By default FeedArmy imports all required data, however, there are occasions where you need to either create a missing import attribute or to create custom rules and or combinations. In this tutorial, I will explain how to set these up.
What can I do?
An import rule allows you to change the target attribute automatically when importing data, by using one of the following options.
- Use values from an existing source attribute
- Create a custom value
- Create a custom value based on if else rules
- Search and replace source attribute values
To create a rule, first choose your target attribute.
If you want to assign a source attribute
The source attribute is defined by the eCommerce channel you are using. For example, if you have a Shopify store, then the available attributes are based on Shopify. (variant id, option values, etc…)
By selecting this option, you can use any available source attribute to replace the target attribute with the import value.
For example: If you have a color assigned to Shopify Variant Option 1, then you first select the color target attribute, then choose variants > option 1 from the existing source attribute option.
Create custom values
You can also create custom combinations using both source attributes and custom text or only use one of the two values.
Let’s say we want to add the brand name at the beginning of the title and add some custom text at the end. We first select our target attribute title, then in the set to source value and / or values, we first choose Vendor, then in the input field we add space and hit enter, the select title and at the end, we can add another custom text.
You can also use multiple custom text and source attributes without restrictions.
Create custom values based on criteria (if else rules)
Using this option will allow you to create if else conditions. This is a great tool if you want to create values based on certain rules.
Example: If we want to add the word education in custom labels 0 for every time the word school is found in the title.
Then we would select our target attribute custom labels 0 and create a rule as follows:
If title contains school : value = education (example in the image below)
We can also add and or conditions. For example, we ask, if title contains school or university. We do this by clicking on + AND / OR Condition
Here is an example of this rule using the example above.
We can also choose multiple conditions by clicking on +Condition or set the else rule.
Available operators:
- is absent
- has value
- does not have value
- equal
- does not equal
- contains
- does not contain
- starts with
- does not start with
- ends with
- does not end with
- less than
- less than or equal to
- greater than
- greater than or equal to
- is valid barcode
- is not valid barcode
Else Rule
The else rule allows you to set a value if nothing is found.
Tip :
If the first rule is matched, any other condition down the line will be ignored. Make sure that you take this into consideration when creating the if rules as you might need to reorder how they are listed.
Tip:
You can re order custom values by clicking and dragging.
Things to remember
Do remember that the rules you set will always be assigned to new products, for existing products you need to enable update rules.
If you choose to apply these to existing product all edits you have manually made to these specific rules will be overwritten. It is best to always download a copy of your data (Advanced > Download), in the event of an error that you can upload via CSV (Step 4).
If you only need to make certain changes once, then I recommend using search and replace.
