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Exclude products from export with the blacklist and skip rule boxes

Exclude certain products from your export feeds with blacklist and skip rule boxes in Productsup.

Introduction

You may exclude certain products from being exported without removing them from the feed. For example, you may exclude an out-of-stock product, and when the product is back in stock resume its export.

To exclude certain items during the export, you have the following options:

  • Standard or Dynamic Inclusion/Exclusion Lists in combination with the blacklist rule boxes

  • Various skip rule boxes

The blacklist rule boxes work similarly to the rule box Skip Row if Value In, but you can share blacklists with other sites, and if you modify your data feed, the blacklist updates automatically for all sites in your account.

The opposite action that protects specific terms from exclusion is whitelisting. See Whitelist feature for more information.

Apply the blacklist rule boxes

The blacklist rule boxes let you exclude during the export necessary products whose attributes contain certain terms matching the terms in the lists. For example, in Germany, food manufacturers face restrictions on what ingredients they can add to their products. With the blacklist rule boxes, you can exclude products that contain prohibited ingredients.

Before using the blacklist rule boxes, you need to create an Inclusion/Exclusion list in the Lists feature. See Exclude products with the Standard Inclusion/Exclusion list.

You can use the following blacklist rule boxes:

  1. Blacklist - skips products during export, if their attribute's values contain a term that matches the term in the selected Inclusion/Exclusion list.

  2. Blacklist Entire Word - skips products during export if their attribute's entire values match a term in the selected Inclusion/Exclusion list.

  3. Negative Blacklist - skips products during export if their attribute doesn't contain certain values that match a term in the selected Inclusion/Exclusion list.

    Note

    The Negative Blacklist isn't the same as Whitelist. Unlike the Negative Blacklist, Whitelist prevents items from being skipped.

To use the Blacklist, Blacklist Entire Word, or Negative Blacklist rule boxes, take the following steps:

  1. Create a list of terms you need to exclude with the help of the Standard Inclusion/Exclusion list, formerly known as the Default List. See Exclude products with the Standard Inclusion/Exclusion list.

    Tip

    You can also use the Dynamic Inclusion/Exclusion list to import a list of terms via a CSV file or URL.

    Note

    The Blacklist, Blacklist Entire Word, or Negative Blacklist rule boxes aren't case-sensitive and don't require an exact word match. However, you must enter a complete word. If the text contains quotation marks, you must also add quotation marks.

  2. Go to Data View from the site's main menu.

  3. Choose the needed export channel or the intermediate stage in the drop-down menu on the left.

  4. Select Edit in the attribute column where you want to apply the rule box.

  5. In the Select an Option drop-down menu, search for and select the needed rule box, for example, Blacklist.

    blacklist rule box

  6. Select a necessary list in the Blacklist drop-down menu.

    Note

    For the Negative Blacklist rule box, the field is Negative Blacklist.

  7. Optionally, in Skip Priority, set the priority if you have several rule boxes with different priorities.

  8. Select Save.

Apply the skip rule boxes

Use skip rule boxes to exclude certain products without adding terms to the lists. You can choose among the following rule boxes:

Skip Row If Value In

Use the Skip Row If Value In rule box to exclude an item that has a specific value in the attribute column. You can add multiple search terms to this rule box, one term per line. To add the rule box:

  1. Go to Data View from the site's main menu.

  2. Choose the needed export channel or the intermediate stage in the drop-down menu on the left.

  3. Select Edit in the attribute column where you want to apply the rule box.

  4. In the Select an Option drop-down menu, search for and select the Skip Row If Value In rule box.

    Skip row if value in

  5. In Match, select the needed option:

    • broad - skips the item from the export if the string contains the search term.

    • exact - skips the item from the export if the search term exactly matches the entire string. The exact match is case-sensitive.

    For example, the attribute column contains White T-shirt (Kids) and Red T-shirt (Kids) items. To exclude all items for kids, select broad in Match and enter Kids as the search term. If you want to exclude only White T-shirt (Kids), you need to select exact in Match and enter the entire string in the search field: White T-shirt (Kids).

  6. Optionally, in Skip Priority, set the priority if you have several rule boxes with different priorities.

  7. Select Save.

You can combine Skip Row If Value In with other rule boxes:

For example, to exclude items with a price lower than 10 EUR and out-of-stock items, you can combine the Skip Row If Value In rule box with the Set Value If Contains rule box as shown below.

Skip row if value in with other rules

Note

To see the excluded items, pause the Skip Row If Value In rule box.

Skip Row If Value Not In

Use the Skip Row If Value Not In rule box to skip a row from export if one or more values aren't in the attribute column. You can add multiple search terms to this rule box, one term per line. To add the rule box:

  1. Go to Data View from the site's main menu.

  2. Choose the needed export channel or the intermediate stage in the drop-down menu on the left.

  3. Select Edit in the attribute column where you want to apply the rule box.

  4. In the Select an Option drop-down menu, search for and select the Skip Row If Value Not In rule box.

    Skip_row_if_value_not_in.png

  5. In Match, select the needed option:

    • broad - skips the item from the export if the string contains the search term.

    • exact - skips the item from the export if the search term exactly matches the entire string. The exact match is case-sensitive.

    For example, the attribute column contains White T-shirt (Kids) and Red T-shirt (Kids). To exclude all items that don't contain Kids, select broad in Match and enter Kids as the search term. If you want to exclude everything except White T-shirt (Kids), you need to select exact in Match and enter the entire string in the search field: White T-shirt (Kids).

  6. Optionally, in Skip Priority, set the priority if you have several rule boxes with different priorities.

  7. Select Save.

Skip Row By Content Length

Use the Skip Row By Content Length rule box if the content length is greater than, less than, equal to, or is not the entered value.

