[SPT/CWIS] Recommender database

[Edward Almasy]

On Oct 5, 2007, at 8:41 AM, Sonya Norris wrote:
> We're running two instances of CWIS and recently had trouble with  
> the recommender database. In instance one it was taking up to 21  
> seconds to update or add a record and after duly consulting the  
> help section we tried to rebuild the recommender database but it  
> timed out. As we are not using the rating system, we opted to  
> delete the recommender table and disable automatic updates to it.  
> All is well.
>
> In instance two we cannot add or update records at all or update to  
> recommender database - it times out. The data was imported. But we  
> would like to use the rating feature. What's our best course of  
> action?

    If dynamic updating of the recommender
    database is causing resource record updates to
    take too long, setting "Continuous Updating of
    Recommender Database" to "Disabled" in the
    System Configuration will get rid of the delay.
    (No need to delete any tables.)  This should only
    be an issue for larger collections.

    The resource ratings themselves aren't at all
    dependent on the recommender system, but if you
    need to disable continuous updating as above
    but still want to have the "Get Recommendations"
    feature work, you'll need to periodically
    manually trigger a rebuild of the recommender
    database via the option on the Admin menu.  For
    particularly large collections or slow servers,
    it may also be necessary to bump up the PHP
    execution time limit.

    I know periodically having to trigger a rebuild
    is definitely not an ideal solution.  A revamp
    of the recommender back end to address this
    problem is on the "To Do" list.  We've got about
    25,000 records in the Scout Archives, so it's
    also an issue for us.

    Ed



---
    Edward Almasy                             ealmasy at scout.wisc.edu
    Co-Director                                 1210 W Dayton Street
    Internet Scout                                  Madison WI 53706
    Computer Sciences Department                608-262-6606 (voice)
    University of Wisconsin - Madison             608-265-9296 (fax)