CollaborativeFilter

Introduction goes here.

Example

  
    CollaborativeFilter.filter(:logger => LOGGER) do |cf|
      # We're using a low threshold settings because we're using a content booster
      # for post processing.  We keep it low so the content booster has plenty of
      # data to work with.  There is a second threshold in the content booster that
      # is set high.
      #
      # The threshold of the content booster is set at 4.2, with a factor of 0.3
      # and a single gene.  So the lowest recommendation which could theoretically
      # make it through the content booster would be:
      #   
      #   4.2 - (5 - crossover) * factor =
      #   4.2 - (5 - 2.5) * 0.3 = 3.45
      #
      # So we set it to 3.45.  Anything lower than that will never be recommended.

      cf.recommender CollaborativeFilter::SimplestRecommender, :threshold => 3.45, :max_per_user => 90

      cf.output :type => :sql, :options => { :table_name => 'recommendations',
                :mapping => { :user_id => :customer_id, :score => :relevance } }

      cf.content_booster do |cb|
        cb.booster CollaborativeFilter::SimpleBooster

        # The crossover determines what we consider to be positive or negative.
        # With a crossover of 2.5, a rating of 3 counts as +0.5, whereas a 
        # rating of 1 counts as -1.5.
        cb.crossover 3

        # The threshold is a quality control that determines what we allow to be
        # output.  A threshold of 4.2 means we won't recommend anything that we
        # think the user will rate lower than 4.2.
        cb.threshold 4.2

        # The factor determines how much weight we give to content.  A factor of
        # 1 would be "full weight".  In other words, if your average Superhero
        # rating is -2, we will subtract 2 from all Superhero recommendations
        # before thresholding them again.  Whereas a factor of 0.5 would mean
        # the same person would only have 1 substracted from the Superhero 
        # recommendations.
        cb.factor 0.8

        # Genes determine content.  You can have multiple of these blocks.  Please
        # be sure to knock the factor down for each gene, as they all count
        # independently.
        cb.gene :genres do |items|
          items.map do |(id,type)|
            i = type.constantize.find(id)
            next i.genres.map(&:id) if i.respond_to?(:genres)
            next [i.genre.id] if i.respond_to?(:genre) && i.genre
            []
          end
        end
      end

      cf.dataset :ratings do |ds|
        ds.correlator CollaborativeFilter::SimpleSvd

        # The cosine_similarity option determines what the minimum cosine similarity
        # should be between two users to consider them similar.  The
        # max_similar_users option determines the maximum number of users we'll
        # user for Determining recommendations.  20 seems like a decent number for
        # this.  Be aware that changing this will significantly impact how long it
        # takes to run.
        ds.options :cosine_similarity => 0.96, :max_similar_users => 20

        ds.users Rating.find(:all).map(&:customer).uniq
        ds.items Rating.find(:all).map(&:rateable).uniq
        ds.nodes do |m|
          Rating.find(:all).each do |r|
            score = r.not_interested ? 0.1 : r.score
            m[ds.item_index(r.rateable_id, r.rateable_type), ds.user_index(r.customer_id)] = score
          end
        end
      end

      cf.dataset :purchases do |ds|
        ds.correlator CollaborativeFilter::SimpleSvd
        ds.options :cosine_similarity => 0.985, :max_similar_users => 20

        ds.users Order.find(:all).map(&:customer).uniq
        ds.items LineItem.find(:all).map(&:product).uniq
        ds.nodes do |m|
          Order.find(:all).each do |o|
            o.line_items.each do |li|
              next if li.cancelled?
              m[ds.item_index(li.product_id), ds.user_index(o.customer_id)] = 5
            end
          end
        end
      end
    end
  

Many thanks to SmartFlix for letting me spend an inordinate amount of time on this.

Copyright© 2008 Tyler McMullen, released under the GPL license