Create a Product Feed

This information refers to SuiteCommerce or the 2019.2 release of SuiteCommerce Advanced or later.

The SuiteCommerce Product Feeds extension SuiteApp contains the Product Feed record that lets you create product data feeds for marketplaces, shopping channels, and product comparison search engines.

Important:

Commerce web store extensions are only available if they are provisioned and set up in your account. For more information, see Commerce Extensions.

The SuiteCommerce Product Feed extension includes default saved searches for Google, Facebook and custom CSV. You can use these templates to create a new saved search with additional information that you may want to include in your product feed. Only saved searches created within the Product Feed record are displayed in the Saved Search field.

The Product Feed record lets you create product feeds for Google Shopping, Facebook Catalog, and custom CSV output. The fields displayed vary depending on the feed type selected.

The steps for creating a product feed are:

1. Create the Product Feed record

2. Select the Product Feed type

3. Restrict the items to be returned

4. Determine the fields to be returned

5. Generate the product feed

Note:

Before you start to create a new product feed, ensure you have considered all requirements for product feeds. See Before You Begin.

To create a new product feed:

1. Go to Lists > Feeds > Product Feeds > New.

2. In the Name field, enter a title to help you identify the product feed.

3. In Feed Type, select the product feed type you want to create.

   You can create feeds for Google Merchant Center, Facebook Catalogs, and in custom CSV format. For more information, see Product Feed Overview.

4. In Web Site, select the website of your web store.

   The website is used to determine the web store items retrieved. It is also used in the product link. For example, if the product feed is imported into Google, users are redirected back to this website when they click the item.

5. In Domain, select the domain of the web store to be used for the product feed.

   This field is used in the same way as Website, to filter the items retrieved.

6. In Saved Search, select the saved search you want to use to map item fields to the product feed attributes.

   The saved search template used should match the product feed type selected in the Feed Type field.

   If you want to change the default saved search settings, click Open Selected Search to edit the criteria and attributes and save a copy. Only saved searches created from the Product Feed record are displayed in the list.

   For more information on using saved search to restrict items and determine product feed attributes, see Set Product Feed Attributes.

7. In the Feed Description field, add a detailed description of the product feed.

   This information can be particularly useful if you need to separate your items into several product feeds or want to assign different attributes.

8. In the Feed Schedule section, you define the feed generation frequency settings:

   In the Generate Feed field, select the frequency for product feed generation.

   If you select Manually, the product feed is only generated when you click the Generate Now button after saving the record.

   Note:

   If you want the target service to fetch the data feed from the public link, take into account the interval with which the service fetches and processes the data feed when choosing a value for the feed schedule.

9. If you choose Google product feed as the feed type and want to incorporate promotion data for use in Merchant Promotions, select the Promotions Feed Configuration to be used.

   For more information, see Create a Promotion Feed.

10. If you select custom CSV as the feed type, the Custom CSV Export Settings section is shown:

    1. Check the Hide CSV Header box if you do not want to export the attribute labels as headers in the resulting CSV output file.

       Otherwise, the attributes defined in the saved search in the Custom Label column are exported as a header row.

    2. Check the Item Link box if you want to export an extra column that includes a link to the product item in the output.

       If you select this box, enter the label to be used for item links in the Item Link Label field. The default value is link. Item Link is a required attribute for Google and Facebook product feeds.

    3. Check the Image Link box if you want to export an extra column that includes a link to the item’s product image in the output.

       If you select this box, enter the label to be used for image links in the Image Link Label field. The default value is image_link. Image Link is a required attribute for Google and Facebook product feeds.

    4. Check the Availability box if you want to export an extra column that includes the item’s availability in the output.

       If you select this box, enter the label to be used for availability status in the Availability Label field. The default value is availability. Availability is a required attribute for Google and Facebook product feeds.

    5. Check the Parent Record ID (Matrix Item) box if you want to export the ID of the parent record for each child item exported in the output.

       If you select this box, enter the label to be used for parent record ID in the Parent Record ID Label (Matrix Items) field. The default value is item_group_id.

11. Click Save.

When you have saved the Product Feed record, you can proceed to generate the feed. See Generate the Product Feed

Set Product Feed Attributes

SuiteCommerce Product Feeds includes default saved searches for Google, Facebook, and custom CSV. These saved searches have been set up to include all the required and optional attributes for the product feed type as custom labels. However, you may want to include additional information in your product feed that is not defined in these saved searches or select other custom fields as the data source.

When you select a saved search for a specific product feed in the Saved Search field, you can choose to keep the standard settings defined for the default saved search. Alternatively, you can click the Open Selected Search button and create a customized copy of the saved search. This new search can then be selected when you create subsequent product feed records.

When you click the Open Selected Search button, a popup window appears in which you can refine the saved search by entering specific criteria for selecting the items to be included in the product feed and for mapping the NetSuite fields to the custom label to be used for the product feed type. If you do not see the popup window, check that your browser does not block popup windows.

Using the Criteria tab, you can restrict the items retrieved. Items retrieved by the saved search are compared with items in the cache during the feed generation process. For more information on how to set filters in the Criteria tab, see Advanced Search Criteria Filters.

