You are here: Start -> Settings -> Import data -> Import-Settings
What is an incremental feed?
Incremental feeds transfer changes to individual items within a feed. These changes do not have to include the entire catalog.
Such changes can be:
Prices
Stock
Descriptions
Delivery conditions
NOTE: Data fields that are sent "empty" or are missing in the import will be emptied for an article!
Data source
Channel Pilot Pro can only import incremental feeds from an FTP or SFTP server.
You can find out more about (S)FTP import here.
Data type
Channel Pilot Pro can only import incremental feeds as CSV or XML.
You can find out more about import by data type here.
Activation
Within the feed, you will find the sub-item "INCREMENTAL" under "Data source".
Activate the checkbox if it is an incremental feed.
A message will appear, which you must confirm.
File name
There are specific requirements for the file name for an incremental import. These must be adhered to, otherwise your import will fail.
Each file requires a 14-digit timestamp (date and time) in the file name
e.g. testfile_20170314144212.csv (it does not have to be at the end of the name)
The marked characters in the previous timestamp [...12...] can be a counter from 00 to 59 to obtain unique file names
normally it represents the seconds in which the file was created
The timestamp can also contain 3 digits for milliseconds
The file name must start with a lower case letter.
File path
The path to the file should only refer to the folder.
The folder should only contain the incremental files. Each import feed requires its own folder.
If the folder contains files with a different structure or an incorrect name, the import may fail!
Import file
If you have activated the incremental import and given the file the correct name, Channel Pilot Pro will retrieve all files sorted by timestamp. Starting with the oldest file.
You can check which file was imported last to make sure that no file is missing.
The download will only take place if the timestamp in the file name is equal to or greater than the timestamp of the last file name.
Note: The last file must exist on the (S)FTP server without being renamed until the new file is downloaded.
You can also import a file again. However, make sure that at least one file has been imported before you re-import a file. To import it again, you only need to change the timestamp to a later date.
How can I make a step-by-step stock/price change?
Simply add a new line to the feed.
If you only want to import stock and/or price, you can also add a second incremental feed that does not add new items, but only updates the existing ones.
This is a good solution if the product data is not updated as frequently as the stock or price information. Make sure you use the setting correctly to prevent incorrect items being created or data being deleted from existing items.
How can I delete an item?
You can delete the article data in Channel Pilot Pro by selecting the data field for the delete message and entering the correct value for the delete action.
If you do not use the "Delete" option, no items will be deleted from the feed. All items that are imported (during the initial import or incremental update) will remain in the database.
What should the content of the file look like?
Here is an example with the delete column.
