FHR Integration Checklist
The FHR Integration Checklist walks you through each step of the integration process for Fredhopper, ensuring you've the right information and resources for a smooth onboarding without delays.
Overview
Make sure that all prerequisites are met before starting the hands-on implementation work to ensure a smooth integration process without delays.
Successfully send your product data to Fredhopper or allow for your Crownpeak Technical Consultant to retrieve the relevant data from your provider.
Successfully send your product data to Fredhopper or allow for the relevant data to be pulled from Google Analytics v4 or another provider.
Provide all necessary data to enable type-ahead search suggestions that help users quickly find relevant keywords, products, and categories.
Ensure that relevant business use cases are configured in the Merchandising Studio so you can run query tests during front-end integration.
Realize the Fredhopper front-end integration depending on your defined use cases.
Monitor customer activity on your application, view detailed analytics on your Insights dashboard, and track data required for AI-based Fredhopper functionalities.
Ready your front-end for A/B testing and enable merchandisers to test the effect of their Merchandising Studio configurations.
Configure and activate additional features included in your purchase, such as AI Search or AI Scores.
Make sure everything is working properly so you can launch with confidence.
Prepare for integration
Make sure that all prerequisites are met before before starting the hands-on implementation work to ensure a smooth integration process without delays.
Tasks to complete
Ensure you've a solid understanding of your own business use cases:
Which parts of your application will be powered by Fredhopper
What should the parts powered by Fredhopper look like
Based on which attributes are products likely to be promoted
Familiarize yourself with the general functionalities of Fredhopper depending on the details of the purchase.
As you read through the documentation, take note of any questions you might have to discuss them in the kick-off meeting or during the requirements gathering phase with your Crownpeak Technical Consultant.
Your Crownpeak Technical Consultant will discuss your use cases and define all requirements with you during the initial sessions.
You can always contact your Crownpeak Technical Consultant with any questions that may come up during the integration process.
Connect and sync product data
Successfully send your product data to Fredhopper, ensuring it's properly formatted and structured for a seamless ingestion.
Before you begin
Understand which method you will be using to transfer data from your sources to Fredhopper, i.e. the Items API or full flat files (in either CSV or JSON format).
Your Crownpeak Technical Consultant will have advised you on which method to use to integrate your product data.
Ahead of the Data Integration Session with your Crownpeak Technical Consultant, familiarize yourself with the ideal data format for the chosen method.
Understand which attributes have to be included in the product data feed and ensure that you've taken a look at the Data Definition Sheet provided by your Crownpeak Technical Consultant.
Your Crownpeak Technical Consultant will help you understand which attributes are used where depending on the discussed business use cases and will provide the Data Definition Sheet.
Prepare your environment to process your product data.
Tasks to complete
Follow instructions provided in the step by step guide.
Export your data from your data source.
Create the CSV files required for a full product data feed.
Export your data from your data source.
Create the JSON files required for a full product data feed.
While only the full data feed is a strict requirement to go live, we recommend also already preparing for incremental data updates at this stage (if this process is relevant to your integration).
Test your work
Process the receipt responses when sending items to check whether they have been received successfully.
Use the Feedback API to check the summary of updates.
Check the Data Quality Report for warnings or rejected items.
Follow the formatting guidelines and ensure that you:
Send products with variants (if applicable).
Send IDs in lowercase letters only.
Provide values for all localized attributes.
Check the Data Quality Report for warnings or rejected items.
Follow the formatting guidelines and ensure that you:
Send products with variants (if applicable).
Send IDs in lowercase letters only.
Provide values for all localized attributes.
Connect and sync analytics data
Successfully send your product data to Fredhopper or allow for the relevant data to be pulled from Google Analytics v4 or another provider.
Before you begin
You must have at least partially finished the product data integration.
Which parts of the product data integration are necessary to start the analytics data integration depends on the chosen method. Your Crownpeak Technical Consultant will provide more detailed information on the prerequisites.
Tasks to complete
To ensure that your Crownpeak Technical Consultant has access to GA v4, follow the step by step instructions for sending analytics data using GA v4.
If you have any questions, reach out to your Crownpeak Technical Consultant.
Provide the required search term and product analytics data, following the step by step instructions for sending data using other providers.
You have any questions, reach out to your Crownpeak Technical Consultant.
Provide data for Suggest+
Provide all necessary data to enable type-ahead search suggestions that help users quickly find relevant keywords, products, and categories.
Before you begin
You must have successfully performed the product data integration.
You must have successfully performed the analytics data integration.
Specify your preferred format for providing the necessary data, i.e. CSV files or Google Sheets.
Optional: Have a block- and a promote-list ready at hand. These lists are usually provided by your merchandising team.
