Session Management

[enewe101]

Define a class structure responsible for storing the user session information. Based on our discussion today, this should probably contain the following (these are just suggestions):

• ProductScore: this class should contain a product (pointer to the data object), as well as a few score fields. There are at least two scores: a luceneScore - which is part of the output of Lucene's processing of the user's initial text query - and recommenderScore - which is responsible for ranking the products based on the user's selection of preferred feature values. Note that in practice, these scores get written during different system activities.
• AttributeScore: this class records the users indication 1) that she cares about a particular attribute and 2) what value she prefers. For example, if, when presented with the specefications for humidifiers, the user chooses to express the preference "color -> blue", this fact is captured and persisted here.
• currentEquivalenceClass - the current class in which the user is browsing ... and probably more

Investigate what facilities Spring provides to store data in association to a user-session, and, design these session objects in a way that fits Spring's session paradigm.

[asutcl]

Hi Priya,

I see you took ownership of this issue. I was thinking of working on it since I need the score objects for my part. Should I write up simple objects in a branch and push them to the repository for your to start from or do you think you will be able to push objects early tomorrow that I can use to build my Attribute Extractor?

Thanks!

[priyasidhaye]

Hi Andrew,

I was going to propose a structure for it in Tuesday's class. I don't think I can get it done till tomorrow morning, so go ahead with it.

Thanks.

[enewe101]

IMO you might both be talking about different things.

Keep in mind that the AttributeExtractor is not the only module that will write to the session. Lucene will also write. There will be a few session-reader's and -writers.

Do what makes sense, but I would suggest that, Andrew, you could focus on building the AttributeExtractor and assume that the session will be able to hold whatever data you want it to.

On the other hand, we need someone to investigate what mession management facilities exist for Spring, so that they can teach the group how to interact with the session. It might be the case that a app-specific SessionManager class needs to get built---that would depend on what facilities Spring provides. Priya---based on our discussion I think you shuold look into how session management is done in Spring for Tues.

Does that work for you?

[priyasidhaye]

Yes that was the original plan, works for me.

[asutcl]

I just want to clarify where the AttributeScore object should be defined. I can define it as part of my package and return a list of them to the session manager in response to a query. The sessions can then keep track of these how ever is necessary. Although I saw that the AttribtueScore was defined in this issue, so I was wondering.

I will go ahead and create the ArributeScore Objects in my package for now. To prevent future confusion I think we need to build a nice class diagram together to know where everything lives and how things communicate with one another.

[asutcl]

Sorry I reread the definition. Last class I thought AttributeScore ment the score given by the feature extractor. This class says it captures the user preferences. It's different. I'll create a class called AttributeRelevance for now for my part and we can modify or refractor it later.

[enewe101]

Agreed about the class diagram -- that will help a lot. I'll try to bring a draft on Tues so that we'll have a good starting point. Def something to finalize in-group like you say.

My bad for introducing confusion when I wrote out the definition :)

[enewe101]

The session is in the jurisdiction of the frontend controller. For now I'm giving this issue to Shuo. Shuo, let us know if you need help :)

[asutcl]

Milestone one is complete for please move any discussion about added features to milestone 2 issues.