Firefox Bakery

Background

When creating a new A/B test, the process of manual QA and cross-referencing past tests is arduous and slow. The Optimizley UI can load slowly on poor connections and has many additional features which are unnecessary for simple tests. Many tests that we deploy are largely similar in nature (ex: funnelcake distributions, copy changes, etc), and therefore, the A/B tests that we create are largely similar. What if there was another way?

Bakery is an Optimizely A/B test creation tool which utilizes the Optimizely API to create A/B tests from the comfort of your local machine. Taking a minimalist approach to recreating basic features of Optimizley's user interface, the tool is a great alternative when creating basic A/B test experiments. On top of minimizing the interface, this application gives you a confirmation screen where you can review all A/B test parameters before creation, which allows for quick and easy QA.

Technical Details

Bakery is a remote Optimizely A/B test creation tool which utilizes the Optimizely REST API and a modified version of the FunnelEnvy Optimizely-Node Tool. The Github repository hosts two different deployment tools, one on the Web (stable) and one as a Node.js script (unstable). The web application is written using Node.js, Express.js, and Nunjucks. The script is written using Node.js.

How I built it

With no prior experience in developing with Node.js/Express.js, I first decided to tackle solving the problem with a simple node script. After successfully making my first API call, I began building the framework for what would be an end-to-end Optimizley test creation script. After building the script, I began to learn the Nunjucks templating system, and experimenting with Express, which led to the end result, a web-based Optimizely test creation tool.

Built With

• express.js
• node.js
• nunjucks