communicode Softwareentwickler Andreas Huhn

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Andreas Huhn

Our decision in favor of Fredhopper was based on different aspects. The system offers an easy-to-use user interface, high availability and is highly scalable thanks to the cloud connection. But Fredhopper is more than just a simple search engine. The recommendation engine enables product recommendations based on user data, which means that the results presented can be highly personalized. This so-called ranking cocktail can be gradually refined so that our customer is slowly introduced to the topic. If you now look at all pages of an online store as a search, the full potential of Fredhopper opens up. Personalized recommendations can be displayed on each page in the frontend and the products can be displayed in the order relevant to the customer. There are also configurable campaigns. Last but not least, our expertise in connecting Fredhopper to Hybris systems also helped in the decision in favor of Fredhopper. 

### project flow 

Before implementation, the individual use cases were first outlined. Campaigns should appear on static and dynamic pages, in the shopping cart, and when an item is added to the cart. But how should the selection of the products to be displayed be made? On the static pages we use campaigns configured by our customer. As a result, the presentation of the static content is completely in the hands of our customers. For dynamic pages (e.g. category pages), we rely on campaigns that are based on the content displayed. Product or assortment-specific campaigns are used in the shopping cart process to inspire store customers to make further purchases. 

Following the specification of the use cases, it was clarified which information is transmitted to the Fredhopper system. Not only the data required for displaying the front end was relevant for this, but also the information that Fredhopper used to select the products. This information resulted in the data model for Fredhopper. 

The data is imported into Fredhopper via a daily full export from the Hybris system, plus delta exports executed several times a day. This export from the Hybris system was addressed first during implementation. We were able to use the specified data model right from the start when implementing the communication between the frontend and Fredhopper. 

The communication between the systems takes place via the API provided by Fredhopper, which significantly increased the speed of implementation. This allowed us to concentrate on interpreting the data provided by the interface for the frontend. Here, the effort could also be minimized by reusing beans already used in the frontend. 

### Exports out of hybris 

A Hybris CronJob transfers the complete product data to Fredhopper once a day. For the full export, all the data of the products and their variants are read out and further values ​​are calculated. This data is then written to a tab-delimited CSV file. In addition, the stocks and approval status are updated several times a day so that only available items are displayed in the shop front end. 

### Playing out the data in the frontend 

First of all, services had to be written in order to prepare the data supplied by Fredhopper accordingly. The goal of being able to reuse the already existing beans of the Solr search to be replaced led to a major conversion of the providers, which now all had to be filled with Fredhopper data. It should be noted here that the shop works entirely via the search function, even navigation links are implemented via the search function. If a new link is to appear in the navigation, all you have to do is create a corresponding link in the CMS system and link it to a search query. Thus, the customer has the navigation in his own hands and can quickly make corrections independently. 

In addition, new campaigns should be implemented with the change of search engine, existing ones can also be configured via Fredhopper. The campaigns can now also be controlled via the CMS. Here, too, existing beans and templates were used for the display. The complexity here lay in the nature of individual campaigns that were supposed to auto

As part of a customer project, the Hybris internal Solr search was to be switched to an external search engine. The customer presented us with several candidates, and we were able to convince him of Fredhopper. 

Suchfeld Grafik und zwei Frauen freuen sich über eine Tasche

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SAP Hybris and Fredhopper 

On 19-20 March 2019, Phantasialand in Brühl will be transformed into "Javaland" for two days and we will be there again this year with numerous colleagues. There is a lot to see, hear and learn, and in view of the full program each of us thinks about which of the topics interests us the most.

