Nowadays, it is common for your e-commerce to have a dedicated product catalog feed, used to automatically supply various advertising platforms, such as Google Ads or Meta Business Manager, for specific campaigns like Google Shopping Ads.
These feeds can also be very useful for importing the most relevant product catalog information into Magnews. In this article, we will see how to create a Product Catalog table on Magnews and periodically populate it with information from the Google Shopping Feed.
Product catalog and standard connectors
If your Magnews account is already integrated with one of the standard e-commerce connectors (Magento, Shopify, Prestashop), the functionalities for retrieving product catalog information are already present.
For more information:
- Magento - How to use the product catalog
- Shopify - How to use the product catalog
- Prestashop - How to use the product catalog
However, it is important to note that in these cases the product catalog information is not imported into a table on Magnews, but is retrieved in real-time during the creation of assets like newsletters. Follow these instructions to import the catalog into Magnews via feed, even in these cases.
Create the product catalog table
The first step is to create a data table on Magnews to contain all the relevant information of your catalog.
- From the main menu, go to Settings > Developer > Data Tables.
- Create a New Table, assigning it a technical name, like "catalog".
- Set the primary key by adding a field called "id" of type Integer (4 bytes) with Auto-increment and Ascending order options.
- Save and proceed to create the fields that will contain the various attributes of your products.
To create a new field, simply use the relevant button.
For each field, define:
- Attribute name
- Data type (text, integer, number, etc.)
- Uniqueness constraint, if necessary
- If it allows empty values
- Optional default value
- Specific options depending on the field type (e.g., text length)
It is clear that not all Product Catalogs are the same and certainly your catalog will have a specific set of attributes and characteristics. However, a series of standard parameters and attributes can generally be defined that are commonly found in all catalogs.
Here is a list of standard fields commonly present in an e-commerce catalog:
| Name | Data type | Notes |
| title | Text | |
| description | Text | Can be very long; in these cases, we suggest using Long Text |
| price | Text | May or may not include currency |
| sale_price | Text | May or may not include currency |
| link | Text | |
| image_link | Text | |
| size | Text | Generally quite short |
| qty | Integer | |
| product_type | Text | |
| brand | Text | |
| color | Text | |
| availability | Text |
Once all the useful fields are configured, go to the User Entities tab, activate the flag and indicate the display field to identify the entity (normally "title", the product name).
Now your data table is ready to contain all the useful information of your product catalog. Let's see how to populate it.
Import the product catalog
The automatic and periodic import of the product catalog is done by creating a scheduled task.
- Go to Settings and access the Scheduled Tasks section.
- Create a New Task with a descriptive name, like "Import Product Catalog," choose Data Tables as the context, and select the newly created catalog table.
Data source
In the next step, select Download from URL as the source type, and specify the URL of the Google Shopping feed. Save and test the configurations set.
File parameters
Indicate the file format as XML File, specify the XML product tag (usually "item") and the text encoding (Unicode). Also, test the configuration after saving it.
Field mapping
Map the product attributes in the feed with the attributes of the catalog table. You can choose not to import certain attributes if they are not needed. Magnews provides examples of values present for each feed attribute.
Here is an example of mapping:
| Feed Attribute | Table Field |
| /item/g:id | id* |
| /item/title | title |
| /item/description | description |
| /item/g:price | price |
| /item/g:sale_price | sale_price |
| /item/link | link |
| /item/g:image_link | image_link |
| /item/g:size | size |
| /item/g:qty | qty |
| /item/g:product_type | product_type |
| /item/g:brand | brand |
| /item/g:color | color |
| /item/g:availability | availability |
Advanced options and processing report
In the following steps, you can set notification rules in case of errors.
Define the type of post-processing report you wish to receive,
specifying the destination (Magnews FTP or remote).
The processing report is useful especially in the initial setup and testing phase, as it provides details on any import errors, allowing you to adjust the scheduled task configurations.
Import testing
Once the configuration is complete, you can perform a series of import tests using the manual execution button Run Now on the main operation tab.
These runs will allow you to initially populate the product catalog, verify any errors through the report, and correct configurations if necessary.
Note: Import errors may result from the data type used or text length, especially for fields like "description". If needed, modify the attribute settings in the catalog table.
Scheduling automatic execution
Once settings are verified as correct, you can schedule the periodic execution of the task:
- In the General tab, set the Task Status to In Production.
- In the Scheduling tab, set the frequency and timing of execution (e.g., daily execution every night at 00:30).
Alternatives to the Google Shopping Feed
While not common, there may be situations where your e-commerce does not have or does not yet have a Google Shopping Feed for the product catalog. In these cases, it is still possible to feed and keep the Product Catalog table on Magnews updated through alternative options such as:
- Import file via CSV, using a scheduled task that processes a CSV file instead of an XML (as for the Feed).
- API Rest calls, for more details refer to the relevant documentation
Accessing the product catalog
Once the procedure is complete, you will have access to the entire product catalog of your e-commerce on Magnews, with all relevant information.
Related articles
The product catalog information in a Magnews data table allows you to create dynamic content within your communications, leveraging the imported information.
Learn how to:
- Set up the Product Picker with Dynamic Feed
- Set up Dynamic Product Lists with Dynamic Feed