RPI Realtime consists of a suite of functionality that allows you to make decisions about the most appropriate content to be displayed to a person of interest in real time. Typically, RPI Realtime is used to make such decisions in the context of a web page (either an RPI landing page, or an externally-hosted web page), with the most appropriate content being rendered to a page visitor. However, its capabilities extend beyond this use case, with the RPI Realtime API (Application Programmer's Interface) facilitating leverage of its capabilities in a range of contexts e.g. Internet of Things (IoT) devices and inbound call centers.
Developers can enhance the functionality of RPI Realtime by creating plugins that extend the capabilities of the RPI Realtime API. There are a number of different types of plugins that can be created. These are detailed below.
The Realtime-Example-Plugin C# project provides an example of building each type of plugin. Plugins should be built in a class library using .NET 9.
The plugin project will require the following Nuget package reference:
- RedPoint.Web.Shared.
This can be found on our Nuget feed https://nuget.redpointcdp.com/packages/index.json.
All plugins except the Geolocation plugins require two classes:
- Factory class: this initializes new plugins, setting any custom configuration settings.
- Plugin class: this contains the code to execute the plugin logic.
Geolocation plugins only require a plugin class.
Once the plugin is compiled, the DLL can be mounted on the realtime containers. Any configuration settings are defined in values.yaml located in our RPI Helm Chart
These plugins can execute code at different points of the decision flow. They can influence the decision made, modify the result or add extra processing where required.
Pre-decision plugins execute prior to the decision being made. They can be used to modify the request, add additional data to the request, or perform any other processing that needs to occur before the decision is made.
| Plugin Info | |
|---|---|
| Endpoint | /api/v2/smart-assets/results |
| Factory Base Class / Interface | RedPoint.Resonance.Web.Shared.Plugins.FilterableRealtimePluginFactoryBase |
| Plugin Interface | RedPoint.Resonance.Web.Shared.Plugins.IPredecisionPlugin |
| Inputs | Decision Request Details, Visitor Profile |
| Outputs | Visitor Profile |
| Configuration Type | Predecision |
Post-decision plugins execute immediately after a decision is made. They can be used to update the result, or perform any other processing that needs to occur before the decision result is returned.
| Plugin Info | |
|---|---|
| Endpoint | /api/v2/smart-assets/results |
| Factory Base Class / Interface | RedPoint.Resonance.Web.Shared.Plugins.IRealtimePluginFactory |
| Plugin Interface | RedPoint.Resonance.Web.Shared.Plugins.IDecisionContentPlugin |
| Inputs | Decision Result, Visitor Profile |
| Outputs | Decision Result |
| Configuration Type | N/A |
Smart Asset plugins execute once all the decision responses associated with a Smart Asset request have completed. They can be used to modify or process the full response instead of individual decisions.
| Plugin Info | |
|---|---|
| Endpoint | /api/v2/smart-assets/results |
| Factory Base Class / Interface | RedPoint.Resonance.Web.Shared.Plugins.FilterableRealtimePluginFactoryBase |
| Plugin Interface | RedPoint.Resonance.Web.Shared.Plugins.ISmartAssetResultsPlugin |
| Inputs | Request Details, Collection of Decision Results, Visitor Profile |
| Outputs | Collection of Decision Results |
| Configuration Type | SmartAssetResults |
Event plugins can be used to modify or process any realtime event e.g. Page Visit.
| Plugin Info | |
|---|---|
| Endpoint | /api/v2/events |
| Factory Base Class / Interface | RedPoint.Resonance.Web.Shared.Plugins.FilterableRealtimePluginFactoryBase |
| Plugin Interface | RedPoint.Resonance.Web.Shared.Plugins.IEventPlugin |
| Inputs | Realtime Event |
| Outputs | Realtime Event |
| Configuration Type | Event |
Form plugins can be used to modify or process any web form submission data passed to RPI Realtime for ingestion by RPI.
