Posted by admin on July 20, 2009 at 13:08
New version of Randomized Tests for Zen Cart is available. New version introduces few bug fixes and one very important feature – orders filters and customer filter. Order/Customer filters can be used to dynamically remove (not permanently) from statistics certain customers/orders and recalculate statistics without them. Why is it important?
Let’s assume that You have store with many customers. You use Randomized Tests to check how new layout affects sales. Unfortunately after You run Your experiment for few days You notice that one group is biased because it includes one or two top buyers. Those two buyers are different from regular customer – they buy a lot of items, place orders every few days and probably aren’t affected by new layout – they already know Your store and don’t care about it as long as they can place orders.
Group containing these customers is biased since it includes data outliers. You probably would like to remove them from statistics. New version of Randomized Tests can do that using filter functions. Currently there are two types of filter functions:
- order filter functions – executed for each order in group – allows removal certain orders from statistics.
- customer filter functions – executed for each customer in group. Orders from rejected customers will not included in statistics.
Randomized Tests V1.2 contain two sample filter functions:
- ddigers_2std_customer_total_rt_cff() – removes top buyers (formally – customers with total spent in 2+ standard deviation from average) from statistics.
- ddigers_2std_order_total_rt_off() – removes super big orders from statistics.
To check how they’re implemented view admin/includes/functions/extra_functions/randomized_tests.php
You can implement Your own functions by following below pattern.
Custom Customer Filter Functions
Randomized Tests will recognize any function with name ending with “_rt_cff” as customer filter function and allow You to use it. For example following function will be recognized as filter:
function customer_filter_rt_cff($customer_id) {
if($cid == 12345) return(FALSE);
else return(TRUE);
}
Randomized Tests passes to customer filter functions single attribute – id of customer in database. If function returns TRUE customer is accepted in calculation of statistics, and is rejected otherwise.
Order Filter Functions
Order filter functions are similar to customer filter functions – any function with name ending with “_rt_off” will be recognized as order filter function. Example filter function:
function order_filter_rt_off($eid, $gid, $cid, $oid, $itemsBought, $ordersTotal) {
if($orderTotal > 1000.0) return(FALSE);
else return(TRUE);
}
Randomized Tests passes few more parameters to order filter functions:
- $eid – experiment row id in database
- $gid – group row id in database
- $cid – customer id in database
- $oid – order id in database
- $itemsBought – number of items in order
- $totalValue – total value of order
As with customer filter functions order filter functions should return TRUE to accept order in statistics and FALSE to reject it.
Making Filter Functions Visible to Randomized Tests Module
Let’s assume that You’ve placed Your custom filter functions in admin/includes/functions/extra_functions/my_custom_filters.php file. The best way to make them visible to RandomizedTests is to include the file through autoloaders interface. Create config.filters.php file in admin/includes/auto_loaders/ and paste there:
$autoLoadConfig[180
][] = array(‘autoType’=>
;‘require’,
‘loadFile’=>
; DIR_FS_CATALOG
. DIR_WS_FUNCTIONS
. ‘extra_functions/my_custom_filters.php’);
That’s it – Randomized Tests module will now be able to use Your filters.
Screenshot
Here’s screenshot of experiment with applied filters:
Download
You can download current version of Randomized Tests here.
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Posted by admin on July 14, 2009 at 14:38
This module allows You to perform experiments on Your website. You can test for example how Your new ‘Add to Cart’ button performs compared to old one.
I don’t have much time to write long post, so I’ll cut it to most important things. You can download the module here. This module requires UTI to work properly (download it here ). Installation instructions are in .zip file. Here’s how You can use it.
To create experiment follow these steps:
- Go to Admin->Tools->[RT] Groupsets.
- Create groupset (it’s set of groups). Call it ‘Basic Test Groupset’.
- Click on Basic Test Groupset – You will be forwarded to page where You can edit it.
- Each groupset must have EXACTLY one control group. I usually call it ‘Control Group’. Create two groups (you can create as many groups in groupset as You want, but for simplicity We use 2 now):
- Control Group – with id ‘cg’ (as ControlGroup). Check ‘control group’ checkbox
- Test Group – with id ‘tg’. DO NOT check ‘control group’ checkbox.
- Go to Admin->Tools->[RT] Experiments.
- Create Experiment ‘Exp #1′ using groupset ‘Basic Test Groupset’.
