ChannelEngine: create a product feed using Google Sheets

About this article

This article describes how to use Google Sheets to create a product feed.

Table of contents

Introduction

Create a file

Publish the feed on the Web

Set up the feed on ChannelEngine

Introduction

There are different ways to upload and update product information on ChannelEngine, such as via a content management system (CMS), enterprise resource planning (ERP), webshop, etc. If you do not use such as system or are unable to add all the required product information to it, a good alternative is to add to ChannelEngine using Google Sheets.

Create a file

This guide does not include instructions on how to create a Google account, but if you do not have one, you can follow these steps.

To create a product feed file:

1. If you have already created a file to use as a feed, skip this step. If not, create a new spreadsheet file.
   
2. Add at least one column for your Merchant product number, which is usually your SKU. Note that the values here must be identical to the values under Merchant product number on ChannelEngine, as this is what connects the data. Add columns to represent whatever attributes you want to update from this file.
   
3. If you are unsure of the correct identifier used as the Merchant product number, look up the product on ChannelEngine.
   
4. When you are done setting up the columns and rows, save the document as a CSV file so it can be read as a feed. Make sure that every attribute has its own column in the sheet.

Publish the feed on the Web

To publish the feed:

1. To create a public file that can be read by ChannelEngine, go to Share, Publish to the web.
2. Under the Link tab, select Entire document or a specific Tab, as long as this tab contains the required product information. Then choose Comma-separated values (.csv) or Tab-separated values (.tsv), instead of Web page. If you select any other file extension, ChannelEngine is unable to parse the data and change the product information accordingly.
   
   
   
   NB: make sure not to enable Require viewers to sign in with their [COMPANY] account under the Published content and settings section. If you do so, external access remains disabled and ChannelEngine is unable to parse the feed.
3. Once everything is set up correctly, select Publish. You get a confirmation prompt, which you need to agree with.
4. Copy the link you are presented with. This is the feed to add to ChannelEngine in the next step. Make sure that the link includes the suffix pub?output=csv or pub?output=tsv, according to the file extension you chose.
   

Set up the feed on ChannelEngine

For a complete guide on setting up a product feed on ChannelEngine, check out the ChannelEngine: product feeds article. Below are a few steps on how to set this up by using the previous example feed. The exact steps and complexity may vary depending on your setup.

To set up the feed on ChannelEngine:

1. Go to Products, Product feeds, and add a new feed by selecting + Add feed.
2. Paste the feed link from step 4 in the Publishing to the Web (CSV) section.
   
3. Select the correct delimiter and press Continue. If you selected CSV, the delimiter is a comma. If you selected TSV, it is a tab.
   
4. Enable the Additional? setting for this feed, under Settings.
   
5. If you used column names that reflect or resemble the names used by ChannelEngine, the expected attributes may already be pre-selected. You can identify them by the green highlight and the light bulb icon. If not, select the correct attributes from the Google Sheet feed. Once again, it is very important to select the correct Merchant product number attribute, as it connects the feed data with the existing product on the channel. Set all the attributes that are not in the feed to Not mapped - Keep value.
   
6. Once everything is mapped correctly, select Save to store the new feed and its mappings. An import must be performed before the new data is reflected on ChannelEngine.
   NB: if you use a Google Sheet file for an attribute's leading content, it is highly recommended to unmap it in other feeds or sources of data input. E.g.: if there is a leading feed where the Name is also mapped, though with a value such as 'oven', the feed overwrites the correct title whenever it is imported again.