Roadmap for the Recommender API module and helper modules

The Recommender API module and a few helper modules were released in 2009 as a result of my Google Summer of Code 2009 project for Drupal. Thanks to users of the modules, I have received many useful feedback and suggestions over the past 1+ year of application.

Below is the roadmap for the next release of Recommender API module, which will be completely re-written.

1. Outsource the recommendation computation to Apache Mahout. This is to break the PHP performance bottleneck when doing complex matrix calculations. See more details at Issue #816112 and Issue #414570.

2. Add Views support so that there are more customized ways to show the recommendations. See more details at Issue #673786.

3. Support Drupal 7. See more details at Issue #910258.

   Due to the planned massive code change of switching to Mahout and Drupal 7, I will have to completely re-write the Recommender API module. Fortunately, the helpers module won't change much because the APIs in the Recommender API module won't change. I would expect the code to run much faster and more reliable after the work is done.

I plan to accomplish the work in the next 2+ years. 2+ years?! Yes, because I'll have my first child in November (yay!) and in the meantime I'll be working on my dissertation (tons of work!). But I do promise that I'll get this done and give Drupal a full-fledged recommender system, because recommender system is my area and I love Drupal!! Of course, if anyone else wants to contribute a similar module, then I don't have to re-invent the wheel. In that case, I'd be glad to offer my expertise and insight on recommender algorithms if needed.

If you have other questions or comments, please contact me at danithaca@gmail.com.