Once the channel is created, you need to enable the channel, that is, map the product information between source and target catalogs. To map the information, you need to create the mapping rules. These rules will enable in mapping the relevant product information between the catalogs.
DataBridge supports 2 types of mapping which are as follows:
Taxonomy mapping, that is, classification of SKUs – Here, you need to classify the SKUs present in the source catalog to be placed in the relevant node in the target catalog.
Attribute mapping, that is, schema/values of attributes – Here, once the SKUs are classified, you need to map the SKU attributes in the source catalog with the relevant attribute in the target catalog.
Thus, the first step after creating a channel is to classify the SKUs and then map the attributes of the classified SKUs.
Click the Launch button on the Channels page to open the project you need to work as shown below.
The source catalog is displayed on the left side and the target catalog is displayed on the right side.
Click the
icon in both the catalogs to expand the taxonomy tree to view the hierarchy and the nodes present. Type the name of the node or the Node ID to locate the specific node in the search box in both the catalogs.
NOTE | The target catalog will not have SKUs until a build has been executed. Once the build is executed, you can search for SKU IDs in the target catalog too. |
On the source catalog, you can view node SKU count summary on the source taxonomy tree as shown in the below screenshot.
When the channel is created and no SKUs or attributes have been mapped, all the parent nodes in the source catalog will have 
(Red color) icon next to the node name indicating that no SKUs have been mapped or moved from this node.
Click on any Node and you get two options – SKU Summary for this Node
and View Node Map Details 
.
SKU Summary for this Node
The eye icon consisting of SKU details will be displayed only if there is any map that exists.
SKUs in this Node
SKUs present in the selected node will be displayed here.
Mapped SKUs
Clicking on Mapped SKUs will display all the maps that exists for the selected node.
Unmapped SKUs
This will open up the unmapped SKUs in this node with filter and sort capabilities.
When a new channel is created for the first time, SKUs are unmapped and need to be mapped.
Pre-transformed View
Pre-transformed view gives you an overview of how your catalog data is going to look after you build the channel. For each rule applied and attribute maps created, you can preview the changes before even actually building the channel.
Click the arrow to open the preview map.
You can also search for Item ID in the first column.
You will be able to see the Source Attributes and Target Attributes from Toggle Attribute Visibility dropdown. You can search for attributes using search filter. You can select all/deselect option for attributes.
View Node Map Details
Once you create and save the mappings, the list of node mappings will be displayed on this page.
For the saved mappings, you will be able to view the target node for the mapping, Mapped SKU count, and Actions to take for any specific target node.
On clicking three dotted Action button, user will be able to see the following options:
You can edit the mapping, delete the mapping, change the ranking position, open the pre-transformed view of the node map, and check out the mapping information.
Edit action enables edit of the rule along with the taxonomy change if required.
To change the ranking position, you can enter a desired rank. The dialog box will display the current rank.
Mapping Information will display the details of the system generated map.
Copy Attribute Map for <Source Node> to <Target Node> and Paste Attribute Map for <Source Node> to <Target Node> will assist the users to copy the attribute map from any node map. If you click the Copy link, the current attribute map will copied, overwriting the previous copied map. At any time, the user can have only node's attribute map copied to memory for the duration of the session.
On Copy action with previous copy overridden, the following notification is displayed:
On selecting another node and on clicking the Paste link, the most recently copied attribute map is pasted on the node map. It will also display the number of attribute maps pasted. If any attribute map already existed for the node-map which is being pasted into, the old attribute map will be overridden.
On Paste action, the following notification is displayed:
Mapping
You can create rules to map the SKUs from source to target catalog by clicking on 
button. The source node will be selected automatically and you need to select the target node from the target node list in the catalog.
To create a mapping, click 
for the respective node on Source catalog panel and then click on 
. This will allow you to create node mapping. The source node will be selected automatically, and you will need to select the target node.
After selecting the target node, a dialog box to create mapping based on three rules will be displayed.
Once the source and target catalog are selected, you can create rules using 3 conditions as well as various operators available which are as follows:
All – If All is selected, all the SKUs and Attributes will be mapped to the target node.
Limit by Attributes – If Limit by Attributes is selected, conditional attributes will be mapped, rest will be unmapped. This rule should be used to map the SKU data using the SKU attributes defined for the selected node. You can create the rule by selecting the SKU attributes from the list displayed for the node and by applying the relevant values to map the data to the target node.
The following are the operators provided for Limit by Attributes option.
