Using Global Rules

Global rules let you apply business logic across multiple feeds quickly and easily. With global rules, you will no longer have to manually recreate each rule on each feed. Now you can take often-used rules and apply them to multiple feeds.

With global rules, instead of recreating every feed, you can create conditions so that categories are grouped based on data points, i.e., name, description, etc. If you make changes to global rules after they've been applied to feeds, you can cascade changes or unbind rules so they won't apply to existing feeds.

• Speed up the feed setup process by applying commonly used business logic across multiple feeds
• Group products based on conditions, i.e., gender, product type, etc.
• Group products for certain requirements, i.e., like a particular manufacturer or brand
• Filter out products under a certain value or products that are not profitable
• Replace text that is non-compliant with feed specs without having to alter your product data

If you make changes to Global Rules after they've been linked to rules in your feeds, you can cascade changes or unlink them from rules.

This article will cover:

• Parts of rules used by global rules
• Create a global rule from an existing rule in a feed
• Apply a global rule to a new rule
• Unlink a rule from a global rule
• Update a global rule and choose whether to update any linked rules
• Delete a global rule and choose whether to delete any linked rules

Parts of rules used by global rules

• Rule name
• 'WHERE' conditions
• text replacement

Note, global rules do not save the customized TO values from custom rules. This means if you have a custom rule to create a dynamic title from combining source fields like SET "[F].[title]" TO "Brand + Title + Product Type + Color + Size", then that part of your custom rule is NOT saved in the global rule. This is because different feeds have different fields and a custom rule cannot be applied the same to another feed without error.

Create a global rule from an existing rule in a feed

If you have an existing rule and would like to save the conditions of that rule as a new global rule so you can apply it to another rule or to a rule in another feed, then follow these steps:

1. Open the existing rule you want to save as a global rule
2. Click on the global rule options drop-down next to the Apply Global Rule button
3. Click 'Save as a new global rule' - the rule name must be unique amongst other global rules
4. Now, you can apply this saved global rule to another rule

Apply a global rule to a new rule

If you want to apply an existing global rule to a new rule, then follow these steps:

1. Start a new rule or open the existing rule to which you want to apply the global rule
2. Click on the 'Apply Global Rule' button
3. If needed, complete the rest of your rule and Click 'Save'
4. The new rule is now linked to the applied global rule as designated by the link icon

Unlink a rule from a global rule

If you want to unlink a rule from a global rule, then follow these steps:

1. Open the rule to be unlinked
2. Find the global rule options drop-down button next to "Linked Rule"
3. Click on 'Unlink from global rule' 
   

Update a global rule and choose whether to update any linked rules

If you want to make a change to a global rule and force that change to any linked rules, then follow these steps:

1. Go to Global Rules
2. Open the rule to be updated
3. Make your change to the global rule and click 'Save'
4. If there are any rules linked to this global rule, then you can choose which, if any, should also be updated using the checkboxes
5. Click 'Update Global Rule' when you are done
6. Any rules you chose to not update are unlinked from the global rule and are not affected by the update

Delete a global rule and choose whether to delete any linked rules

If you want to delete a global rule from your store, then you also have the option to delete any linked rules by following these steps:

1. Go to Global Rules
2. Open the rule to be deleted, or click the X delete button from the list
3. If there are any rules linked to this global rule, then you can choose which, if any, should also be deleted using the checkboxes
4. Click 'Delete Global Rule' when you are done
5. Any rules you chose not to delete are now unlinked from the global rule that was deleted