  1. Go to Data View from the site's main menu.

  2. Choose the needed export channel or the intermediate stage in the drop-down menu on the left.

  3. Select Edit in the attribute column where you want to apply the rule box.

  4. In the Select an Option drop-down menu, search for and select the Skip Row By Content Length rule box.

    Skip Row By Content Length

  5. Select the operator in the drop-down menu.

  6. Enter a compare value.

  7. Optionally, in Skip Priority, set the priority if you have several rule boxes with different priorities.

  8. Select Save.

Skip Row If Empty

Use the Skip Row If Empty rule box to exclude the product row if the value of the selected attribute is empty.

This rule box is useful if your items don't have images, links, or prices.

  1. Go to Data View from the site's main menu.

  2. Choose the needed export channel or the intermediate stage in the drop-down menu on the left.

  3. Select Edit in the attribute column where you want to apply the rule box.

  4. In the Select an Option drop-down menu, search for and select the Skip Row If Empty rule box.

    Skip Row If Empty

  5. Optionally, in Skip Priority, set the priority if you have several rule boxes with different priorities.

  6. Select Save.

Skip Row If Isnt URL

Use the Skip Row If Isnt URL rule box to exclude items from the export if the attribute column is missing a valid URL.

  1. Go to Data View from the site's main menu.

  2. Choose the needed export channel or the intermediate stage in the drop-down menu on the left.

  3. Select Edit in the attribute column where you want to apply the rule box.

  4. In the Select an Option drop-down menu, search for and select the Skip Row If Isnt URL rule box.

    Skip Row If Isn't URL

  5. Optionally, in Skip Priority, set the priority if you have several rule boxes with different priorities.

  6. Select Save.

Skip Row If Match

Use the Skip Row If Match rule box to exclude items if they contain values matching a regex in a specific attribute column. See Transform data with regular expressions and split strings.

  1. Go to Data View from the site's main menu.

  2. Choose the needed export channel or the intermediate stage in the drop-down menu on the left.

  3. Select Edit in the attribute column where you want to apply the rule box.

  4. In the Select an Option drop-down menu, search for and select the Skip Row If Match rule box.

    Skip Row If Match

  5. In Format, enter a value in the format #string#.

  6. Optionally, in Skip Priority, set the priority if you have several rule boxes with different priorities.

  7. Select Save.

Example:

The attribute Title contains the value Brother DCP 660 CN printer cartridge compatible Lc-1000-Y red.

To exclude the items containing compatible Lc in their titles, enter #compatible Lc# in Format.

Skip Row If Not Empty

Use the Skip Row If Not Empty rule box to exclude items if the field contains a value and isn't empty.

  1. Go to Data View from the site's main menu.

  2. Choose the needed export channel or the intermediate stage in the drop-down menu on the left.

  3. Select Edit in the attribute column where you want to apply the rule box.

  4. In the Select an Option drop-down menu, search for and select the Skip Row If Not Empty rule box.

    Skip Row If Not Empty

  5. Optionally, in Skip Priority, set the priority if you have several rule boxes with different priorities.

  6. Select Save.

Skip Multicondition (2x)

Use the Skip Multicondition (2x) rule box to exclude items when two defined conditions are met. Set both conditions in the same rule box:

  1. Go to Data View from the site's main menu.

  2. Choose the needed export channel or the intermediate stage in the drop-down menu on the left.

  3. Select Edit in the attribute column where you want to apply the rule box.

  4. In the Select an Option drop-down menu, search for and select the Skip Multicondition (2x) rule box.

    Skip Multicondition

  5. In Column, select a comparison column.

  6. In Operator, select a condition: less than, greater than, less or equal, greater or equal, equal to, not equal to, contains, contains not.

  7. In Value, enter a text or numeric value.

  8. Optionally, in Skip Priority, set the priority if you have several rule boxes with different priorities.

  9. Select Save.

Prioritize rule boxes

In complex cases when you need to apply the skip rule boxes and whitelisting at the same time to reach a certain result, you need rule box priorities. You can set the skip priority for every rule box.

Here are some rules and best practices:

  • By default, all the rule boxes have priority 0.

  • You can enter both positive and negative numeric values to define the priorities.

  • The higher the priority value, the stronger the rule box.

  • The Whitelist rule box has the highest priority over exclusion rule boxes. The Whitelist rule box overwrites the blacklist, skip, and ROI rule boxes.

  • Leave some range between the priorities of several rule boxes. The priority value of 10 in between two rule boxes is enough.

  • If you want to make all of your skip and blacklist rule boxes stronger than the Whitelist rule box, don't update them all. Only change the priority of the Whitelist rule box to a negative value. Keep the default priority value of 0 for the rest of the rule boxes, which automatically makes them stronger.

  • Add the Comment rule box to the connection where you added a rule box with the priority to have a quick overview of the priorities. The Comment rule box doesn't change the feed data but only serves as information displayed in a tooltip when you hover over the circle on the connection in Dataflow.

The prioritization use case

For example, you want to exclude the out-of-stock products of a certain brand but whitelist top-selling products from the blacklisted brands. As whitelisting overweights skip rule boxes, you need to prioritize the rule boxes as follows:

  1. Add the Skip Row if Value In rule box in the brand attribute. Enter the brand names and set the priority to 10.

  2. Add the Whitelist Row if Value In rule box in the id attribute. Enter the IDs of the products you want to whitelist, even if they are one of the blacklisted brands. Set the priority to 20.

  3. Add the Skip Row if Value In rule box in the availability attribute. Enter out-of-stock and set the priority to 30.

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