Flat File Delta Feed
You can use the delta feed to update product price, sale price, attribute, and the "recommendable" status multiple times per day.
New products must be added via the full catalog feed: the delta feed doesn’t include full product details (particularly category and attribute information). Adding new products with the delta feed can have unexpected results. Note that if the delta feed contains a new attribute for a product, the attribute and value will be added. Please ensure that the subsequent daily feed file also has this new attribute for the product(s), otherwise it will be overwritten.
The delta feed contains a single file designed to make it easy to generate from your catalog database via Postgres commands, MySQL, or by standard export functionality provided by your ecommerce platform.
Uploading the Feed
Before scheduling the feed for regular uploading, you should first generate a sample feed. Validate the feed content insuring data accuracy. Note that the files need to be delivered in UTF-8 encoding without a BOM (byte order mark).
After your team has validated the feed content and structure, send the sample to the Algonomy integration team for processing. Once the test file has successfully processed, the production file should be scheduled for regular upload, typically multiple times per day with the primary Flat File Catalog Feed in the morning. The single compressed file containing the delta file should be sent to the Algonomy FTP server (your integration team will provide FTP credentials).
Feed Files
Feed File | Details | Filename pattern |
---|---|---|
Delta Feed (compressed) | This is the compressed file that consists of all files listed below. This should be uploaded at least once a day, either as a .zip or .gz archive. | product_delta_sitename_YYYY_MM_DD.zip or product_delta_sitename_YYYY_MM_DD.gz |
Product Delta Feed | A list and description of every piece of content being changed in this update. | product_delta_sitename_YYYY_MM_DD.txt |
Note: Products can be updated using delta feeds, but they cannot be added or removed from the catalog. These operations must be done using the full catalog feed.
File Specifications
See below for the specifications for each file.
The delimiter in the file must be a pipe (|) unless another delimiter is required. If, for some reason, you are not able to use a pipe as delimiter, alert your Algonomy representative who will work with you to accommodate your specific needs.
Product Delta Feed
Filename: product_delta_sitename_YYYY_MM_DD.txt required
Name | Type | Required? | Definition |
---|---|---|---|
product_id | ASCII | Yes | |
price | Number | No | |
sale_price | Number | No | |
recommendable | BOOLEAN | No | |
attribute.x | text | No | |
start_date | date | No | |
sale_price_min | number | No | |
sale_price_max | number | No | |
list_price_min | number | No | |
list_price_max | number | No |
Example
product_id|recommendable|price 16743362|false|19.80 16743363|false|23.30 16743364|true|7.98 16743365|false|12.60