While we are hard at work adding more retailers to our list of dedicated channels, you may have a need to syndicate your product information to retailers where we don't have a direct connection.
With Configured Channels, you can bridge that gap by creating your own channel that leverages all of the powerful transformation and mapping tools at the heart of PDX.
1. Activate your Configured Channel
Under your PDX account, select the Channels section on the left-hand side of your account page.
At the top of the Channels page you will see a tab titled "Configured Channels"; click this to activate a Configured Channel.
2. Name your new Channel
After activating, you will be taken to a page where you will name your new channel. You will also have the option of uploading a logo that will show up alongside the other channels when on the Channel Overview page.
3. Provide Attributes
Once you have given a name, the next step is to provide the Attributes.
In the empty text box, fill in every Attribute you want to include and hit the Enter key on your keyboard between each entry. You can also copy them and paste them all at once as well.
After making your initial list of Attributes, click on the "Category" drop-down menu and select "Root Category" (this will serve as the default destination):
Once you are satisfied hit the "Save" button to move on.
(don't worry if you realize you need to make changes later - you can easily return to this page to add or remove Attributes as necessary)
4. Define Values
After creating your Attribute headers, next you can define how you want each Value to be entered.
Here you can set a Value to allow integers, text, drop-down options, multi-values, and even include Assets.
You can also specify if this Value can vary in different languages if you are working with multi-lingual product data. Simply select the "Languages" tab from the top menu:
From here, you can select the languages your channel can support via the drop-down menu, or by simply typing in the search bar to populate with the needed language and region:
Remember to save your work after each change you make!
5. Creating Output for your Configured Channel
After creating your channel, you will then have to create a template for PDX to fill in when you submit data. This template will take the form of a standard Excel Spreadsheet.
Each Attribute must mirror the same name given in the Attributes section of your Configured Channel setup page and follow the same naming conventions of the ID.
As you can see, the naming convention to follow is to set the Attribute in double-brackets and use a single underscore to replace any empty spaces or special characters like periods or parentheses.
One important note; make sure to include an "ID" and "Name" Attribute and precede each with a double-underscore.
Once the Output template is saved, proceed to the "Output" in the Configured Channel page and click the "Publish" button at the bottom of the page to save it.
6. Import Master Data to your Configured Channel
Once you save your work by clicking the "Publish" button, you are now free to import and map data as you normally would for your other Channels.
After filling in your data, the submission step is a little different compared to dedicated Channels.
When you are ready to submit, you will be given options as to how you want to send the information: download as a spreadsheet, upload to a SFTP server, or email directly.
After clicking "Yes, submit!" another notice will pop up in the upper-right corner providing a download link you can copy and share to others:
Another difference is while your products will show a "Submitted" status, you are still able to make changes and adjustments to submit an updated spreadsheet if needed.