carskit-api 0.0.7

An API for the CARSKit engine


# CARSKit-API

CARSKit-API is a software based on a command line interface that serves as an abstraction layer for the [CARSKit](https://github.com/irecsys/CARSKit) recommendation system engine. Built entirely in python, it aims to provide both a more dynamic and secure way of handling the input and output of engine data.

## Requirements

It is necessary that both python 3.6 and java 1.7 or higher are installed on the computer to run the software.

## Installation

Use the package manager [pip3](https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/) to install carskit-api.

`bash pip3 install carskit-api `

## Usage

First, it is necessary to create a folder for the rating data that will be used.

`shell $ mkdir data `

Contextual datasets are referenced in the [CARSKIT repository](https://github.com/irecsys/CARSKit) to use as example. Remember that the data must be in the same format that the engine requires. If in doubt, look in the [User Guide](https://arxiv.org/abs/1511.03780).

With the folder created, enter it and create another one for the results that the engine will generate and insert the data set that will be used.

`shell $ cd data $ mkdir results $ paste ratings.csv `

Now we need to specify both the data set path and the results folder name for the API.

`shell $ capi settings --set "dataset_path" --value ./ratings.csv $ capi settings --set "results_foldername" --value "results" `

You can use the command capi -h to know more about the api’s commands.

By now, it is assumed that we have everything to run the the engine. You do that using the following command:

`shell $ capi run `

After executing the command, two new json files will be created in the same directory where the data set is, one of them is a statistics file that the engine extracted from the data set and the other is a recommendations file where, for each user of the data set, the top N items recommended for the same, in each possible combination of context (if specified), will be listed.

To change a specific configuration of the engine, the top N recommendations as example, we just need to use the following command:

`shell $ capi settings -s "topN" --value 10 `

And a new settings file will be generated with the new configuration.

## Saving on a MongoDB database

There are two things that must be done to store the results on a MongoDB server. First, a file called .secrets.key must be created, whose path is at the user’s choice. Then it is necessary to specify the path of this file to the API using the command:

`shell capi database --secrets-path PATH `

to then specify the URI address for the API using the command:

`shell capi database --uri URI `

Now with the correct settings, we can run the engine and save the results on a MongoDB server using the command:

`shell capi run --save-mongo `

## Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

Please make sure to update tests as appropriate.

## License

[MIT](https://choosealicense.com/licenses/mit/)