Parameter mappings

The feed says Barva, column_33 or farba-produktu. Your catalogue has a parameter called Colour. This screen is where one is joined to the other — and without it the system does not know they are the same thing.

1 — AI parameter mapping2 — Re-extract everything3 — Add mapping4 — Vendor5 — Search6 — Source parameter7 — Target parameter8 — Parameter code9 — Row vendor10 — State11 — A technical name

Controls on this screen

1. 1AI parameter mapping — Has the AI walk the unmapped names and propose matches. It confirms nothing on its own.
2. 2Re-extract everything — Walks the catalogue again with the current mappings. Use it after a substantial change.
3. 3Add mapping — Matching one name by hand.
4. 4Vendor — Narrows the list to one vendor's mappings. A mapping is either for one vendor or global, for all of them.
5. 5Search — At hundreds of mappings this is the fastest way to one row.
6. 6Source parameter — The field name from the feed. A sync compares it ignoring case, diacritics and leading or trailing spaces.
7. 7Target parameter — Your parameter, where the value will be stored.
8. 8Parameter code — The target parameter's internal code — what you will see in exports and in the API.
9. 9Row vendor — Which vendor this mapping applies to. “Global” means all of them.
10. 10State — Administrators and editors have a switch here that turns a mapping off and back on without deleting it; someone who can only view sees just the state. A mapping that is off is used neither by a sync nor by an extraction.
11. 11A technical name — CSV feeds often have no header and their fields are called column_13. A mapping is the only place that becomes a meaningful parameter.

How mapping is done

1. Let the AI propose

   AI parameter mapping walks the unmapped names and matches what it can. It confirms nothing — you review and approve the proposals.

2. Fill in what it could not

   Meaningless technical names (column_13) and abbreviations only the vendor understands have to be matched by hand through Add mapping.

3. Run the extraction

   Re-extract everything walks the catalogue with the new mappings and fills the values in. Without this step the mapping takes effect only on the next import.

A mapping also remembers the feed name's own parameter by itself — the one a sync stored the values under while the name was unmapped. It looks for it when the mapping is created and when its name or target changes. When there is one and it is not the target itself, the chip Values from: … · N rules sits under the source name: that parameter's value mappings apply to the feed values first, the target parameter's only to the rest. More in Value mappings.

Comparing two vendors

When two vendors send the same properties under different names (Barva and Farba, Hmotnost and Hmotnosť), you do not have to pair them one by one. The Compare vendors button opens a screen where AI compares the parameters of two vendors at once, and you join every pair that fits into one parameter with one click.

1. Pick the vendors

   The first is the vendor whose parameters you want to unify — the mappings are created for it. The second is the vendor whose parameters you already use; its products do not change. The How it works block shows at once which way the mapping goes. Show both vendors' parameters shows what AI will go through (parameters without a mapping), what is already shared and what already has a mapping.

2. Find matches

   Propose pairs starts AI: it compares the names and sample values and proposes a parameter of the second vendor for each parameter of the first, with high, medium or low confidence. Nothing is created yet. You can confirm the proposals that arrived while AI works on the next ones. New ones join the list only when you click Show … new proposals — the rows you are working on never move under your hand. Edit the prompt in the AI Prompt section or in the prompt gallery of the AI settings (type "Vendor parameter match").

3. Confirm the pairs

   The proposals are sorted by confidence, and each shows sample values of both sides. Confirm a pair that fits with Create mapping — the mapping is created right away, the same one Add mapping creates. You can change the target parameter by hand, also for a parameter AI found no match for. Skip a pair that does not fit; you can restore it on the Skipped tab.

4. Several pairs at once

   Tick the pairs (for example with Tick all with high confidence) and click Create … mappings in the bar at the bottom. You see the list of every pair and confirm it before anything is created.

5. Load the values

   The values of the first vendor's products move at its next sync, or right away with Load values now from the feed data already downloaded — even when several feed names map onto one parameter.

Next to the name of a first-vendor parameter whose values are already stored there is a Map values link — in the proposals and in the Show both vendors' parameters list. It opens Value mappings for that parameter and that vendor in a new tab, so you can unify its feed values right away while the proposals here stay as they are. For a parameter that already has a mapping, the link opens its own feed parameter: its rules apply to the values first.

A created mapping cannot be undone on this screen. You can switch it off on the Parameter mappings page; an admin can delete it.

If a parameter got a mapping elsewhere in the meantime (in another tab, from another user), the screen says so on the pair — naming the parameter — and creates nothing new. You find such a pair on the Skipped tab.

The screen remembers proposals in progress in this browser tab. If you close or reload it by mistake, you continue where you left off for the same pair of vendors. The state of the proposals is checked against what the vendor holds now. Mappings still being created finish even after you leave the page; while any are waiting, the browser asks before the tab is closed.

What happens to the unmapped

A value whose name is not mapped is not thrown away. By default a sync still stores it on the product — under the parameter that matches its name in the feed. If you have no such parameter yet, the sync creates one automatically and names it as the feed does. Nothing joins that parameter to yours, though: Barva from the feed and your Colour stay two parameters, and a filter by one does not find the products whose value sits under the other. If automatic parameter creation is switched off both for the vendor and for the whole company, the value is not stored on the product and stays in the raw feed data alone. Nor is a value stored when a value mapping of that parameter says Don't carry this value over for it.

In each of these cases the name still counts as unmapped — in the mapping coverage too. How many there are is in System overview; the specific values are in the product's raw data.