What's CIF or cXML?

A Catalog Interchange Format (CIF) file is a comma-separated text file. A commerce eXtensible Markup Language (cXML) .xml file is based on the XML language. The loader can process CIF or cXML files to load catalog items.

Typically, the supplier prepares and provides a CIF or cXML file. Index CIF files contain item definitions and their corresponding pricing. Contract CIF files contain pricing only and are not supported by the loader.

CIF files also support two loading modes, full and incremental. The full loading mode replaces one catalog file with another, that is, all existing lines in the BPA are marked as having expired and then replaced with the lines from the upload. The delete column in the upload file is ignored. If the delete indicator has been set for a line in the upload file, the line will be loaded (after all existing lines in the BPA have been marked expired) and the line will not be marked for deletion.

The incremental loading mode uploads only the lines which are affected. If an uploaded line already exists on the BPA, the line is updated (or marked for deletion if the delete indicator for the line was set in the upload file).

If a loading mode is not specified, the loader assumes an incremental loading mode. Valid loading mode values for CIF are Full, Incremental, F, I. These values are case insensitive. Valid loading mode values for cXML are FULL and INCREMENTAL. The values F, and I are not supported.