README.rdoc

Tamber API Client for Ruby <img src=“https://travis-ci.org/tamber/tamber-ruby.svg?branch=master” alt=“Build Status” />

Recommendation engines for developers, easy as π. Build blazing fast, head-scratchingly accurate hosted recommendation engines in minutes.

The Tamber iOS SDK makes it easy to track events (user-item interactions) and get recommendations for your users inside your iOS app.

Get a free api key to get started.

Documentation

See full API documentation.

Installation

To use the Tamber Ruby bindings, you should run:

gem install tamber

If you want to build the gem from source:

gem build tamber.gemspec

Compatibility

We are compatible with Ruby 1.9.3 and above.

Usage

If you are just getting started, check out the Quick Start guide for instructions on how to get setup.

*We recommend tracking events from the client-side so that Tamber can learn from clicks/views, guest users, and contextual data. Use our iOS, Node, or javascript SDKs to start tracking.*

Of course, you can also track events from your backend.

Track Events

require 'tamber'
Tamber.project_key = 'your_project_key'

begin
  Tamber::Event.track(
    user: 'user_rlox8k927z7p',
    behavior: 'like'
    item:  'item_wmt4fn6o4zlk',
    context: ["homepage", "featured_section"]
  )
rescue TamberError => error
  puts error.message
end

Get Recommendations

Once you have tracked enough events and created your engine, it’s time to put personalized recommendations in your app.

The primary method of discovery in Tamber is the Discover.next method, which returns the optimal set of items that the user should be shown next.

For You

To put personalized recommendations on your homepage, or in any recommended section, just call Discover.next with the number of recommendations you want to display (if you are calling server-side, also set the user).

Tamber.project_key = 'your_project_key'

begin
  d = Tamber::Discover.next(
    user: 'user_rlox8k927z7p',
    number: 10
  )
  d.each { |rec| puts "item: #{rec.item}, score: #{rec.score}"}
rescue TamberError => error
  puts error.message
end

continuation

Discover.next is optimized for the exact moment and context of the user at the time of request, so standard pagination is not possible. Instead, Discover.next uses automatic continuation to allow you to ‘show more’ or implement infinite scrolling.

When you want to add more recommendations to those currently displayed to the user, just set the continuation field to true. Tamber will automatically generate the set of items that should be appended to the current user-session’s list. The Discover.next user-session is reset when Discover.next is called without continuation.

Tamber.project_key = ‘your_project_key’

begin
  d = Tamber::Discover.next(
    user: 'user_rlox8k927z7p',
    number: 10,
    continuation: true
  )
  d.each { |rec| puts "item: #{rec.item}, score: #{rec.score}"}
rescue TamberError => error
  puts error.message
end

Up Next

Keep users engaged by creating a path of discovery as they navigate from item to item. Just add the id of the item that the user is navigating to / looking at.

begin
  d = Tamber::Discover.next(
    user: 'user_rlox8k927z7p',
    item: 'item_wmt4fn6o4zlk',
    number: 14
  )
  d.each { |rec| puts "item: #{rec.item}, score: #{rec.score}"}
rescue TamberError => error
  puts error.message
end

If you are tracking events in your backend and want to track clicked or viewed events when users request the next page, you can also get next for the user-item pair by adding the get_recs field to your Event.track call.

begin
  e = Tamber::Event.track(
    user: 'user_rlox8k927z7p',
    behavior: 'clicked'
    item:  'item_wmt4fn6o4zlk',
    get_recs: {
      number: 14
    }
  )
  e.recommended.each { |rec| puts "item: #{rec.item}, score: #{rec.score}"}
rescue TamberError => error
  puts error.message
end

Trending

Help your users keep their fingers on the pulse of your platform by showing them the hottest, most popular, newest, or most up-and-coming items.

begin
  d = Tamber::Discover.hot() // the hottest (trending) items
  d.each { |rec| puts "item: #{rec.item}, score: #{rec.score}"}
end

begin
  d = Tamber::Discover.popular() // the hottest (trending) items
end

// BETA endpoints
begin
  d = Tamber::Discover.uac() // the most up-and-coming items
end

begin
  d = Tamber::Discover.new() // the newest items
end

Build Your Own Features

Tamber allows you to use lower-level methods to get lists of recommended items, similar item matches, and similar items for a given user with which you can build your own discovery experiences. Importantly, these methods return raw recommendation data and are not intended to be pushed directly to users.

begin
  Tamber::Discover.recommended(user: 'user_rlox8k927z7p').each { |rec| puts "item: #{rec.item}, score: #{rec.score}"}
rescue TamberError => error
  puts error.message
end

begin
  Tamber::Discover.similar(item: 'item_wmt4fn6o4zlk').each { |rec| puts "item: #{rec.item}, score: #{rec.score}"}
rescue TamberError => error
  puts error.message
end

begin
  Tamber::Discover.recommendedSimilar(
    user: 'user_rlox8k927z7p',
    item: 'item_wmt4fn6o4zlk'
  ).each { |rec| puts "item: #{rec.item}, score: #{rec.score}"}
rescue TamberError => error
  puts error.message
end

Sync Items (optional)

Keep Tamber in sync with your item data in order to use recommendation filtering. Just call Item.update wherever you create and update items in your backend. If you have a Database module, we recommend adding this method there.

require 'tamber'
Tamber.project_key = 'your_project_key'

begin
  Tamber::Item.update(
    id: 'item_wmt4fn6o4zlk',
    updates: {
      add: {
        properties: {
          'available_large': false,
          'stock': 89
        }
      }
    }
  )
rescue TamberError => error
  puts error.message
end

See Tests for more examples.