Navigating the process of setting up product imports in Channable involves a couple of important steps. This article provides an in-depth walkthrough, enabling you to configure these settings effectively and optimize your data management within Channable.
Step 1: Setup Import
To begin, go to the setup page and select “Setup import.” You will be presented with several import options:
- XML
- CSV
- Google Spreadsheet
- Text file (.txt)
- JSON (either a single JSON object in the file or one JSON object per line)
- Additional imports, for a full list of supported import options, please refer to our detailed import article.
Additionally, we support compressed file formats such as:
- XML, JSON, CSV, text, and Google spreadsheet files in the .gz format
- XML and JSON files in the .zip format.
Step 2: Specify Import feed URL
Select your import channel and input the URL for your import feed, ensuring it's an accessible online location, e.g., “http://files.channable.com/examplefeed.xml”.
Step 3: Setup mapping
Upon successful URL submission, you'll proceed to Setup Mapping:
- Left column: Fields from your import feed.
-
Right column: Corresponding fields in Channable. The system will automatically detect and link most fields. Fields unrecognized by Channable will be created with the same name as in the import feed.
If fields are missing, such as a “title” field, locate the respective row, disable custom settings, and select “title” from the drop-down menu under “Internal Channable Field”.
Step 4: Advanced configuration settings (optional)
After specifying the import feed URL, you will proceed to the advanced configuration section where you set up encoding, delimiters, quoting, and tag settings. These settings are crucial for ensuring that your data is interpreted and processed accurately by Channable.
Encoding
Encoding is crucial because it ensures that all characters in your data file are displayed correctly. Incorrect encoding can lead to misinterpreted data, which might affect your entire dataset.
How to configure Encoding:
- Go to the Import Setup section within Channable.
- Locate the “Encoding” dropdown menu.
- Choose the appropriate encoding for your data. Common options include:
- UTF-8: Recommended for most languages due to its ability to handle a wide array of characters.
- ISO-8859-1: Suitable for data containing characters from Western European languages.
- Other encodings like UTF-16 or UTF-32 might be necessary based on your specific data needs.
Quoting
Quoting settings are used to specify how text fields are encapsulated, particularly important for handling data that includes delimiters as part of the content.
How to configure quoting:
- Access the “Quoting” setting in the import setup.
- You can select from:
- Automatically detect: Channable attempts to identify the correct quoting automatically.
- Yes: Use this if your fields are enclosed in quotation marks to properly manage the inclusion of delimiters within text fields.
- No: Select this if your data does not use quotes to encapsulate text fields.
Delimiter
Delimiters are characters used to separate each field within your data file. Correct delimiter selection is essential for accurately parsing the fields in your dataset.
How to set Delimiters:
- In the import setup, find the “Delimiter” option.
- Choose the delimiter that matches the separation character used in your data. Typical delimiters include:
- Comma (
,
) for CSV files. - Semicolon (
;
) often used in European data where the comma is a decimal separator. - Tab or vertical bar (
|
) can also be used, depending on the format.
- Comma (
Tag settings
If you have feeds in XML or JSON formats, you might need to change the tag to match your data. If this happens, contact our support team to activate this setting for you.
How to set Tag settings:
- During the XML or JSON import setup, enter the specific tag or key in the “Tag Settings” input field.
- For XML, this might be something like
<item>
or<product>
. - For JSON, it would be the key that identifies individual entries, such as
"product"
or"item"
.
Final steps
After configuring these settings:
- Review your settings to ensure everything is correctly applied to prevent errors during the import process.
- Click 'Save & Import' to begin the data importation. Monitor the process in the setup screen, where a status of “Finished” signals that your data is now fully imported and ready for use.
Step 5: Save and import
After configuring your import settings, click 'Save & Import'. The setup screen will update you on the import process with a "Finished" status once complete.
All your items are now loaded into Channable and can be found under “Items”.
Step 6: Exporting your products
Once the import is finalized, you can begin exporting your products to various channels, customizing outputs as needed.