Hi dobes_vandermeer,
you could create an A/B Template. With smarty we create a random number between one and zero. Further more we store the content-blocks we want to test into variables. Then we do something if our random number is one and something else when it is zero.
That could look something like that:
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{assign var=decision value="0"|mt_rand:1}
{content block="testcontent_a" assign="content_block_a"}
{content block="testcontent_b" assign="content_block_b"}
{if $decision==1}
...stuff...
{$content_block_a}
...stuff...
{else}
...stuff...
{$content_block_b}
...stuff...
{/if}
This would randomly provide a user with content A or Content B... if you just want to try out different layouts... just store the content-block data in variables (as in the example) and build your different template elements within the if-check.
If you want to test a version with a lower possibility do something like that:
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{assign var=decision value="1"|mt_rand:10}
{if $decision<=8}
80% possibility of showing this version
{else}
20% possibility of showing the other version
{/if}
Hurdle 1 taken
The next step is to track the data... a very dirty one would be:
1) create a DB table called something like "ab_testing" with you db admin tool
2) add a UDT that writes a counter of each test page to this db table ("Testpage A served X times") to the A and B section of your template.
3) On the page that you want to reach you could place a UDT that, depending on the parameter, writes a counter to a DB table (e.g. "Target called from Testpage A X Times").
So after some time your table should like this:
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id | itemname | Counter
---------------------------------------------------
0 Test A Served 50
1 Test B Served 60
2 A Success 15
3 B Success 10
Now you should be able to say, which page worked better in percentage by dividing Success by Served counter.
In your target page, you place something like the following (assuming our UDT name is "Count Success" and the parameter name is "version"):
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{assign var=version_id value=$smarty.get.version}
{if $version_id == 'A'}
{count_success which="A"}
{/if}
{if $version_id == 'B'}
{count_success which="B"}
{/if}
You A/B template contains something like the following in the corresponding parts.
Hope this could inspire you a bit.... Let me know if that could be a solution for you
Best
Nils
