SuggestGrid .NET Framework Client

We will walk through how to get started with SuggestGrid .NET Framework Client in three steps:

1. Configuration

2. Post actions

3. Get recommendations

Getting Started

In this guide we will demonstrate how to display personalized recommendations on an existing .NET Framework project.

We have a movie catalog .NET Framework application, SuggestGridMovies, similar to IMDb. For logged in users we want to display movies that similar people viewed on movie pages. Let's implement this feature in five minutes with SuggestGrid!

1. Configuration

We are beginning the development by adding the client as a dependency.

SuggestGrid .NET client is a .NET Core library and could be used from a variety of .NET frameworks.

Install the package from the package manager console inside Visual Studio:

PM> Install-Package SuggestGrid

One can also SuggestGrid in the Package Manager UI or manually add the dependecy to packages.config or project.json files.

Once you sign up for SuggestGrid, you'll see your SUGGESTGRID_URL parameter on the dashboard in the format below:

http://{user}:{pass}@{region}.suggestgrid.space/{app-uuid}

You can authenticate your application using SUGGESTGRID_URL environment variable like the example below:

string suggestGridURL = System.Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SUGGESTGRID_URL");
SuggestGridClient suggestGridClient = new SuggestGrid.SuggestGridClient(suggestGridURL);

Every recommendation logic needs to belong to a type. For this demonstration we can create an implicit type named as views. This could be done either from the dashboard or with a snippet like this:

try
{
    suggestGridClient.Type.GetType("views");
}
catch (APIException e)
{
    suggestGridClient.Type.CreateType("views", new TypeRequestBody { Rating = "implicit" });
}

2. Post actions

Once the type exists, let's start posting actions. We should invoke SuggestGrid client's suggestGridClient.Action.PostAction when an user views an item in our application.

We can do this by putting the snippet below on the relevant point:

suggestGridClient.Action.PostAction(new ActionModel { ItemId = "1", UserId = "2" });

The more actions SuggestGrid gets, more relevant and diverse its responses are.

3. Get recommendations

Finally, let's show "movies similar users viewed" on movie pages.

SuggestGrid needs recommendation models for returning recommendations. Model generation is scheduled in every 24 hours. In addition, instant model generations can be triggered on the dashboard.

Once the first model generated for 'views' type, recommendations could be get using a snippet like the following:

var recommendedItemsResponse = suggestGridClient.Recommendation.GetRecommendedItems(new GetRecommendedItemsBody
{
    Type = "views",
    UserId = "2",
    Size = 2
});

var recommendedItems = recommendedItemsResponse.Items; // get items

Type Methods

Type methods are used for creating, getting, and deleting types. Refer to types for an overview.

Creates a Type

MessageResponse suggestGridClient.Type.CreateType(string type, TypeRequestBody settings = null)

Creates a new type.

suggestGridClient.Type.CreateType("views", new TypeRequestBody { Rating = "implicit" });

suggestGridClient.Type.CreateType("views", new TypeRequestBody { Rating = "explicit" });

Parameters

URI/Query Parameters

Body Parameters

TypeRequestBody (object)

Gets Properties of a Type

GetTypeResponse suggestGridClient.Type.GetType(string type)

Returns the options of a type. The response rating parameter.

var typeResponse = suggestGridClient.Type.GetType("views");
var rating = typeResponse.Rating; // get rating of type

Parameters

URI/Query Parameters

Deletes a Type

MessageResponse suggestGridClient.Type.DeleteType(string type)

Warning: Deletes the type with all of its actions and its recommendation model.

suggestGridClient.Type.DeleteType("views");

Parameters

URI/Query Parameters

Gets All Types

GetTypesResponse suggestGridClient.Type.GetAllTypes()

Returns all type names in an array named types.

var response = suggestGridClient.Type.GetAllTypes();
var types = response.Types; // The array of type names

Deletes All Types

MessageResponse suggestGridClient.Type.deleteAllTypes()

Deletes ALL the types and ALL the actions.

suggestGridClient.Type.DeleteAllTypes();

Action Methods

Action methods are for creating, getting, and deleting actions. Refer to actions for an overview.

