Key concepts
The core building blocks of Export Template Management — export templates, attributes, and analyzer tests.
Export templates
An export template is a ready-to-use blueprint for creating exports in Productsup for channels, such as Google Merchant Center, Amazon, or Facebook. Each export template is pre-loaded with the specific requirements for that channel, including:
- Attributes: The specific data characteristics the channel requires, such as price, id, and availability.
- Analyzer tests: Automated checks to ensure your data meets the channel's standards.
- Destinations: The specific locations or mechanisms, such as FTP servers or API endpoints, where the platform sends data.
In the Developer Portal, you can create and set up a new export template that appears in the platform and becomes available to platform users.
See About export templates for more information.
Attributes
An attribute is a characteristic of an item, for example, title, id, color, or price. Every channel expects to receive a number of specific attributes per product or item.
There are 3 types of attributes:
- Mandatory — a requirement on the channel side.
- Optional — a nice-to-have.
- Conditionally mandatory — mandatory only when another attribute has a specific value.
See About attributes for more information.
Analyzer tests
An analyzer test is a validation mechanism that checks if attribute values meet particular requirements, for example, contain a valid URL or do not exceed 150 characters. You add analyzer tests to attributes in an export template.
In the Productsup platform, users can see analyzer test results in Data View to check if their attribute values meet channel requirements.
See About analyzer tests for more information.
Revisions and publishing
Changes to an export template do not become available in the Productsup platform immediately. Every change, including changes to analyzer tests, is stored as a draft until you publish it.
Publishing creates a new revision: a saved copy of the whole export template that never changes afterward. The platform uses the active revision, which is the latest published one.
This applies to both ways of working with export templates:
- In the Developer Portal, select Publish to publish your draft changes.
- Through the Export Template Management API, send a publish request.
Each export template keeps a version history with every revision, who published it, and what it changed.
See Publish export template changes and View version history for more information.
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