| Plugin Info | |
|---|---|
| Endpoint | /api/v2/form-data |
| Factory Base Class / Interface | RedPoint.Resonance.Web.Shared.Plugins.IFormProcessingPluginFactory |
| Plugin Interface | RedPoint.Resonance.Web.Shared.Plugins.IFormProcessingPlugin |
| Inputs | Form Data |
| Outputs | Form Data |
| Configuration Type | N/A |
Visitor Profile plugins can be used to modify or process the visitor profile when a profile is added or updated through a call to the Visitor Registration endpoint.
| Plugin Info | |
|---|---|
| Endpoint | /api/v2/cache/visit |
| Factory Base Class / Interface | RedPoint.Resonance.Web.Shared.Plugins.FilterableRealtimePluginFactoryBase |
| Plugin Interface | RedPoint.Resonance.Web.Shared.Plugins.IVisitorCachePlugin |
| Inputs | Visitor Profile, Registration Request Details |
| Outputs | Visitor Profile |
| Configuration Type | Visitor |
Geolocation decision plugins can be used to integrate new geolocation service providers to RPI Realtime to enable Geolocation rules be used in realtime decisions.
The gelocation plugin can be used to look up address information, weather observations, forecasts and geofence information. This can be done using either longitude and latitude coordinates or a search string.
| Plugin Info | |
|---|---|
| Endpoint | /api/v2/smart-assets/results |
| Factory Base Class / Interface | N/A |
| Plugin Interface | IGeolocationProvider |
| Inputs | Long/Lat or Search String |
| Outputs | Address, Weather & Geofence Results |
| Configuration Type | N/A |
The IP to Geolocation plugin can be used to make use of long/lat lookup services using a supplied IP address. This enhances the number of opportunities for making geolocation based decisions.
| Plugin Info | |
|---|---|
| Endpoint | /api/v2/smart-assets/results |
| Factory Base Class / Interface | N/A |
| Plugin Interface | IGeoIPLookupPlugin |
| Inputs | IP Address |
| Outputs | Long/Lat |
| Configuration Type | N/A |
After compiling the plugin, the resulting DLL must be made available to the RPI Realtime container. The Helm chart is configured to automatically mount the corresponding volume and set the location of the plugins, but you are responsible for provisioning the underlying storage based on your hosting platform’s procedure, and uploading the DLL to that location. For instance, in Azure, create an Azure file share, upload the DLL to the share. Once that is done, create a PersistentVolume (PV) and PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC) and reference its name in the RPI Helm chart values.yaml file as shown below:
storage:
persistentVolumeClaims:
Plugins:
enabled: true
claimName: realtimeplugins
mountPath: /app/plugins
The plugins are configured using the values.yaml file located in our RPI Helm Chart. This is located under the realtimeapi section
realtimeapi:
customPlugins:
enabled: true
settings.
list:
- name: my_plugin1
factory:
assembly: my_plugin1_assembly
type: Plugin1_type
type:
name: my_plugin1_type_name
apiContextFilters:
- my_filter1
apiContentFilterOperator: Include
settings:
- key: key1
value: value1
- key: key2
value: value2
- name: my_plugin2
factory:
assembly: my_plugin2_assembly
type: Plugin2_type
type:
name: my_plugin2_type_name
apiContextFilters:
- my_filter1
apiContentFilterOperator: Include
settings:
- key: key1
value: value1
- key: key2
value: value2
Logging within plugins can be done using the TraceLogHelper class from the RedPoint.Resonance.Web.Shared.Logging namespace. This allows for sending trace information, warnings, and errors that can be categorized and filtered in the RPI Realtime logging system.
Example usage in a plugin:
TraceLogHelper.SendTraceInformation("This is an informational message", category: RealtimeLogCategory.Plugin);
TraceLogHelper.SendTraceError(new Exception("An error occurred"), "Error message", category: RealtimeLogCategory.Plugin);The logging level for Plugin messages can be configured via the Helm Chart to help monitor and troubleshoot plugin behavior during runtime.