Posts an Action

MessageResponse suggestGridClient.Action.PostAction(Action action)

Posts an action to the given type in the body. The body must have user id, item id and type. Rating is required for actions sent to an explicit type.

Action action = new Action { Type = "views", ItemId = "1", UserId = "2" };
suggestGridClient.Action.PostAction(action);

Action action = new Action { Type = "ratings", ItemId = "1", UserId = "2", Rating = 5 };
suggestGridClient.Action.PostAction(action);

Parameters

Body Parameters

Action (object)

Posts Actions

BulkPostResponse suggestGridClient.Action.PostBulkActions(List<Action> actions)

Posts bulk actions to SuggestGrid. The recommended method for posting multiple actions at once.

There's a limit of lines, hence number of objects you can send in one requests. That's default to 10000.

An example for bulk action request is the following:

List<Action> actions = new List<Action>();
actions.Add(new Action { Type = "views", UserId = "2", ItemId = "1" });
actions.Add(new Action { Type = "views", UserId = "2", ItemId = "3" });

suggestGridClient.Action.PostBulkActions(actions);

Explicit actions can be post as:

List<Action> actions = new List<Action>();
actions.Add(new Action { Type = "ratings", UserId = "2", ItemId = "1", Rating = 10 });
actions.Add(new Action { Type = "ratings", UserId = "2", ItemId = "3", Rating = 2 });

suggestGridClient.Action.PostBulkActions(actions);

Parameters

Gets Actions

ActionsResponse suggestGridClient.Action.GetActions(string type = null, string userId = null, string itemId = null, string olderThan = null, long? size = null, long? mfrom = null)

Get actions. Defaut responses will be paged by 10 actios each. Type, user id, item id, or older than parameters could be provided. The intersection of the provided parameters will be returned.

Get actions count:

If no query parameters is provided, all the actions will be returned: ```csharp var response = suggestGridClient.Action.GetActions();

// The total count of actions var count = response.TotalCount; ```

Get actions count by query:

You can include any of type, userId, itemId, and olderThan query parameters and SuggestGrid would return the actions satisfying all the query parameters: olderThan value could be a ISO 8601 duration, or a Unix time number.

This method can be particularly useful before deleting actions by query.

var response = suggestGridClient.Action.GetActions(null, "u5321", "i1635", "891628467");

// The count of matching actions
var count = response.TotalCount;

You can also include mfrom (since from is a contextual C# keyword) and size parameters to nativage throught the reponse actions. From defaults to 0 and size defaults to 10. Returned actions are sorted from the most recent one to the least recent ones.

Parameters

URI/Query Parameters

Delete Actions

DeleteSuccessResponse suggestGridClient.Action.DeleteActions(string type, string userId = null, string itemId = null, string olderThan = null)

Warning: Please use get actions with the exact parameters first to inspect the actions to be deleted.

• Type must be provided.
• If user id is provided, all actions of the user will be deleted.
• If item id is provided, all actions on the item will be deleted.
• If older than is provided, all actions older than the timestamp or the duration will be deleted.
• If a number of these parameters are provided, the intersection of these parameters will be deleted.
• In addition to a type, at least one of these parameters must be provided. In order to delete all the actions of a type, delete the type.

Type and at least one more parameter must be provided for all delete actions queries.

Delete a user's actions: csharp suggestGridClient.Action.DeleteActions("views", "2");

Delete an item's actions: csharp suggestGridClient.Action.DeleteActions("views", null, "2");

Delete old actions:

olderThan value could be a ISO 8601 duration in the form of PnDTnHnM, or a Unix time number.

Example durations:

• P365D: Approximately a year.
• P30D: Approximately a month.
• P1DT12H: One and a half days.
• P1D: A day (where a day is 24 hours or 86400 seconds).
• PT12H: 10 hours (where an hour is 3600 seconds).
• PT1M: 1 minute.

Delete actions older than a month:

suggestGridClient.Action.DeleteActions("views", null, null, "P30D");

Delete actions by query:

You can include any of userId, itemId, and olderThan parameters to the delete query and SuggestGrid would delete the intersection of the given queries accordingly.