Click on Exp #1 – You will be forwarded to its stats:
- Impressions - in this version of Randomized Tests its simply number of visitors in each group
- Customers Registered – (visitor to customer conversion rate) / (change in regard to control group) / (total count of newly registered customers in this group)
- Orders Placed – (visitor to order conversion rate) / as above / (total number of orders visitors in this group placed)
- Items Bought – (avg. size of order) / as above / (total number of items bought)
- Orders Value – (avg. order value) / as above / (total orders value)
Ok, You’ve created experiment, now You have to create two versions of Your page. Let’s assume that You want to change ‘Add to Cart’ button on product_info page. Edit includes/templates/your_template/templates/tpl_product_info_display.php.Find code responsible for displaying ‘Add to Cart’ button – in my case it’s:
Change it to:
if($exp->groupID == ‘tg’) {
// visitor has been assigned to Test Group
echo $display_my_new_button;
} else {
// user is in Control Group – We don’t change anything
echo $display_button;
}
$exp is global variable (it’s instance of ExperimentManager defined in includes/classes/randomized_tests.php) and holds basic information about experiment and group to which has been assigned current visitor
$exp->groupID is ‘id‘ of group that You assigned in step 4. You can use it to detect in which group is current visitor and perform custom action.
You’re done. Wait until experiment becomes statistically significant ( >2000 visitors in each group, many orders ) and check results.
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Posted by admin on July 10, 2009 at 22:07
UTI is tiny module that tracks visitors to Zen Cart site even if they aren’t logged in or even never created any account. It allows developers to keep in UTI memory small amounts of information about each visitor. For example, UTI can be used to store list of recently viewed products by any particular user. UTI will remember this information and when the visitor will come back to Zen Cart store week later UTI will recognize him and present list of previously viewed products.
UTI takes care of:
- recognizing visitors – even if they never created any account
- storing and retrieving information about them in database
UTI does not store any personal information in visitors browser.
How to use UTI
UTI is very simple class. It creates global $uti object that contains all information about current visitor. From developer point of view UTI class has four methods:
- $uti->set($name, $value) - stores in database $value as value for attribute $name
- $uti->get($name) – retrieves from database value for attribute $name. If there’s no such attribute method returns FALSE.
- $uti->has($name) – checks if current $uti object has attribute $name set
- $uti->delete($name) – deletes attribute.
$uti is automatically instantiated through auto_loaders/ mechanism. Developer can use it in any function/class since it’s global variable.
To show how easy it is to use UTI and what it can be used for I’ve created simple contributions that:
- records and displays in sidebox list of products visitor viewed recently.
- records and displays in sidebox list of searches visitor performed recently.
- records when visitor changes currency and saves it as his/hers default. When visitor comes back to Zen Cart contribution automatically switches currency to most recent one.
Example contributions are included in UTI package. You can download it here: current version of UTI.
In next blog post I’ll describe how I’ve created one of those contributions using UTI.
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Posted by admin on July 4, 2009 at 14:13
I’ve created User Tracking Interface (UTI) module for Zen Cart v1.3.8 which recognizes visitors (even if they are not logged in or don’t have account) and stores simple bits of information about them in database. You can use UTI to store such information as favorite currency of each visitor, recently viewed products by particular visitor or recently searched products. The best thing is that even if the visitor will leave Your site and will come back later UTI will recognize him/her and will set site to his/hers preferences.
You can test it Yourself on demo store here:
www.data-diggers.com/contribs/uti/demo-stores/with-uti/
How to test it
- View some products (4-6). The module will remember which items You viewed and will present them in sidebox.
- Search for some stuff like “mouse”, “unreal”, “mary”. The module will remember what You searched for and will present links to previous searches in sidebox.
- Change currency. The module will remember Your last currency and when You’ll be back next day/week/month the site will display with Your currency set.
- Close down Your browser and switch to different one. Visit above site again. The system will recognize You and adjust site to Your preferences.
What UTI is really for
Recently viewed products, recent search terms and user default currency are nice features, but they are just examples of use of UTI. UTI is simple class which developers can use to make user aware contributions. UTI takes care of recognizing users and storing/retrieving information about them in/from database. UTI attaches itself to Zen Cart on each request and creates $uti variable which developers can use to store simple information about visitors in database.
How to use UTI
UTI has very simple interface. Developer should use only two methods:
- $uti->get($attribute) - retrieves visitors value for $attribute from database
- $uti->set($attribute, $value) – store visitors value for $attribute in database
Developer does not have to worry about creating $uti object. $uti object will automatically recognize user and will retrieve all information about him from database.
What UTI can be used for
UTI is tool which can be used to create very simple contributions, for example:
- remembering language of given visitor. On his next visit site can be automatically switched to preferred language.
- presenting recommendations to visitor based on his previous purchases (even if visitor isn’t logged in).
- many more.
What I need from You
Please test above site and report any bugs. You can also install current version of UTI on Your site and report any bugs. You can download current version of UTI here:
www.data-diggers.com/contribs/uti/downloads/uti-current.zip
Installation instructions are in uti-current.zip
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