**Andreas:**
> Visiting Javaland 2019 is split into two perspectives for me. Despite all the progress on a technical level, I still see great potential for improvement in the working methods. Especially when working with agile and less agile customers in a wide variety of projects. Against this background, I hope to get impulses from other teams and their successes and failures, which will help us to become even better in our daily work. For this reason I would like to <a href="https://programm.javaland.eu/2019/#/scheduledEvent/570024" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">go drinking with Luke Skywalker</a>, while
<a href="https://programm.javaland.eu/2019/#/scheduledEvent/569909" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">the architect talks about his crisis of meaning</a>. After I then
<a href="https://programm.javaland.eu/2019/#/scheduledEvent/569836" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">heard the secret of successful teams</a>
<a href="https://programm.javaland.eu/2019/#/scheduledEvent/569931" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">then I reinvent myself</a> to be able to accept failure more easily , before i then im
<a href="https://programm.javaland.eu/2019/#/scheduledEvent/570002" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Jungle</a>
wake up. At the same time, on the technical side, we see the importance of cloud and microservices becoming more and more important - also in the SAP universe. For this reason, there are also some lectures on these topics on my agenda. The whole thing is crowned by a road trip with a roller coaster, what more could you want...


**Gerrit:**
> At Javaland, I would like to deal primarily with architecture and microservices in order to be able to better evaluate or understand the architectural decisions that are often given to us. Examples are database modeling (relational databases are great) and tracing of microservices, but also structuring of the applications themselves, as well as <a href="https://programm.javaland.eu/2019/#/scheduledEvent/569621" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Event Sourcing</a>
I am also interested in a few other topics that could be a bit more mathematical. One topic that particularly appeals to me is "
<a href="https://programm.javaland.eu/2019/#/scheduledEvent/569844" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Data Science meets Software Data</a>". I used to deal a lot with statistics, so I'm interested in what conclusions can be drawn from the source code and other services (e.g. monitoring tools). Examples would be e.g. to check whether missing documentation of the source text actually leads to high effort when training new employees or whether no effect can be observed. I would like to talk to the speaker in particular about this. I would also like to know more about them
Learn <a href="https://programm.javaland.eu/2019/#/scheduledEvent/569652" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">guts of the JVM</a>. An important part of a conference is the exchange with other people. Learning from other conference participants how they use the technologies, what they use them for and what problems they have with them is an advantage over watching YouTube videos.

**Leo:**
> I would like to use Javaland 2019 to gain insights into the technological trends that have been on the horizon for some time and are increasingly finding their way into our everyday developer life. For me, this mainly includes the microservices/SCS concept and container systems. While we are already using both in customer projects, it is important to get new input and best practices for development and maintenance. There is so much going on right now and you have to be careful not to let yourself be left behind by everyday life. At the end of Javaland I hope to have a better sense of the possibilities and to be able to monitor split systems and deal better with the new responsibilities (e.g. DevOPs). Apart from that, all Java-specific topics are of course very interesting for me. Examples include Java natively compiling, new features in the language (Valhalla, Amber, etc), speech recognition, and Spring's integrations with Docker & Kubernetes. My schedule for Javaland is pretty full, but I just let it come to me and try to take as much with me as possible.

**Matthias:**
> Since I am currently working on a microservice, I am curious about this topic or the trend of microservice architecture. For me, this includes: What do “really good” microservices look like? Which architectural patterns and which technologies should/must one understand and use? What are the challenges and how can you tackle them? Does it always make sense to build microservices, or are there disadvantages? The focus is on what you can integrate into your daily work with existing microservices and what you have to consider when building a completely new one. The topic is currently so interesting for me because the competition between web applications is increasing and classic development models are often no longer so well suited (the "monoliths"). The advantages can be found quickly: Microservices make it possible to keep the code quality high, since instead of a huge, historically growing codebase, a codebase tailored to a purpose is created. This application can be more flexible in its architecture than an "all-in-one service". Instead of a large team that takes care of all parts of the application and may have to coordinate this in a time-consuming manner, there is distributed work by smaller teams who know their code very well. And most importantly, a bug in one service affects (not necessarily) the other services and can be re-delivered separately in the event of a bug.


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SAP Hybris and Fredhopper

Come on, let's go to Javaland