For example, if all of userId, itemId, and olderThan are provided, SuggestGrid would delete the actions of the given user on the given item older than the given time or duration.

suggestGridClient.Action.DeleteActions("views", "1", "30", "891628467");

It's highly recommended to first get the actions with the same parameters before deleting actions.

Parameters

URI/Query Parameters

Metadata Methods

Metadata methods are for creating, getting, and deleting user, and item metadata. Refer to metadata for an overview.

Posts a User

MessageResponse suggestGridClient.Metadata.PostUser(Metadata user)

Posts a user metadata. Note that this operation completely overrides previous metadata for the id, if it exists.

string userString = "{ 'id': '9394182', 'age': 28, 'name': 'Avis Horton' }";
Metadata user = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<SuggestGrid.Metadata>(userString);
suggestGridClient.Metadata.PostUser(user);

Parameters

Body Parameters

Metadata (object)

Posts Users

BulkPostResponse suggestGridClient.Metadata.PostBulkUsers(List<Metadata> users)

Posts user metadata in bulk. Note that this operation completely overrides metadata with the same ids, if they exist.

There's a limit of lines, hence number of actions you can send in one requests. That's default to 10000.

An example for bulk user request is the following: ```csharp List users = new List(); users.Add(JsonConvert.DeserializeObject ( "{ 'id': '9394182', 'age': 28, 'name': 'Avis Horton' }" ); users.Add(JsonConvert.DeserializeObject ( "{ 'id': '6006895', 'age': 29, 'name': 'Jami Bishop' }" ); users.Add(JsonConvert.DeserializeObject ( "{ 'id': '6540497', 'age': 21, 'name': 'Bauer Case' }" ); users.Add(JsonConvert.DeserializeObject ( "{ 'id': '1967970', 'age': 30, 'name': 'Rosetta Cole' }" ); users.Add(JsonConvert.DeserializeObject ( "{ 'id': '6084106', 'age': 35, 'name': 'Shaw Simon' }" );

suggestGridClient.Metadata.PostBulkUsers(users); ```

Parameters

Gets A User

Metadata suggestGridClient.Metadata.GetUser(string userId)

Returns a user metadata if it exists.

var user42 = suggestGridClient.Metadata.GetUser("42");

Parameters

URI/Query Parameters

Gets Users

UsersResponse suggestGridClient.Metadata.GetUsers(long? size = null, long? mfrom = null)

Get items and total count of items. Page and per-page parameters could be set.

var response = suggestGridClient.Metadata.GetUsers();

// The total count of users
response.TotalCount;

Parameters

URI/Query Parameters

Deletes a User

MessageResponse suggestGridClient.Metadata.DeleteUser(string userId)

Deletes a user metadata with the given user id.

suggestGridClient.Metadata.DeleteUser("42");

Parameters

URI/Query Parameters

Deletes All Users

MessageResponse suggestGridClient.Metadata.DeleteAllUsers()

Warning: Deletes all user metadata from SuggestGrid.

suggestGridClient.Metadata.DeleteAllUsers();

Posts An Item

MessageResponse suggestGridClient.Metadata.PostItem(Metadata item)

Posts an item metadata. Note that this operation completely overrides previous metadata for the id, if it exists.

string itemString = "{'id': '25922342', 'manufacturer': 'Vicon', 'price': 348}";
Metadata item = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<SuggestGrid.Metadata>(itemString);
suggestGridClient.Metadata.PostItem(item);

Parameters

Body Parameters

Metadata (object)

Posts Items

BulkPostResponse suggestGridClient.Metadata.PostBulkItems(List<Metadata> items)

Posts item metadata in bulk. Note that this operation completely overrides metadata with the same ids, if they exist.

There's a limit of lines, hence number of actions you can send in one requests. That's default to 10000.

