When products are imported into our system, we store your data in an internal table we call your Product Catalog. 

Import field mapping allows you to route your data fields from your source and merge files to the desired fields in the product catalog table.

System Fields

When mapping your source fields to our system fields, you may notice there are two types of system fields; standard and custom.

Standard fields

Common system fields with set consistent names across all accounts in GoDataFeed.

• We auto-map as many source fields to standard fields as we can
  • This happens when a primary import source is first selected and whenever, if ever, it is changed
• Data scrub is always enabled - we always remove HTML and bad characters from standard fields
• Default data handling to ensure imported data is consistent across feeds
  
  

  Sku	Character Limit: 100
  Name	Character Limit: 1000
  Tax	Character Limit: 50
  Url	Character Limit: 500
  ImageUrl	Character Limit: 500
  Brand	Character Limit: 250
  MPN	Character Limit: 250
  GTIN	Character Limit: 50
  ASIN	Character Limit: 50
  Category	Character Limit: 500
  Condition	Character Limit: 50
  Keywords	Character Limit: 8000
  ParentSku	Character Limit: 100
  Price	Converts to 2 digit decimal type
  SalePrice	Converts to 2 digit decimal type
  ShippingPrice	Converts to 2 digit decimal type
  Weight	Converts to 2 digit decimal type
  Quantity	Converts to whole number

Standard fields are used for other functions, such as

• • Join merge files to primary source
    • The SKU field is used to join data from merge files with primary source data
  • Mapping newly added feeds
    • These standard fields are used to set your default mapping in newly added feeds. 'Sku' will be used as the equivalent feed field for sku. For example, after you add a Google Shopping feed, our system maps your sku to the Google 'id' field. Other fields that are auto-mapped will include title, description, prices, brand, and so on.
  • Category mapping
    • 'Category' will be used to suggest matching categories for the channel feed (Feeds > Feed Setup > Categories).

Custom fields

Additional system fields to which you may map your source fields.

• We typically auto-map new source fields to the next available custom field
• We only support up to 219 custom fields currently - if you reach the max, then please consider recycling unused fields to be mapped to a more useful one
• You may disable data scrub to bypass our system's process which removes rough characters and HTML
• Typically data type is set to text

Source Fields

These are the exact fields found in the primary source and any merge files.

• Most source fields are automatically mapped to system fields
• You may map additional source fields by typing the field name in the text box
• A drop-down list appears with the available source fields
• You can map a source field to more than one system field, but the label must be unique, such as "description" and "description_unscrubbed".

Importing a specific source field

Many sources will import any additional fields found from the source automatically. However, some sources, like Magento, are configured in our system so you must specify additional attributes for our system to import. This was done so that we do not import all attributes many of which may not be used in your feeds.

If you would like to import a new field from your shopping cart platform, follow the below steps: 

1. Copy the exact field name from your shopping cart platform
2. Go to the Import > Mapping
3. Paste the field into an available standard field or custom field under the Source fields section
4. Click SAVE and RUN IMPORT

Labels

Optionally, you may add your own label for import fields to override the source field name.

The label will be used instead of the source field name wherever you are presented with the list of product fields, such as feed mapping, filters, and rule conditions.

Data Type

Data types are a classification identifying one of the various types of data, such as text, decimal, or integer, that determines the possible values for that type, the operations that can be done on values of that type, the meaning of the data, and the way values of that type can be stored.

Data Types in the GoDataFeed Mapping section include the following:

• Text - free string of text of varying lengths (most often used)
• Integer - values cannot be null and default to 0 in the database if empty in the source field
• Decimal - used to store exact numeric values in the database e.g., money values.
• Date - not shown on the import mapping, but certain feed fields are classified as ‘date’

Be sure to only select data type Integer and Decimal where applicable. Using these types can cause an error if data contains non-numerical values.