types.
Recycle Count	A cycle is the sequence of sleeping and working. The system automatically counts the number of times that it sleeps and works. When it reaches the recycle count value, the daemon process restarts itself.