What Is an Incremental Feed?
Incremental feeds transfer changes to individual items within a feed. These changes do not need to include the entire catalog.
Examples of such changes include:
Prices
Stock levels
Descriptions
Shipping conditions
NOTE: Data fields that are sent as empty or are missing in the import will be cleared for that item.
Data Source
Channel Pilot Pro can import incremental feeds only from an FTP or SFTP server. Incremental feeds are available only for product feeds and data feeds.
For more information on "(S)FTP-Import" look here.
Data Type
Channel Pilot Pro can import incremental feeds only in CSV, XML or JSON format. Incremental feeds are available only for product feeds and data feeds.
For more information on "Import by file type" look here.
Activation
Incremental feeds are available only for product and data feeds. In the feed settings, under "Edit Settings", go to "Set Up Connection" and select "Incremental".
Enable the checkbox if the feed is an incremental feed.
File Name
For an incremental import, there are specific file naming requirements that must be followed. Otherwise, the import will fail.
Each file must contain a 14-digit timestamp (date and time) in the file name.
Example: testfile_20170314144212.csv (The timestamp does not have to be at the end of the file name.)
The last digits in the timestamp (e.g., 12 in the example above) can be used as a counter from 00 to 59 to ensure unique file names.
Normally, these digits represent the seconds when the file was created.
The timestamp may also contain 3 additional digits for milliseconds.
The file name must begin with a lowercase letter.
File Path
The file path must contain the folder path followed by /*.
The file path has to point only to the folder.
The folder has to contain only incremental files.
Each import feed requires its own folder.
If the folder contains files with a different structure or incorrect names, the import may fail.
Importing Files
After your feed has been validated, the "Incremental Feed Settings" become available.
Here you can define how Channel Pilot Pro handles deletions.
If incremental import is enabled and the file has the correct name, Channel Pilot Pro will retrieve all files sorted by timestamp, starting with the oldest file.
You can check which file was imported last to ensure that no files are missing.
Downloads occur only if the timestamp in the file name is equal to or greater than the timestamp of the last imported file.
Note: The most recently imported file must remain on the (S)FTP server and must not be renamed until the next file has been downloaded.
You can also re-import a file. However, ensure that at least one file has already been imported before attempting a re-import. To re-import a file, simply change its timestamp to a later date and time.
How Can I Perform Incremental Stock or Price Updates?
Simply add a new row to the feed.
If you only want to import stock and/or price updates, you can create a second incremental feed that does not add new products but only updates existing ones.
This is a good solution when product data is updated less frequently than stock or pricing information. Make sure the settings are configured correctly to prevent unintended product creation or deletion of existing data.
How Can I Delete an Item?
You can delete item data in Channel Pilot Pro by selecting the data field for the deletion message and entering the correct value for the delete action.
If you do not use the Delete option, no items will be removed from the feed. All items imported during the initial import or through incremental updates will remain in the database.
What Should the File Content Look Like?
Here is an example that includes a deletion column. (The example itself was not included in the provided text.)
