Feed Manager - Adding Feed

There are three ways to create a feed in the Feed Manager:

• Manually - creating feeds directly in iPresso using the creator.
• File import - adding the feed by importing the CSV or XML file to iPresso
• Automatic from the server - adding a feed by providing the URL where the feed file is located. The feed file should be publicly accessible (it cannot be hashed or contain access restrictions).

Adding feed manually

To add a feed manually go to Feed Manager tab on the left-hand panel and then click Create a new one:

and choose the first option - Manually:

 

You move to the Feed Settings window, where you start creating a feed:

 

Now fill in the Name and Key fields in the first row. Both fields must be unique. The system will inform you if these parameters occur in another feed:

In the next step, select whether the product ID should be Manually entered:

 

 

or Automatically entered:

 

 

Manually entered requires you to specify an ID number for each product. Selecting Automatically entered will cause the ID to be determined by the system in sequence.

 

The next step is to fill the Product ID fields:

 

and features in Configuration of product features part:

• Name - unique within a particular feed (it can be used in a different data set)
• Key - unique within a particular feed and within an API key standard (the API definition is available in our dictionary)

• Type - accordingly to the selection in the drop-down list, e.g. if you want to mark the expiration date of the fruit use "date" and if you want to mark the name of the fruit choose "text".

• Text - select to complete the name, e.g. the name of a fruit
• Link - choose when you want to have e.g. a link to a fruit in your store
• Whole number - select when you want to specify e.g. the number of apples
• Floating point number - select when you want to specify e.g. the weight of 10.5 KG
• True/False - select when, for example, you wish to indicate whether a product is domestic or not
• Single-selection dictionary - select when you wish to assign, for example, a product to a vegetable or fruit
• Multiple choice dictionary - select when you want to assign several things to a product, e.g. with seeds, sweet
• Date - select to assign e.g. an expiration date
• Date with time - select to assign the date with a specific time, e.g. some fixed delivery time
• ID - identifier of a product

 

and Save.

• Remember that in case of manual entry, names and keys must be unique (keys cannot contain special characters).

Now, let's move on to adding products. In this step, you can add products one at a time or several at once.

 

For the previously selected option Automatically entered, you must fill in the fields for each product:

 

For the Manually entered option you have to fill in the fields as above, but there is an additional field here - the Product ID:

 

The names and numbers in these fields also must be unique. Otherwise, the system will tell you that the data is incorrect just like in the feed settings case.

And that's it! The list of products in your feed is ready:

You can sort the list of products by clicking one of marked columns: 

File import method

To import a feed from a file, you need to have a file prepared in the following format 

• XML, e.g.:

or 

• CSV, e.g.:

 

Go to Feed Manager tab on the left-hand panel and click Create a new one:

 

and then the second tab: File import

 

Now you need to select the file from disk and import the feed into the system. Examples of CSV or XML files can be found under the Import file button.

 

 

If you use a CSV file, that first row must contain unique headers to be used as keys.

In case of using the XML file, a new cell will be displayed below where you should select the Product Element that matches what was previously entered in the XML file:

 

If the Product Element is incorrectly selected, the data in the fields will not match or the Configuration of product features window will not display. Once an item is correctly selected, Feed Manager will display the Configuration of product features window:

 

Now specify the Name and Type fields (Feed Settings and Configuration) for each product feature according to what is in the uploaded files.

 

• If you want to add/remove/change products in the feed, in case of importing the file, remember to do that with previous products (leave the ones which you don't want to change). Feed Manager only reads values that are currently in the imported file. The file needs to be in the same format as before - XML or CSV respectively.
• A product feature is a variable that describes a product, such as name, price, or category. It is necessary to specify which product feature contains the ID by selecting the ID type on the corresponding feature (e.g. text, date, name). Keys are automatically retrieved from the first row of the imported CSV file or, in case of the XML, from the node. Recommended date format is "YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss"

 

Automatic from the server method

To add a feed from the server you have to pass a valid URL where the feed file is available. This file should be publicly available. Accordingly to the previous methods for adding a feed, click Create a new one:

 

and pick the third method - Automatic from the server:

 

If you use a CSV file, the first row must contain unique headers that will be used as keys.

If you use an XML file, a new field will appear below where you will select the Product element that matches what was entered in the XML file accordingly to the File import method. If you select the Product Element incorrectly, the data in the fields will not match or the Configuration of product features window will not display. Once the item is selected correctly, Feed Manager will display the Configuration of product features window (just as it does once you add a file via import).

• Exactly one feature must be of "ID" type (if the ID is not unique, the last product having that ID will be retained).

If you use the Automatic from the server method, the Feed Manager will ask you to set a Frequency of refreshing the feed (i.e. update the CSV or XML file). This can only happen once a day on the selected days of the week at the specified time. Select the days of the week and the time of the earliest download. It's important to update the file on the server before the feed refresh time specified in the Frequency of refreshing the feed part:

 

 

The final step is to assign product features, accordingly to the earlier examples (manual and import file).

Once you click Save, the process is successfully completed. 

• If you want to change parameters in the feed (e.g. add products) using the Automatic from the server method, add them to the file previously placed on the server. Feed Manager only reads the values that are currently in the file uploaded from the server. After refreshing (see -> Frequency of refreshing the feed). The file must also be in the same format as before - XML or CSV respectively.

In the video below, you can also see instructions, how to add and manage correctly.