Feed process steps

Whether you manually trigger a feed or it is triggered by the scheduled hour, the feed process will go through steps to map, filter, categorize, customize and validate your data from your sources to feed files. Then, the files are ready to be fetched by the channel or submitted to a channel via FTP or API.

1. Process is triggered by manually selecting "compile" or "submit" in the app or by a scheduled import
2. Mapping data into the template from imported product fields or static values
3. (Optional) Filters & manual exclusion/inclusions remove/include SKU rows from the feed
4. (Optional) Category mappings and rules apply channel taxonomy values
5. (Optional) Custom rules modify and update data according to their execution sequence
6. Validation analyzes product data for missing required fields, invalid format, recommended fields and any optimization
7. Feed preview and validation files are written as CSV files, as well as any channel specific files like XML
8. (Optional) At this point, the feed file is ready to be fetched/pulled via URL
9. (Optional) Finally, when submitting the feed manually or on schedule, the system sends the feed files to the destination channel using the submission parameters

& Triggering a feed to "Compile" vs. "Submit" vs. "Pull/Fetch" either manually or on a schedule

Feeds are triggered either from the front-end of the app by clicking on buttons in the UI or by scheduled imports/submissions.

• Compiling the feed builds the output files, as well as the feed preview and validation.
• Submitting the feed both builds the output file and then sends it to the channel.

When a channel fetches the feed from the provided URL, then our system provides the last compiled feed file. Each new import will compile any feed template that has been pulled recently to prepare the feed to be pulled thereafter.

Before we continue, allow us to define some terms so you may better understand different steps better.

Setting up your feed

Once you have added the desired channel template to your store, you will need to turn it into a feed. You will need to map your product data, choose which products to send to the channel, categorize your products according to the channel's taxonomy, and then configure to when and where the feed will submit.

The following are excerpts from our Feed setup guide: How do I set up my feed?  article.

Map feed template fields to either source fields or static values which gets applied for all products in the feed

The system will automatically map system fields to required fields. By default, fields like Sku, Price, URL, ImageURL, Brand, Description and Title, will be populated from the source data. You can add or remove these default field mappings.

Then, you can map more of your product data by mapping a source field or static value.

Filters and exclusions keep unwanted products from the feed

There are three ways products can be excluded from a feed:

1. Filter rules
2. Manual exclusions
3. Validation errors

Using Filters to exclude groups of products

Filter rules allow you to exclude many products based on data values or empty fields. In this example, a filter rule is created to exclude gift cards. Filters are inclusion rules which means you will need to write the conditions in a manner which correctly includes only products you want to include in the feed.

In the example below, the conditions are created to only include products in which page_title does not contain "gift card" and Category does not equal to "Gift Card". If you want to create the same rule, then your conditions will be different depending on your product data.

Notes about feed filters

• An unfiltered feed includes all products from your product catalog unless you manually exclude them on the product validation page

• When we compile your feed, each rule is executed and products that do not meet the rule conditions are removed from the feed

• You can manually exclude or include individual skus that are affected by filters using the options in the table on the Products page

• You may also filter products at the product catalog import level using import filters (requires Ultimate plan)

Categorization ensures your products show under the correct channel categories and departments

Each channel categorizes products differently. Most channels require you to send your products pre-categorized to their taxonomy, like Google Shopping. However, there are a few channels that do not require categories in the feed like Walmart.

We've loaded channel categories into each feed template. There are two ways to categorize products in your feed: mapping and rules.

Category Mapping

Category mapping makes categorizing products fast and easy. Type to find channel categories for each of you unique categories.

You can also use the Suggest feature to find suggested matches. We look at your imported categories from your store and suggest matching categories from the channel. Most categories will yield suggested matches, but some categories will return 'No Matches Found.' For these unmatched categories, you will need to create category rules.

Category Rules

The Category Rules section allows you to override category mapping using rule conditions.

If you map your category "Diamond Rings > Wedding Gifts > Gifts Above $500" to Google's category "Apparel & Accessories > Jewelry > Rings", maybe there are some products that are not correctly categorized on your store.

You can create a rule that says, categorize products into "Apparel & Accessories > Jewelry > Rings" if the product title or product type from your store data contains "rings".

Custom Rules modify and improve product data

Rules allow you to apply logic to your product data to update or modify field attributes, add third-party tracking, replace text in your data, calculate number values and generally improve product listing quality.

Concatenation

Append or prepend fields or values together, like you would using a Excel function. 

For example, you could join your brands and titles or you could append colors to the end of your titles or units of measure to shipping dimensions.

1. Brand + Title = "TREK Basketball Shoes"
2. Title + " - " Color = "Boys shirt - Blue"
3. Shipping length + " in" = "3.5 in"

Text replacement

Replace or remove text in your feed data with a custom rule. Here are some examples of how you can use replace text functions.

Standardize capitalization

Fix duplicate values

Remove values completely by leaving the replace value empty

Calculator

Apply basic arithmetic to your numeric fields in your data feed with a custom rule. Learn more: Calculator function.

Examples of calculator functions in custom feed rules

Static Text vs [P].[Fields] / [F].[Fields]

Add 20% to price for a markup

[[ [P].[price] + ( [P].[price] * .2 ) ]]

Multiply feed price by .7 to discount price by 30%

[[ [F].[price] * .7 ]]

Subtract 2 from Quantity to create a buffer

[[ [P].[quantity] - 2 ]]

Remember, feed rules allow you to use both source P.Fields and feeds F.Fields. Use a source field if you simply want to use the raw imported values. Use a feed field when you want to use the modified feed output value. 

Append UTM parameters to URLS

Use concatenation to append UTM tracking parameters to product URLS. 

Use Google's Campaign builder tool to brainstorm your parameters. Then, use dynamic product data or static values to build your rule.

Learn more: Concatenate UTM parameters to product URLs

Feed Validation Report checks for completeness, channel readiness, and optimizations

Each feed compilation ends with a validation of the product data. Each feed template has data quality check rules called "validation rules" that analyze the feed data for completeness, channel readiness, and optimizations.

Feed compilation, preview files and output files

Every time a feed is compiled, a feed folder is created which contains a feedpreview.csv and feedvalidation.csv, as well as any other channel formatted files like XML.

The downloaded feed folder is always contained in a zipped folder.

The feed folder, preview file, and validation file all use a naming convention which follows:

_feed_accountNumber_storeNumber_feedNumber.zip
feedpreview_accountNumber_storeNumber_feedNumber.csv
validationReport_accountNumber_storeNumber_feedNumber.csv

This helps to identify files across accounts, stores and feeds. 

In this example, the feed folder contains the actual XML file to be sent to the channel in addition to the system provided preview and validation CSV files. If the output file is CSV format, then we rename the preview file to the file name from the feed settings. If the output file is TXT, then we have the preview CSV as well as the output TXT file. 

Download feed files to view them in Excel or Notepad

To download the feed folder, you may do so from the feeds page or the feed details page. 

The feed pull URL provides the feed in the desired file format as specified in the feed settings. Downloading the feed folder gives you the output feed file(s) as well as any channel specific feed files which can be XML or other format.

Now that you have setup your feed, let's learn about how to publish the feed to your channels.

NEXT - Publish a feed