ChannelEngine: advanced rules for product feeds

This guide describes ChannelEngine's advanced rules for product feeds, why they are used, how to configure them, and more.

Table of contents

Introduction

Advanced rules

Limitations

Prerequisites

Setup

Example

Introduction

You can use product feeds to import your product data into ChannelEngine. Once the feed is set up, you need to map it to the correct attributes on ChannelEngine. You can use advanced rules to modify an attribute's value before saving it to ChannelEngine. 

Advanced rules

An advanced rule is a configurable rule that modifies an attribute’s value based on a condition you set. When the condition is met, ChannelEngine maps your attribute to a value or another attribute that you specify E.g.: if a product’s name contains 'Nitro', map its value to 'Nitro Smartphone Ultra'.

Limitations

• You cannot apply advanced rules to the Merchant product number attribute. This attribute serves as a unique identifier for your products on ChannelEngine and cannot be modified.

Prerequisites

• Use a product feed to import your data to ChannelEngine.
• Reach out to your contact at ChannelEngine to activate advanced rules in product feeds. They can enable advanced rules for individual product feeds or all feeds simultaneously.

Setup

To configure advanced rules for product feeds:

1. Go to Products, Product feeds. Select a specific feed and click the pencil icon.
2. On the Product feed details page, locate the attribute to apply a rule to. E.g.: Name. Click the center column to map the attribute. 
3. Select Advanced rule from the dropdown, and click Edit advanced rule.

Now, we can configure the advanced rule.

1. Set a condition. E.g.: if Name contains 'Nitro Smartphone 2024'. Note that rules can only be based on attributes that are imported from your feed.
2. Define the output. Meaning, what happens when the condition is met. You can assign the value directly by using Raw value, which can be text or number, or use a different attribute from the feed as an output. E.g.: Use raw value 'Nitro Smartphone Ultra'.
3. Set up a default value. This is required. In case the set condition is not met, the default value is used. E.g.: Nitro Smartphone Pro.
4. Optionally, add more conditions to the advanced rules with the And and Or buttons.

Example

Nitro, a fictional smartphone company, has rebranded as NitroLux. As a retailer, you need to update the Brand attribute for all NitroLux products across all marketplaces where you sell them. To streamline this process, you apply an advanced rule to that attribute.

1. If Brand is equal to 'Nitro', use the value 'NitroLux'.
2. Otherwise, retain the existing value of the Brand attribute. I.e.: for all products that have a different brand name, the value should remain unchanged.