The Results tab defines the display options for the saved search results. In Product Feeds, this tab is used determine the product feed attributes exported for the feed type selected. In the Columns subtab, the Field column contains either NetSuite standard fields or formulas that are used when generating the product feed. For fields with the Formula (Text) value, you determine specific values or the source fields to be taken during generation. The Custom Label column contains the product feed attribute label that is used in the feed output. The values in the Custom Label may change depending on the saved search template selected.

Note:

Formula (Text) fields have been used as placeholders in the default saved searches to ensure all product feed attributes are included in the Custom Label field. If you leave these fields blank, they are not included in the feed.

Make sure you specify the field source for these attributes if you want to include them.

For more information on refining saved searches, see Defining a Saved Search.

Change Currency in Facebook Feeds

The default currency in Facebook product feeds is USD. A different currency can be used by modifying the product feed saved search settings.

To change the currency in a Facebook Feed:

1. On the Product Feeds page, click Open Selected Search.

2. On the Results tab of the Saved Search, locate currency_iso_code in the Custom Label column.

3. Change USD in the Formula column to the currency you need. For example, for AUD, change the value in the Formula column to UPPER(‘AUD’).

4. If the Multiple Currencies feature is enabled, do the following additonal steps:

   1. On the Criteria tab of the Saved Search, select Pricing Fields... in the Filter column.

   2. In the Saved Item Search popup window, select Currency from the Pricing Filter list, select the required currency, and click Set.

   3. In another row on the Criteria tab, select Pricing Fields... in the Filter column.

   4. In the popup window, select Price Level from the Pricing Filter list, select the required price level, and click Set.

   5. On the Results tab, click on Online Price and select Pricing Fields.... from the list.

   6. In the popup window, select Unit Price from the Pricing Field list and click Ok.

   7. Click Save.

      If you were using the default saved search for Facebook product feeds, then enter a new name in Search Title and click Save As. Ensure that the new search is selected in the Saved Search field on the Product Feed page.

Additional Considerations For Matrix Items

• Child matrix items may not contain all the required information. Check that the parent item and child item have all the required values and they are mapped correctly to the corresponding attribute in the Results tab.

  For example, check that the field used to source the data for the following attributes is correct:

  • Title: By default, the Name field is used for the title product feed attribute. For matrix items, the child item name may result from a combination of the parent name and the matrix option. If you want to use the parent name instead, after the Name field, insert a new field Parent Fields... > Name and use title as a custom label.

  • Description: The store description may only be defined on the parent matrix item. To ensure this attribute is not left empty, insert an additional field, Parent > Store Description, after the Description field and enter description as the custom label.

  Ensure you do not overwrite the existing Name and Description fields, as these are used for non-matrix items. The order in which the values are taken for matrix items is determined by their position in the list. For example, if a value is present for Store Description, it is taken; if not, the value for Parent > Store Description is taken.

• The Google and Facebook product feeds use the parent matrix item ID to group product variants. The item_group_id attribute is mapped to the parent item ID in the default saved searches for these feed types. For more information, see Google Product Feed specifications.

• To ensure that product images are displayed correctly, check that the image names are as per the guidelines in Naming Guidelines. It is particularly important that the image file names for child matrix items have a non-numeric value after the last delimiter in the image file name. If an image name ends in a numeric value, Google may refuse to accept the product feed.

Note:

Required fields must not be left blank in the Item record. Otherwise, an error will be triggered in your merchant center when you upload the product feed. See Update Product Feed Fields.

When you have entered the criteria for filtering the items and verified the field mapping, click Save to return to the Product Feed record.

Generate the Product Feed

When you have set up the product feed, determined the item selection criteria, and mapped all required and optional attributes using the saved search, you generate the product feed. The feed generation process compares the items cached previously with those returned by the saved search. It exports the matching items with the information fields specified in the saved search in the output.

With the SuiteCommerce Product Feeds extension, you can generate the product feed in two different outputs depending on the product feed type selected:

• XML output file

• Custom CSV output

The product feed is generated automatically or manually. If you select an interval in the Generate Feed field when creating the product feed, the product feed is refreshed according to the interval set. If you select Manually in the Generate Feed field, the product feed is only refreshed with the latest data when you click the Generate Feed Now button.

The Product Feed record contains the timestamp of the last feed generation and a public URL where you can access the product feed output. These fields are empty until you generate the product feed for the first time.

You can view the status of the generation in the Generation History list. This list shows the last 20 generation tasks for the Product Feed record. If you want to view the status of several feeds simultaneously, see View the Feed Status.

To generate a product feed manually:

1. Go to Lists > Feeds > Product Feeds.

2. Click View for the product feed you want to generate.

3. In the Product Feed record, click Generate Feed Now.

   If the item cache has not yet been built for the feed, the Generate Feed Now button is replaced by the message Caching Website Items.

   The status of the product feed generation is shown in the Generated At field at the top of the form.

Note:

The first time the product feed is generated, the process may take up to one hour. Subsequent product feed generation is likely to be faster, but the time taken depends on the number of items to be included in the feed.

When the product feed has been generated, a public URL link is shown in the Feed Link field.

If you have selected the Google or Facebook product feed type, you can copy and paste this public URL into your service settings so that the service can fetch and process the product feed automatically.

Alternatively, you can click the Download Feed button to access an XML output and download a static copy of the product feed. If the product feed type is custom CSV and you click Download Feed, you download the CSV output.

Related Topics

Set Up Product Feeds

Create a Promotion Feed

View the Feed Status

Product Feeds

General Notices