ChannelEngine: smart custom fields [beta]

About this article

This is an article on the ChannelEngine feature, smart custom fields.

Introduction

Use cases

Limitations

Key features

Setup

Overview

Create a smart custom field

Preview smart custom field values

Map a smart custom field

Introduction

Smart custom fields enable you to create new product attribute values from your existing ChannelEngine fields and custom fields, by using advanced rules and ChannelEngine’s own scripting language, CE Shell. Based on the rules you set, ChannelEngine automatically calculates the resulting product attribute values and fills these into your product data.

On ChannelEngine, the smart custom fields that you create appear next to your regular custom fields in the Product details pages and in the Mappings step of a given channel, enabling you to easily map these values to a given channel’s attributes.

Unlike regular custom fields, smart custom fields are dynamic. They are regularly calculated in the background and require no manual input when performing attribute mapping. ChannelEngine automatically calculates values at the product level.

Use cases

Imagine that you need to apply the exact same advanced rule across multiple channels to map a specific attribute. Instead of recreating that rule repeatedly on each channel, you can define it once within a smart custom field and then simply select that field during content and offer mapping.

• Margin calculations - for example, if you want to ensure a minimum profit margin across your catalog, you previously had to calculate this manually in a new column within your product feed Excel file. With smart custom fields, you can calculate the price with your minimum margin directly inside ChannelEngine, making it instantly ready for marketplace export.
• Text transformations - perform advanced operations and string manipulations that go beyond standard rule capabilities by combining advanced rules with CE Shell.
• Rule reusability - reuse the same complex logic across various categories and channels without duplicating your work.

Limitations

• After creating a smart custom field, the field’s value cannot be manually edited via the web interface or via API. Instead, ChannelEngine automatically calculates the value for you in the background.
• Once the smart custom field is created, its label (Field name) cannot be modified.
• It is not possible to map your product feed values to a smart custom field.

Key features

• Dynamic attributes - values are calculated using advanced rules.
• Multiple field types supported - Boolean, Integer, Text, Decimal.
• Cross-channel mapping - instead of recreating advanced rules per channel or category, you can define a single smart custom field and map it wherever needed.
• Automated updates - smart custom fields are recalculated every 20 minutes (on creation and when rules are updated).

Setup

To enable this feature, contact your customer success manager or ChannelEngine’s Support team.

Overview

To manage smart custom fields, go to Products, Smart custom fields.

The smart custom fields view contains the master list of the existing smart custom fields in your tenant, with the following attributes on each line item:

• ID - the field’s unique identifier on ChannelEngine.
• Field name (required) - the label of the field.
• Field type (choose one):
  • Boolean
  • Integer
  • Text
  • Decimal
• Description - text to help you remember what the content of this field contains.

Actions

At the end of each line item, you see buttons to: 

• View - view in which mappings or filters the existing smart custom field is used.
• Show report - for each product that is mapped with a smart custom field, view activity related to the recalculation.
• Edit - edit the smart custom field.
• Copy - copy a smart custom field to reuse its configuration, make slight modifications to it, and save it as a new smart custom field.
• Delete - delete the smart custom field. It is not possible to delete a smart custom field if it is mapped to an attribute on one of your connected channels.

Search

Use the search bar to search the list of smart custom fields. The search result returns the smart custom fields that contain the text your searched on it their Field name.

Create a smart custom field

To create a smart custom field:

1. Go to Products, Smart custom fields.

2. In the upper-right corner, click Create smart custom field.
    

   

3. Fill in the details: Field name (required), Field type, and Description.
4. Define your output with conditional rules (recommended) or with a Default value.
   1. If you choose to define your output based on conditional rules, click Add a new set of rules.
      • Set up your conditions with advanced rules.
      • For guidance on setting up advanced rules, check out ChannelEngine: advanced rules for product feeds.
   2. Or set a Default value as the output value, without conditional rules. 
   3. Customize the output with dynamic calculations. 
      1. Select CE Shell from the dropdown list with the CE Shell scripting language.
      2. Click Edit. For more guidance on CE Shell, check out ChannelEngine: CE Shell [beta].
5. Click Save.

Preview smart custom field values

On the right side of the screen, preview how your conditional rules and CE Shell scripts behave in real-time using the Sample products widget. The widget allows you to verify that your field outputs the expected values across different products before you save your changes.

To preview the smart custom field values:

1. Use the search bar to add products to the preview.
   1. Enter a product name into the search bar.
   2. Optionally, use the dropdown on the right to refine your search parameters.

2. Once added, products appear in a list. Each product entry displays a thumbnail image, product name, GTIN, and merchant product number.

   

3. The product currently selected for preview is highlighted in blue.
4. Below, a green box shows the original value and the computed value (in pink) of the smart custom field for the selected product.
5. To the right, a badge indicates which logic layer produces the value (e.g.: Default value or Rule 1, Rule 2, etc.).

Map a smart custom field

Map a smart custom field to a channel attribute in the same way that you map a regular custom field to a channel attribute.

1. In the Mappings step of the given channel, find the attribute that needs to be mapped.

   

2. In the dropdown below the attribute name, select Custom fields.
3. A new field appears, containing the list of your tenant’s regular custom fields and smart custom fields.
4. Select your smart custom field from the list.
5. ChannelEngine auto-populates the attribute values based on the rules you set for the smart custom field.