ChannelEngine: connect to the Channel Management API

About this article

This article describes the Channel Management API, its prerequisites, usage, rate limits, and more.

Table of contents

Introduction

Prerequisites

Using the API

Attributes

Existing channels

Rate limits

Questions?

Introduction

ChannelEngine's Channel Management API allows you to export your categories and product data attributes. Unlike the Channel API, you do not have to do this for each merchant – a single export applies to all merchants using your channel.

More information on the Channel Management API can be found on ChannelEngine's API reference document (OpenAPI/Swagger).

Prerequisites

The Channel Management API can only be used once access to it is granted by the ChannelEngine team. See the Questions? section for more information on how to request such access.

Using the API

The API endpoint can be found at https://www.channelengine.net/channelmanagement-api. This endpoint uses the www subdomain.

Categories

You can export all of your categories to ChannelEngine. Each merchant on ChannelEngine is then able to map their categories to yours.

Endpoint: POST /v2/categories/list

During development, you can use the GET endpoint to check the result – but you do not need it for the production flow.

Attributes

You can export all of your attributes to ChannelEngine. Each merchant on ChannelEngine is then able to map their product fields to your attributes. The mappings populate the MappedFields of the products in the Channel API.

You can restrict attributes to certain categories, though you should export those categories first if they are new.

Endpoint: POST /v2/attributes/data

During development, you can use the GET endpoint to check the result – but you do not need it for the production flow.

Existing channels

If you are an existing channel, note that the current, default attributes are overwritten by whatever attributes you export. If you rely on those (in MappedFields of the products in the Channel API), you should include them in your own attribute export. The GET endpoint allows you to fetch those attributes before you start.

Rate limits

Your categories and attributes are unlikely to change very often, therefore frequent calls are not necessary. In order to facilitate development, there are currently no rate limits.

In the production environment, restrict the calls for categories and attributes to at most once a day – preferably even less often (e.g.: once a week). And keep in mind that you do not have to do this for each merchant, one export applies to all merchants using your channel.

Questions?

If you have questions regarding the API implementation, you can contact your implementation specialist at ChannelEngine or, if they are unavailable, contact the Support team. Make sure to provide them with as much relevant information as possible, so they can help you swiftly and efficiently.

They can also help you set up test and production environments, and provide you with appropriate API keys.