Tasks to complete
Optional: Ensure that the block- and the promote-list are in the required format.
Your Crownpeak Technical Consultant will discuss the specific format required for your integration with you.
Optional: Ensure that the block- and the promote-list are in the required format.
Your Crownpeak Technical Consultant will discusse the specific format required for your integration with you.
Grant your Crownpeak Technical Consultant access to the Google Sheets containing the required information.
Test your work
Test your implementation using searches representing actual customer behavior. For more information see Testing your Suggest+ implementation.
Verify Merchandising Studio readiness
Ensure that relevant business cases are configured in the Merchandising Studio so you can run query tests during front-end integration.
Tasks to complete
Prepare for using SSO for your Merchandising Studio by configuring Keycloak.
Coordinate with your merchandisers and your Crownpeak Technical Consultant to ensure that multiple representative use cases have been successfully set up in the Merchandising Studio. The baseline setup usually includes a ranking rule, a facet rule, and a redirect rule (if redirects are used).
Implement the front-end
Implement the Fredhopper front-end integration depending on your defined use cases.
Before you begin
You should have at least finalized the data structure as part of your product data integration.
Understand which components of your application are powered by Fredhopper.
Specify your preferred method for the front-end implementation, i.e. REST/XML or REST/JSON.
Relevant business use cases should already be set up in the Merchandising Studio to test your front-end implementation once ready.
Tasks to complete
Understand the FHR Query API, the FHR Query Language and the Query Response.
Start trying out and sending queries, for example:
a PLP request
an SLP request
a PDP request
a homepage request
a landing page request
Ensure that the queries you experiment with closely represent the final business use cases discussed with your Crownpeak Technical Consultant during the preparation phase.
Implement the query response into your front-end application following the Integration Best Practices.
Test your work
Compare the results returned to the results shown in the FHR Preview Page. If the results do not match, take a look at the actual query to ensure FHR is queried correctly. If you still can't pinpoint the issue, reach out to your Crownpeak Technical Consultant for help.
Set up front-end tracking
Monitor customer activity on your application, view detailed analytics on your Insights dashboard, and track data required for AI-based Fredhopper functionalities, such as AI Scores.
Before you begin
Inform your Crownpeak Technical Consultant about how many tracker keys you require. This will depend on whether/how many countries you want to track separately. Your Crownpeak Technical Consultant will provide the keys accordingly.
Tasks to complete
Set up the front-end tracker according to the instructions provided.
Test your work
Check sent activity events with a browser development tool.
View your customer activity data in your Insights dashboard.
Set up A/B testing
Ready your front-end for A/B testing and enable merchandisers to test the effect of their Merchandising Studio configurations.
Before you begin
You must have successfully implemented the front-end tracker.
Specify whether you will be using the caching and non-caching integration solution for A/B testing.
Tasks to complete
Choose between the manual and the Java SDK integration and follow the instructions accordingly.
Crownpeak provides code examples for various programming languages in the A/B testing documentation.
Add the session ID parameter to the FHR query sent.
Disable caching on all pages that use FHR where you plan to test a configuration.
Test your work
Set up an A/B test in the Merchandising Studio.
Check to see if different versions are applied in the front-end.
Activate additional functionalities
Configure and activate additional functionalities included in your purchase.
Whether or not the steps described below are relevant to you depends on your purchase details. Please check your purchase details or contact your Crownpeak Technical Consultant to determine whether the following information is relevant.
Enable AI Semantic Search
Turn on AI Semantic Search to help customers find what they’re looking for faster and easier.
Before you begin
You should have successfully implemented the front-end tracker.
Ensure that all prerequisites are met.
For further details reach out to your Crownpeak Technical Consultant.
Tasks to complete
Reach out to your Crownpeak Technical Consultant with the relevant information. Your Technical Consultant will enable AI Search.
Enable AI Scores
Use AI Scores to suggest relevant products and keep customers engaged utilizing cluster-based personalization.
Before you begin
You must have implement and deployed the front-end tracker three to six months prior to the go live of AI Scores.
If front-end tracking has been in place less than three to six months, you must provide sales data from at least the past 3 months.
Tasks to complete
Reach out to your Crownpeak Technical Consultant with the relevant data. Your Technical Consultant will enable AI Scores for you.
Implement the additional front-end integration logic to use AI Scores:
Add the relevant URL parameter to the FHR query.
Your Crownpeak Technical Consultant will specify the relevant URL parameter.
Test your work
Check if the correct cluster is applied and added to the query.
Test and validate your integration
Make sure everything is working properly so you can launch with confidence.
Tasks to complete
Ensure you test and check all items listed on the go-live checklist provided to you by your Crownpeak Technical Consultant.
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