ChannelEngine: connect your channel to ChannelEngine

About this article

This article explains how to connect your channel to ChannelEngine and test the integration, enabling merchants to sell their products on your marketplace.

Table of contents

Introduction

API references

Establish the connection

Test the integration

• Preparation
• Categories and attributes
• Product content and offers
• Orders and shipments
• Merchant returns
• Merchant cancelations

FAQs

Introduction

While ChannelEngine offers out-of-the-box connections to over 1300 channels, any channel can build an integration with ChannelEngine via the Channel API. By developing your own custom integration with ChannelEngine, you enable thousands of merchants to list on your channel via ChannelEngine.

If your channel requires merchants to map to a specific set of categories and attributes, then use the Channel Management API to load your categories and attributes to your channel on ChannelEngine.

API references

To connect your channel to ChannelEngine, use the following APIs:

• Channel API – for consuming product data, exporting orders, importing shipments, and importing/exporting cancelations and returns. Merchants map standard attributes to your channel that are already available on ChannelEngine.
  • Swagger
  • Redoc
• Channel Management API – for exporting your channel's specific categories and attributes to ChannelEngine, for merchants to map.
  • Swagger

Review the following flowcharts to understand how data moves between your channel, ChannelEngine, and the merchant:

• Channel API: products, orders, and shipments (flowchart)
• Channel Management API: category and attribute export (flowchart)

Establish the connection

Follow these steps to set up your connection to ChannelEngine:

1. Sign the agreement - contact the ChannelEngine team at channels-team@channelengine.com to sign the agreement as a self-integrated channel.
2. Get access - your ChannelEngine contact will provide you with a development environment that contains your channel plugin. The URL will look similar to: https://your-channel-name-dev.channelengine.net.
3. Set up the Channel Management API (optional) - use this API to send your category hierarchy and required product attributes to ChannelEngine.
   • Request the Channel Management API key from your ChannelEngine contact.
   • Base URL: https://www.channelengine.net/channelmanagement-api 
4. Set up the Channel API - this is the main API used to communicate with each merchant.
   • Retrieve product content, offers, orders, shipments, returns, and cancelations.
   • Acknowledge data and send orders.
   • Each merchant has a unique subdomain.
   • Base URL format: https://{your-subdomain}.channelengine.net/api
   • Find your Channel API key in the Setup step of your channel. 

Test the integration

Before going live, test your integration to ChannelEngine.

Preparation

• Upload the ChannelEngine test product feed to your developer environment to simulate real merchant products.
• Use the test script spreadsheet provided by your ChannelEngine contact to document requests, responses, and observations.

Categories and attributes 

Test exporting categories and attributes via the Channel Management API.

1. Send your full category hierarchy (POST /v1/categories/list).
2. Send category-specific attributes (POST /v1/attributes/data).
3. Send offer-related attributes (POST /v1/attributes/offer).

Product content and offers

• Create a product selection in your system and include the test products.
• Retrieve product data changes:
  • All products: GET /v2/products/data/full
  • By product type (recommended for variations): GET /v2/products/data/full?productType=[GRANDPARENT]/[PARENT]/[CHILD]. For guidance on variations, check out ChannelEngine: parent-child relationships.
  • Standalone products: GET /v2/products/data/full?productType=SINGLE
• Acknowledge received product changes (POST /v2/products/data).
• Update stock/price in the test feed and test offer synchronization (GET /v2/products/offers and POST /v2/products/offers).

Orders and shipments

• Create a test order via POST /v2/orders.
• Create a shipment in the ChannelEngine web interface. For guidance on creating a shipment, check out ChannelEngine: shipments.
• Retrieve shipments (GET /v2/shipments).
• Mark shipments as received in your system.

Merchant returns

• Create an order and shipment. Then, create a return from ChannelEngine to your channel. For guidance on creating a merchant return, check out ChannelEngine: returns.
• Retrieve returns (GET /v2/returns/channel).
• Mark returns as received.

Merchant cancelations

• Create an order. Then, create a cancelation from ChannelEngine to your channel. For guidance on creating a merchant cancelation, check out ChannelEngine: cancelations.
• Retrieve cancelations (GET /v2/cancelations).
• Mark the order (or line items) as canceled in your system.

FAQs

Why are my API requests affecting the wrong merchant or returning authorization/route errors?
This issue typically occurs when the Merchant API is used instead of the Channel API (or vice versa).

To resolve the issue, always verify the following:

• You are using the correct base URL (https://{your-subdomain}.channelengine.net/api).
• You are using a valid Channel API key (not a Merchant API key).
• The endpoint you are calling exists in the Channel API documentation. Refer to the API references section above.

Who handles questions from the merchant – the channel or ChannelEngine?
It depends on the type of issue. ChannelEngine handles issues related to the configuration and use of its platform, such as setting up a product selection or mapping categories and attributes.

Any technical issues that the channel has with the Channel Management API or Channel API are also handled by ChannelEngine.

Other issues fall outside of ChannelEngine’s scope. Because ChannelEngine does not schedule or perform tasks for self-integrated channels, it has no control over the frequency of updates, such as order or shipment updates.

The channel also answers questions about its own requirements. E.g.:

• What values to map for specific attributes
• Whether product descriptions can include HTML formatting
• Whether product titles use sentence case or title case
• What file formats to use for product images