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In order to import your first product feed, it is necessary that you have already created a shop. In this article, we explain, how to create a shop.
If you have not yet created a feed, you can use the “Imports” icon on the left side to get to the "import overview". When you create your first feed, you will be shown a notification window that you can use.
In the tutorial videos, we import a CSV file from a FTP server.
Add a new feed
Click on "Add new feed".
Name your feed. The name should be meaningful and unique. Keep it short and concise.
Now enter the “Feed identifier”. The “Feed identifier” is the name that appears in the “Data mapping” and shows, from which import feed the information is taken. It can be different from the name of the feed, but should not be longer than 10 characters.
Enter the "Feed identifier". The "Feed identifier" is the name that appears in "Data mapping". It can differ from the name of the feed.
Then select the appropriate data type.
Product feed
A standard feed with your product data.
Data feed
Replaces the content of existing data fields of an existing product feed.
not available with Product API import
Lookup feed
Adds new data to an existing product feed using a data key. Use a data field from a previously imported feed that exactly matches the data field from the lookup feed. This field serves as the basis for the matching.
not available with Product API import
Data source and authentication
Scroll down and specify which import source your feed uses.
(S)FTP: Works like FTP, but encrypted via SSL.
FTP: If you have stored your product catalog on an FTP server, select this type.
HTTP/HTTPS: Select this type if your product catalog is accessible via a web server. Most shop systems store the product catalog publicly.
File upload: You can also upload your catalog manually as a file. Supported file types are:
CSV
XML
JSON
Google Cloud Storage: Select this type if your product catalog is available via the Google Cloud.
For more information, visit our help center article:
Product API: Choose this method if you want to import and edit your feed via an API.
You can find all information about the “Product API” here.
Shopify Plugin: Choose this method, if you want to use your Shopify-Shop with Channel Pilot Pro.
Other Plug-ins will be available soon.
The “Setup connection” area opens. Here, you enter the information that Channel Pilot Pro needs to find and import your products.
Make sure that you enter the “File name” exactly as it is stored on your server. Including file extension such as .csv etc.
For more information on "Import by data source" check this page.
Click "Next" to continue to the next step.
Preview and Validation
You set the “Format settings” above the preview. The displayed values are preset, but you can change them.
9 randomly selected items are displayed in the preview.
Note:
The “Data format” is recognized automatically and cannot be changed.
The parameters that you can set change depending on the file format. The following information refers to CSV files.
For information on other file types, click here.
Change delimiter:
Comma (,)
Semicolon (;)
Pipe (|)
Tab(/t)
Forward slash (/)
Hashtag (#)
Colon (:)
Greater-than sign (>)
Hyphen minus sign (-)
No delimiter()
Quotes
None
Apostrophe (')
Double quotes (")
Escape
Backslash(\)
Empty ()
Double quotes (")
Number of lines to skip
Enter the number of lines to be skipped at the beginning of the list.
Character encoding
None
UTF-8
ISO_8859-1
ISO-8859-9
US-ASCII
UTF-16DE
UTF-16LE
Windows-1251
Headless Feed?
Is there a header line within the document? And should this be used? Or should the file be imported without a header? In this case, Channel Pilot Pro creates a so-called “dummy header” in which you can name the columns.
If you have made changes, first click on “Apply changes” and check whether the preview is displayed correctly.
Click “Next” to proceed to the next step.
Validation
In the first step, you must enter the “Unique article ID”.
Unique article ID (SKU)
Determine in which field we find the unique article number (SKU). You will immediately receive a preview and can add additional data fields to make the identification of the SKU unique.
NOTE: You can select a maximum of 4 fields to identify the unique article number (SKU).
Click “Start validation” so that we can check your feed.
Note that this process may take some time, depending on the size of your feed.
As soon as the validation is complete, you will be shown an overview. You can see how many articles are being processed. Ideally, no errors will appear.
If your import contains errors, you can now make a few settings.
Maximum number of lines with errors
Your feed is expected in a specific format. You have faulty lines if one or more lines do not meet these specifications.
Maximum number of duplicates
If you have duplicate articles in your feed, you can set here that these are automatically excluded from Channel Pilot Pro. The duplicate article that is recognized first is always kept.
Maximum number of missing SKUs
Enter the maximum number of missing SKUs in your feed here.
Minimum number of articles
Specify here whether a minimum number of items must be imported.
Click on “Apply changes”. You must then perform the validation again.
Click “Next”.
You will see the “Final report”. All important data about your import is clearly displayed here. To complete the process and import your product feed, click on “Save all”.
Your feed will only be imported when you click on "Save". If you have not yet clicked on "Save", a warning will appear if you want to leave the page.
You can leave the page without saving. The feed will not be created, no data will be imported, and all settings will be lost.
If you want to create the same feed later, you have to enter all the settings described above again.