Setting up a But API

But is a French online store specializing in furniture, home decor, and interior equipment. They offer a wide range of affordable products, including high-tech items and household appliances.

Table of contents

1. Create a new connection
2. Create the API
3. Create your product listings
4. Send your product listings to But
5. Check your product listings for errors

Step 1: Create a new connection

To create a new But connection, follow the steps below:

1. Begin by navigating to the API page within your project and click on the "+Add new API" button. This action will redirect you to your company's connections page.
   
2. On the connections page, select "+Add a new connection".
3. Search for the 'But' connection by clicking through the pages, after finding the 'But' connection, provide a label for this new connection.
   
4. Click on "Connect with But" You will be redirected to But for the next step. Once redirected, log in using But credentials.

After successfully logging in, the connection with But is established and available for use! You will be brought back to the API setup.

Step 2: Create the API

Once back, you have to select your new connection with But and continue setting up your API.

1. Configure API settings:
   • Name your API
   • Choose the unique ID per item. (we recommend the 'id' field)
   • Select the language of your API
2. Create API: Click on "Continue" to create the new But API.

Step 3: Create your product listings

To set up your API, follow the steps outlined below. Click on each step to expand and view the detailed instructions, which will guide you through the entire process.

1. Categorization

2. Rules

3. Build step

The Build step in Channable allows you to configure all necessary attributes for your items, ensuring your product data aligns with marketplace requirements. This step is crucial for successful product listings and avoiding errors.

3.1 Overview

1. Access the Build step: Start by accessing the centralized interface of the Build step. This is where you will manage and map all product attributes.
2. Identify mandatory and optional Fields: Mandatory fields are highlighted in pink, indicating they are essential for listing your products. Optional fields are marked in orange and can be filled based on specific needs.

3.2 Populate Shared Attributes

1. Fill Shared Attributes: Enter common details that apply to all products, such as EAN, prices, and titles. This step ensures uniformity in basic product information across your listings.
   • Use static or dynamic Values:
     • Static Values: Directly input values that remain constant, like brand name or manufacturer.
     • Dynamic Values: Utilize fields that automatically update based on linked data, ideal for variables like stock levels or prices.

After you have filled in the desired values for the Shared attributes, continue to the Category specific attributes below.

3.3 Specify Category-Specific Attributes

1. Select product category: Choose the relevant category for your product, such as clothing or furniture.
2. Input Category - specific attributes: Fill in attributes that are specific to the selected category, such as size for clothing or dimensions for furniture. This step helps in fine-tuning your listings according to category requirements. Here you can again use static or dynamic values.

Click here to read more about the Build step.

4. Quality step

The quality step provides instant feedback on setup quality, highlighting mandatory and optional errors to ensure your product data meets the marketplaces' standards.

Actions

• View items: See products with specific issues.
• View in build: Redirects to the build step to map missing information.
• Set categories: Directs to the categories step to categorize items.
• Show source: Available for ID fields, directing to the settings step.

Click here to read more about the Quality step.

5. Preview step

The preview step displays mapped attributes for multiple items, highlighting errors before exporting to the marketplace.

Features

• Search & filter: Find specific products or filter by error message/category.
• Item overview: Shows all items to be exported; it can filter to show only items with errors.
• Detailed product preview: Displays missing information and dynamic actions to correct errors.

Checklist for finalizing attributes

• Review shared attributes: Ensure all mandatory shared attributes are filled.
• Review category-specific attributes: Ensure all mandatory category-specific attributes are filled.
• Check for errors: Correct any red-marked fields.

Click here to read more about the Preview step.

6. Result step

Additional requirements for But

The following information is specific to But, and includes details about the item tab and additional requirements.

Item tab

• Shipping class (logistic class): The logistic classes determine the respective shipping costs for your items. Enter the logistic class of your product.

• Lead time to ship: The shipping lead time indicates the time required until the package is handed over to the shipping, Indicate the shipping time in days.
• Eco-contributions: France introduced legislation for eco-participation. If your company is operating in France, you must add eco-contributions to your offers on the marketplace. In this article, you can find a list of available EPR categories.
• Price excl. VAT: Indicate the VAT, set the value to "20".
• Private Copy Tax: In France, the private copying levy is a legal requirement compensating authors and rights holders for private copies made using blank media such as CDs, DVDs, external hard drives, and USB drives. This levy is included in the sale price of these blank media items and is then distributed to the creators and rights holders through collective management organizations. Sellers must specify the amount of the ''copie-privée'' levy in euros for each applicable item in this category.
• Warranty list: Indicate the legal guarantee of 2 years, the "2-years" has to have a dash in between.

Title Requirements

• Maximum number of characters: 100 Characters Maximum
• Title structure: Product type, function, style, colour, material, dimensions
• Brand name exclusion: Do not include the brand name in the title. Note: The trademark field is automatically placed before the title on the site.
• Dimensions: Specify units of measurement (e.g., H.10 cm). Do not use acronyms. Example: Ø
• No Commercial terms: Do not display terms like "Exclusive", "New", "Top seller", etc.
• Special characters: Do not include special characters (e.g., Greek letters, etc.).
• No leading dash: Do not start the title with a dash.

Image Requirements

• First visual: Must be on a white background, detoured (cut out)
• Positioning: Must be positioned either from the front or from a ¾ angle
• Number of visuals: Up to 6 visuals showcasing different angles (background photo, diagram, accessories, details, etc.)
• Recommended formats: 2000×2000 pixels, 3000×3000 pixels

Description Requirements

• Character limit: Ensure your product description does not exceed 8,000 characters to stay within the platform's guidelines.
• No External Links: Avoid including any links or references to external sites or shops within the product description.
• Use HTML for enhancement: HTML can be used to enrich your description, adding formatting and visual elements (Note: HTML is blocked on Mirakl by default; contact your account manager to enable it).

Following these guidelines will help you make sure your But listings are set up correctly and in line with their requirements.

Step 4: Send your product listings to But

Almost there, your product listings are ready to be sent. If you have not activated your project, go to your project settings on the left-hand side of the screen and click "Activate project". 

After, go back to the APIs overview and go to [Your But API] > Settings, where you activate the API by clicking "Activate API".

Once you have activated the API, navigate back to the API overview and click on the blue "Run now" button to send your product listings to But.

Step 5: Check your product listings for errors

To check for errors, navigate to the [Result page of the API] > Errors tab, where you see which product listings have errors. By clicking on the specific, it will display more information on what is causing the error. For more information about what the errors mean, read this article.