About this article

This article provides an in-depth explanation of how to use PIM Imports within the NextChapter Platform. It covers in detail the various tabs and functionalities of PIM Imports.

Introduction

This article explores the functionalities of PIM Imports within the NextChapter Platform. PIM (Product Information Management) Imports provide the ability to import product data and information according to specific criteria and formats.

Tabs in PIM Imports

1. General

• Name: The name used in PIM when you are in the Imports tab.
• Code: A unique code for the import to avoid duplication with the same code.
• Active: Indicates whether an import is active or not. This is useful for timing imports that need to be temporarily inactive.
• Run as: Options are 'System account' or 'Standard'. Select 'System account' here. If you do not have a System account, please contact NextChapter. A System Account is an account managed by NextChapter that has broader access to all fields of PIM, which user accounts sometimes do not have access to. This ensures that it always has access to all fields. 
• Storage type:
  • FTP: Retrieve from FTP.
  • sFTP: Retrieve from SFTP.
  • Web: Retrieve from web-URL.
  • File: Upload file from your computer.
• Cronjob planning: If an import needs to be performed regularly, this can be managed here. For example, every day at 10:30 PM.
• In case of FTP and SFTP, you will see 'Source'. This is the location of the FTP, usually something like: ftp://host/folder/filename.extension.
  For example, an SFTP server with host 1234 in the 'Data' folder with an XLSX file called 'Products' that you want to import would be: sftp://1234/Data/Products.xlsx
• Dataformat:
  • XLSX: Excel-file.
  • CSV: CSV-file .
  • XML: XML-file .

In this case we focus on Excel.

In the case of FTP and SFTP, you will also see the username and password for your SFTP/FTP. These must be entered here.

Execute: You can check this when everything is ready and then save and continue. You can also select the file from your computer. Please note that the other tabs must be completed first.

2. Definition

The first two checkboxes let you choose whether this file adds products, updates them, or does both. This is useful if you want to ensure that you only add products when you want to, or only update them when necessary. The remaining checkboxes are used in exceptional cases and are usually managed by NextChapter.

First you see Product fields. These include all the fields you normally see when you are in the product tab in PIM. This includes everything from the 'General' and 'Properties' tabs for a product. (Tip: Do an export first. This will help you see where everything is and fill in the definition. Even if you're just adding new products, this is a good example of what the Excel sheet should look like.)

Start with 'Sheet' and 'Group by'. 'Leaf' is the name of the leaf. NextChapter always exports 'Product' here, so it is useful to also name your product field worksheet 'Product' or 'Sheet 1'. 'Group by' refers to Column A in the file and helps the import identify the value of the product. This is important to link variants to products later. In this case it is best to create a unique value such as 'ID'. Also include this value in the definition as a value to add.

Then add each value as they appear in row 1 of the Excel sheet. This is case sensitive. For multiple properties you can choose 'Comma Separated' as the parser. You can also check 'Ignore empty values' if a value can be empty in Excel, but is not allowed to be overwritten with an empty value in PIM.

For variants, do the same on another worksheet in your Excel, so name the sheet 'Variant' or 'Sheet 2', and indicate this in the definition. Group it by the same 'ID' as in the product sheet. If you have multiple variants per product, an 'ID' will appear more often on the variant sheet than on the product sheet. Please note: each 'ID' must appear on both the product sheet and the variant sheet. Check this carefully; otherwise the import will not work.

4. Parser

If you have cases where you are using a 'Comma Separated' parser, you can specify the import separator here, such as a comma or semicolon.

5. Mapping

For validation, use the 'ID' you created in the definition as 'Grouped by' with the product. Link this to the external ID or other term NextChapter uses for your unique product value.

For variants, use your unique variant value (often EAN or item number) in the variants section. Make sure this looks like EAN = EAN.

You can link all definition fields to what you previously filled in. The column name does not necessarily have to match the field name in PIM, so your price column can be linked to the name you specified in the definition.

6. History

Here you can see when the import was performed and any relevant details about what was done, including updates and any errors. 

What can I check if there is an error in my import?

• Make sure that each 'ID' used for grouping appears at least once on both sheets.
• Spaces in Excel can prevent definitions from being read correctly. For example, if "Price" is defined but "Price" is in the file, it will not be recognized.
• It is possible that data was accidentally selected in PIM while working, causing blank data to be read. PIM doesn't handle this well, so always try to delete the empty data after the file is ready. Select all blank cells, click the eraser in Excel and click 'Clear All'.
• Always test your import with a number of products. Start with a single product, then go to five products, ten products, fifty products, and then everything. This may seem time-consuming, but it is ultimately faster than correcting any errors. A preliminary check is always recommended.
  
  

Step-by-step plan:

• Indicate which file you are importing in the General tab and where it comes from.
• Indicate in the definition what the column names are called in Excel that are imported, and whether the values still need to be ignored or parsed.
• Indicate in the parser with which character values are separated.
• Complete the validation accurately and indicate where the column names will be mapped to in Excel.

• Perform the import in steps.
  
  

PIM is very robust to prevent errors. This also means that the import must be made very accurately. So pay attention to all these steps and check them carefully after making the import. If your import has not completed after a few minutes, do not retry the operation, but check where the error may lie. If you know you are importing a large file, check after about an hour to see if everything went well.

In the history you can also see that it says 'Done on' with a date and time. If this is displayed as '01-01-0001 00:00:00', the import will not have gone smoothly and you can check the above points and improve the import file.