Before you begin

There are a few important considerations to keep in mind when using Channable:

• If developing a custom feed is an option, it's always the better choice, and we highly recommend it.
  A custom XML feed is the better option, and we always recommend it. It requires a bit more investment upfront, but in the long run, you gain more. Especially in flexibility and control.
• Multi-lang/multi-store feeds in one feed are not supported.
  Tweakwise allows you to provide a single feed containing data for multiple languages and/or stores and import that in a single Tweakwise instance. In Channable you can't make this distinction, if you want to support multi-store or multi-lang: use seperate feeds and instances.
• Category structure is a challenge.
  Traditional webshops often have a hierarchical category structure that aligns with how people think. For example: furniture, chairs, kitchen chairs. Products then fall under one or more categories. In Tweakwise, we also support this layering but Channable does not support this directly. This guide shows you a way to get it done.

Setup

Configure project fields

Go to Setup > Project fields and make sure these fields are available:

• On top of the field, click Add project field
  Name: categories_list.
  Type: Text.
  List of values: on.
  Save.
• On top of the field, click Add project field
  Name: category_ids_list.
  Type: Text.
  List of values: on.
  Save.

Add feed

Go to Feeds > Add a new feed. Search for Tweakwise. Select Tweakwise. Give it a name, select a country, select Type of market: Products + Categories and Continue.

Rules

If your data already has items with a list of category names and a list of category id's:

• Create a rule to map the category names to the categories_list field.
• Create a rule to map the category id list to the category_ids_list field.

If your data has a different structure, create rules to populate categories_list and category_ids_list correctly.

Example

If your data has items with seperate category name and id fields:

• category_1: Clothing
• category_2: Hoodies
• category_id_1: 10
• category_id_2: 11

This would result in:

Finalize

Map the mandatory internal fields to the Channel field names and add any fields that should be available as attributes.

Preview

In the preview, check if items have a correct category element:

And contains a category hierarchy:

Activate

In settings, activate the feed and save the feed URL for later. Import the feed the regular way.