ChannelEngine: where can I find the ChannelName, ChannelID, and ChannelReference?

About this article

This article describes the ChannelName, ChannelID, and ChannelReference, how to locate them, and how they are used.

Table of contents

Introduction

• ChannelName
• ChannelID
• ChannelReference

GlobalChannelName and GlobalChannelID

Use the merchant API to retrieve this data

Introduction

Every marketplace you add to your ChannelEngine environment has a name and an ID.

• ChannelName - the name of the channel within your environment
• ChannelID - the unique ID of the channel within your environment
• ChannelReference - the unique reference of the channel within your environment

ChannelName

The ChannelName is the name under which the marketplace is visible on the ChannelEngine dashboard. By default, it is similar to the global channel name, but you can change it under the Setup page of each channel. Fore more information on this, check out the ChannelEngine: setup article.

Most merchants do not change their marketplace names, but if you have multiple seller accounts you may want to change the channel name and channel image – so they differ from the global name and image.

The same applies to custom channels.

ChannelID

The ChannelID is visible in links and in the URL within specific marketplaces on ChannelEngine. It changes incrementally with every marketplace you add. I.e.: if your first marketplace has an ID equal to 1, the second would be 2, and so on. Note that if you remove a marketplace and later re-add it, it gains a new ChannelID.

ChannelReference

Much like the ChannelName, the ChannelReference can be set via the web application to provide a marketplace with a unique reference. This reference is displayed in both the web application and in the Merchant API.

This ChannelReference can then be used in flows between ChannelEngine and your enterprise resource planning (ERP). E.g.: incoming orders from each marketplace can be connected with more easily to specific buyers already registered in your ERP, as all required data to match the buyer's data on the order level with the data in your ERP is available in the same call.

GlobalChannelName and GlobalChannelID

• GlobalChannelName - the name of the channel across ChannelEngine.
• GlobalChannelId - the unique ID of the channel across ChannelEngine.

These identifiers come from a separate database, and cannot be changed by users. They are not visible in the web interface and can only be retrieved via the Merchant API.

Use the Merchant API to retrieve this data

On orders

When fetching orders via the GET /v2/orders endpoint of the Merchant API, the channel identifiers are visible at the top of each individual order result.

In the example below, bol has a ChannelID equal to 2 for this merchant, while bol's GlobalChannelId is 76 on ChannelEngine.

{  
"Content": 
[    
{      
  "Id": 793,
  "ChannelName": "bol.com Plaza NL (v2)",
  "ChannelId": 2,
  "GlobalChannelName": bol.com Plaza NL (v3)",
  "GlobalChannelId": 76,
  "ChannelOrderSupport": "SPLIT_ORDERS", 

Retrieve a complete list

A complete list of all available global and client-specific identifiers can be found by performing a GET /v2/channels call via ChannelEngine's Merchant API

An excerpt of the first results from this call can be found below. In this case, Amazon.de is also enabled by the client and the channels array is filled with the client-specific ChannelIDs and ChannelNames. If the ChannelName is never changed, its value is null and the GlobalChannelName applies.

{  
"Content": 
[    
{      
"CountryCode": "DE",
"GlobalChannelId": 1,
"Channels": 
[        
{          
"ChannelId": 1,
"IsEnabled": true,
"ChannelName": null
}      
],      
"LanguageCode": null,
"GlobalChannelName": "Amazon.de"
},
{      
"CountryCode": "FR",
"GlobalChannelId": 2,
"Channels": null,
"LanguageCode": null,
"GlobalChannelName": "Amazon.fr"
 },
{
 "CountryCode": "ES",
"GlobalChannelId": 3,
"Channels": null,
"LanguageCode": null,
"GlobalChannelName": "Amazon.es" 
},