Here's our situation: we set up our Recommendations catalog and entity attributes with both input from mbox parameters capturing on-page data and a feed using the Analytics Product Classifications import. For various reasons, we have 90%+ rows in the Classifications that are not saleable on the website. We'll work on cleaning that up, but until then, we're wondering how best to clean up the Reco catalog.
We looked at using the API to remove entities, but the docs state that un-accessed entities will wash out of the catalog after 61 days, so maybe we can do nothing:
How Do I Use Feeds in Target Recommendations? | Adobe Target
So if we turn off the Classifications feed, any products not recorded in Target (or Analytics?) page views should be removed. However, the classifications are quite useful in making Collections and Exclusions. Will the entity attributes originally brought in with the Classifications feed persist as long as the product is still active?
Specifically, this scenario: Say we have a live product A123 and a dead product B456. Initially, the live product has both attributes from the mbox parameters (the standard ones like name, etc.) and some additional ones from the Classifications (custom attributes); the dead one exists only in Classifications, so only has the custom attributes (or none).
Entity | Standard Attributes (mbox parameters) | Custom Attributes (Classifications Feed) |
entity.id | entity.name | entity.categoryId | (…) | entity.margin | custom1 | custom2 | custom3 |
A123 | Live product | ABC | (…) | 10 | Bus Unit 1 | Product Group 1 | Product Family 1 |
B456 | Dead product | | | | Bus Unit 2 | Product Group 2 | Product Family 2 |
If we now turn off the feed and wait 61 days, will we have these values, retaining the custom attributes on the live entity?
Entity | Standard Attributes (mbox parameters) | Custom Attributes (Classifications Feed) |
entity.id | entity.name | entity.categoryId | (…) | entity.margin | custom1 | custom2 | custom3 |
A123 | Live product | ABC | (…) | 10 | Bus Unit 1 | Product Group 1 | Product Family 1 |
B456 | | | | | | | |
Or will we have these values, retaining only the mbox parameters on the live entity?
Entity | Standard Attributes (mbox parameters) | Custom Attributes (Classifications Feed) |
entity.id | entity.name | entity.categoryId | (…) | entity.margin | custom1 | custom2 | custom3 |
A123 | Live product | ABC | (…) | 10 | | | |
B456 | | | | | | | |