An example for bulk user request is the following: ```csharp List items = new List(); items.Add(JsonConvert.DeserializeObject ( "{'id': '25922342', 'price': 348, 'manufacturer': 'Vicon'}" ); items.Add(JsonConvert.DeserializeObject ( "{'id': '80885987', 'price': 771, 'manufacturer': 'Aquamate'}" ); items.Add(JsonConvert.DeserializeObject ( "{'id': '71746854', 'price': 310, 'manufacturer': 'Exoplode'}" ); items.Add(JsonConvert.DeserializeObject ( "{'id': '53538832', 'price': 832, 'manufacturer': 'Teraprene'}" ); items.Add(JsonConvert.DeserializeObject ( "{'id': '72006635', 'price': 832, 'manufacturer': 'Ohmnet'}" );

suggestGridClient.Metadata.PostBulkItems(items); ```

Parameters

Gets An Item

Metadata suggestGridClient.Metadata.GetItem(string itemId)

Returns an item metadata if it exists.

var item42 = suggestGridClient.Metadata.GetItem("42");

Parameters

URI/Query Parameters

Gets Items

ItemsResponse suggestGridClient.Metadata.GetItems(long? size = null, long? mfrom = null)

Gets items and total count of items. Page and per-page parameters could be set.

var response = suggestGridClient.Metadata.GetItems();

// The total count of items
response.TotalCount;

Parameters

URI/Query Parameters

Delete An Item

MessageResponse suggestGridClient.Metadata.DeleteItem(string itemId)

Deletes an item metadata with the given item id.

suggestGridClient.Metadata.DeleteItem("25");

Parameters

URI/Query Parameters

Deletes All Items

MessageResponse suggestGridClient.Metadata.DeleteAllItems()

Warning: Deletes all item metadata from SuggestGrid.

suggestGridClient.Metadata.DeleteAllItems();

Recommendation Methods

Recommendation methods are for getting recommended items for users, or recommended users for items. Refer to recommendations for an overview.

Gets Recommended Users

UsersResponse GetRecommendedUsers(GetRecommendedUsersBody query)

Returns recommended users for the query.

var recommendedUsersResponse = suggestGridClient.Recommendation.GetRecommendedUsers(new GetRecommendedUsersBody
{
    Type = "views",
    ItemId = "42"
});
var recommendedUsers = recommendedUsersResponse.Users; // [{id:"451"},{id:"456"}]

var recommendedUsersResponse = suggestGridClient.Recommendation.GetRecommendedUsers(new GetRecommendedUsersBody
{
    Type = "views",
    ItemIds = new List<string> { "42", "532", "841" }
});
var recommendedUsers = recommendedUsersResponse.Users; // [{id:"121"},{id:"33"},{id:"12"},{id:"32"},{id:"49"},{id:"11"},{id:"23"},{id:"54"},{id:"62"},{id:"29"}]

var recommendedUsersResponse = suggestGridClient.Recommendation.GetRecommendedUsers(new GetRecommendedUsersBody
{
    Type = "views",
    ItemIds = new List<string> { "42", "532", "841" },
    SimilarUserId = "100",
    Except = new List<string> { "100" },
    Size = 5
});
var recommendedUsers = recommendedUsersResponse.Users; // [{id:"1"},{id:"84"},{id:"9"},{id:"32"},{id:"45"}]

var recommendedUsersResponse = suggestGridClient.Recommendation.GetRecommendedUsers(new GetRecommendedUsersBody
{
    Type = "views",
    ItemId = "42",
    Fields = new List<string> { "name" },
    Size = 5,
    Filter = new { less_equal = new { age = 60 }}
});

var recommendedUsers = recommendedUsersResponse.Users; // [{id:"11",name:"Robert"},{id:"848",name:"Mike"},{id:"2",name:"Jennifer"}]

You can read filters and fields documentations for further reference.

Parameters

Body Parameters

GetRecommendedUsersBody (object)

Gets Recommended Items

ItemsResponse GetRecommendedItems(GetRecommendedItemsBody query)

Returns recommended items for the query.

