Import Console

Use the Import Console to manage your imports, which you use to add, update, or delete data in IBM® Product Master. You can also manually run the imports from the Import Console.

The Import Console displays the imports as rows in a table. To customize the columns that are included in the table, click Customize button in the upper right corner of the table to display the Properties section. Click directly on the column header to sort through that particular column. To search for specific imports and display only those rows that match your search criteria, click Filter button at the top of the table.

You can create, modify, and delete imports from the Import Console. To create a new import, click New at the top of the Import Console. When creating a new import, you can select your data import type. For example, In the Select data import type field, select one of the following:
Binary feed
This type of import is used to upload a zip file which can contain any type of information. While creating the import, you can specify where the zip file is to be uploaded in the docstore. When the import is ran, the files in the zip package are extracted under the ctg_files directory in the docstore. All of the catalogs that have a binary image or thumbnail image attribute can use the file name from any of these files to populate the attributes.
Hierarchy feed
This type of feed is used to import categories from a file to a hierarchy.
Item feed
This type of feed is used to import items from a file to a catalog.
Item to category map feed
This type of feed is used to import item data from a file to a catalog and then map it to certain categories. For example, in a CSV file if each line has a category data and an item data, that item is imported to that category. If the category does not exist, it is created under the hierarchy related to the catalog.
In order to allow a mapping of categories, you need to first define a typical file spec with the following two attributes:
  • the item primary key
  • the category which has to be of type Category. The type Category is a special type for a file spec.
  • the delimiter for the category path needs to be specified. The delimiter is a one-character delimiter that separates the elements of the category path; for example, /, as in top/middle/bottom.

Because you can only modify minimal aspects of an import, to modify an import it is best to delete the existing import and create a new one. To delete an import, click Delete in the first column of the row next to the import.

You can also manually run imports from the Import Console. To run an import, you first load the file into Product Master and then you start the import.