var recommendedItemsResponse = suggestGridClient.Recommendation.GetRecommendedItems(new GetRecommendedItemsBody
{
    Type = "views",
    UserId = "42"
});

var recommendedItems = recommendedItemsResponse.Items; // [{id:"451"},{id:"456"}]

var recommendedItemsResponse = suggestGridClient.Recommendation.GetRecommendedItems(new GetRecommendedItemsBody
{
    Type = "views",
    UserIds = new List<string> { "42", "532", "841" }
});

var recommendedItems = recommendedItemsResponse.Items; // [{id:"121"},{id:"33"},{id:"12"},{id:"32"},{id:"49"},{id:"11"},{id:"23"},{id:"54"},{id:"62"},{id:"29"}]

var recommendedItemsResponse = suggestGridClient.Recommendation.GetRecommendedItems(new GetRecommendedItemsBody
{
    Type = "views",
    UserIds = new List<string> { "42", "532", "841" },
    SimilarItemId = "321",
    Size = 3
});

var recommendedItems = recommendedItemsResponse.Items; // [{id:"13"},{id:"65"},{id:"102"}]

var recommendedItemsResponse = suggestGridClient.Recommendation.GetRecommendedItems(new GetRecommendedItemsBody
{
    Type = "views",
    UserId = "42",
    Size = 5,
    Filter = new { less_equal = new { price = 100 }  }
});

var recommendedItems = recommendedItemsResponse.Items; // [{id:"930"},{id:"848"},{id:"102"},{id:"303"},{id:"593"}]

var recommendedItemsResponse = suggestGridClient.Recommendation.GetRecommendedItems(new GetRecommendedItemsBody
{
    Type = "views",
    UserId = "42",
    Size = 5,
    Fields = new List<string> { "category" },
    Filter = new { exact = new { manufacturer = "Apple" }  }
});
var recommendedItems = recommendedItemsResponse.Items; // [{id:"930",category:"notebook"},{id:"848",category:"keyboard"},{id:"102",category:"watch"}]

You can read filters and fields documentations for further reference.

Parameters

Body Parameters

GetRecommendedItemsBody (object)

Similarity Methods

Similarity methods are for getting similar items, or similar users. Refer to similarities for an overview.

Gets Similar Users

ItemsResponse GetSimilarItems(GetSimilarItemsBody query)

Returns similar users for the query.

var similarUsersResponse = suggestGridClient.Similarity.GetSimilarUsers(new GetSimilarUsersBody
{
    Type = "views",
    UserId = "1"
});

var similarUsers = similarUsersResponse.Users; // [{id:"12"},{id:"451"},{id:"456"}]

var similarUsersResponse = suggestGridClient.Similarity.GetSimilarUsers(new GetSimilarUsersBody
{
    Type = "views",
    UserId = "1",
    Except = new List<string> { "12" }
});

var similarUsers = similarUsersResponse.Users; // [{id:"451"},{id:"456"}]

var similarUsersResponse = suggestGridClient.Similarity.GetSimilarUsers(new GetSimilarUsersBody
{
    Type = "views",
    UserIds = new List<string> { "42", "532", "841" },
    Fields = new List<string> { "name" },
    Filter = new { less_equal = new { age = 20 } },
    Size = 3
});

var similarUsers = similarUsersResponse.Users; // [{id:"400", name:"Jason"},{id:"132", name:"Scarlett"},{id:"503", name:"Amy"}]

You can read filters and fields documentations for further reference.

Parameters

Body Parameters

GetSimilarUsersBody (object)

Gets Similar Items

UsersResponse GetSimilarUsers(GetSimilarUsersBody query)

Returns similar items for the query.

var similarItemsResponse = suggestGridClient.Similarity.GetSimilarItems(new GetSimilarItemsBody
{
    Type = "views",
    ItemId = "1"
});

var similarItems = similarItemsResponse.Items; // [{id:"12"},{id:"451"},{id:"456"}]

var similarItemsResponse = suggestGridClient.Similarity.GetSimilarItems(new GetSimilarItemsBody
{
    Type = "views",
    ItemId = "1",
    Except = new List<string> { "12" }
});

var similarItems = similarItemsResponse.Items; // [{id:"451"},{id:"456"}]

var similarItemsResponse = suggestGridClient.Similarity.GetSimilarItems(new GetSimilarItemsBody
{
    Type = "views",
    ItemIds = new List<string> { "3", "5", "8" },
    Size = 3,
    Fields = new List<string> { "category" },
    Filter = new { greater = new { capacity = 60 } }
});

var similarItems = similarItemsResponse.Items; // [{id:"451",category:"television"},{id:"656",category:"blu-ray-dvd-players"}]

You can read filters and fields documentations for further reference.

Parameters

Body Parameters

GetSimilarItemsBody (object)