Operator Name | Operator Value | Condition is TRUE When . |
|---|---|---|
has any value | N/A - field disabled in UI
| Attribute value is not-null with at least one non-white-space character. |
has no value | N/A - field disabled in UI
| Attribute value is null or only-white-space. |
equals | One value
| Attribute value equals the exact value entered in the Operator Value field. |
does not equal | One value
| Attribute value is not equal to the data entered in the Operator Value. |
starts with | One value
| Attribute value starts with the string pattern entered in the Operator Value field. |
does not start with | One value
| Attribute value does not start with the string pattern entered in the Operator Value field. |
Ends with | One Value
| Attribute value ends with the string pattern entered in the Operator Value field. |
does not end with | One value
| Attribute value does not end with the string pattern entered in the Operator Value field. |
equals any of | Multiple values - delimited by comma, optionally enclosed in double quotes
| Attribute value equals any of the values entered in the Operator Value field. |
does not equal any of | Multiple values - delimited by comma, optionally enclosed in double quotes
| Attribute value does not equal any of the values entered in the Operator Value field. |
contains | One value
| Attribute value contains the value entered in the Operator Value field. |
Does not contain | One value
| Attribute value does not contain the value entered in the Operator Value field. |
Is less than | One value
| Attribute value is less than the value entered in the Operator Value field. |
Is greater than | One value
| Attribute value is greater than the value entered in the Operator Value field. |
You can add multiple rules using AND operator by clicking on Add Condition.
Limit by SKUs – If Limit by SKUs is selected, conditional SKUs will be mapped, rest will be unmapped. This rule should be used to map the SKU data using a single SKU or series of the SKU for the selected node. In such cases, you can create the rule by applying the relevant values to map the data to the target node.
If you select any of the above mentioned option, following are the operators provided for Limit by SKUs option.
Operator Name | Operator Value | Valid In |
|---|---|---|
equals | One value | SKU value contains the value entered in the Operator Value field |
starts with | One value | SKU value starts with the value entered in the Operator Value field |
Is less than | One value | SKU value is less than the value entered in the Operator Value field |
Ends with | One Value | SKU value ends with the value entered in the Operator Value field |
Is greater than | One value | SKU value is greater than the value entered in the Operator Value field |
equals any of | Multiple values - delimited by comma, tab or when you click enter | SKU value equals any of the value entered in the Operator Value field |
does not equal any of | Multiple values - delimited by comma, tab or when you click enter | SKU value does not equal any of the value entered in the Operator Value field |
contains | One value | SKU value contains the value entered in the Operator Value field |
Does not contain | One value | SKU value does not contains the value entered in the Operator Value field |
Select the appropriate operators and enter the value. Once entered, save the mapping. The mapped node will be displayed on Mapping page under User Built section.
The link between source node and target node is now established and is denoted by plumbing line as shown below.
The Plumbing line connects the source node to one or multiple target nodes. On the source node, the total number of SKUs are displayed, whereas target node displays the number of mapped SKUs. The number of Attribute Mapping are displayed at the center of the plumbing line.
Channel Actions
Build Channel
This option will assist you in Building the channel by clicking on Build Channel. Once the channel is built, the build SKUs will be visible in target node. If the user tries to build the project which is in open state, an error message 'Cannot build a project unless it is in the APPROVED state' is displayed.
Force All SKUs to be Rebuilt
This option enables you to force all SKUs in the source catalog to be rebuilt in the next build of the project. This is useful because certain actions like constraint validation only happens for the SKUs processed in the build. So, a target catalog change for schema constraint rule will require all SKUs to be re-built.
To force build all SKUs:
Click Channel Actions and then click Force Build all SKUs.
Backup Channel Mapping
Once the channel is created and mapped, you will also be able to take the backup of all the mappings of the channel. This backup can be used to restore maps within the same channel or a different channel in the future.
With this feature, the user will not have to create mapping rules from the scratch every time they create a new channel. Additionally, in case the mapping rules for the channel are lost, you can restore them from the backup, which in turn can save a lot of time.
Backing Up a Channel
In this section, we will look at how we can take the backup of a channel. The steps to backup a channel is as follows.
To backup a channel, you must Launch a channels listing page, click on Channel Actions dropdown and select Backup Channel Mapping.
You can even directly click on Backup Channel Mapping from the Channels page by clicking on icon.
Now, you must enter a name for the Backup.
NOTE | If you create a backup with the same name as another backup for the same channel, this backup will overwrite the old backup.
Once you enter the Backup Name, click on Create Backup.
Once your backup is completed, you will receive an email on the email address you used to log in.
The email will give you the name of the backup, the channel name as well as the date and time at which the backup was initiated.
Restore Channel Mapping
In this section, we will look at the steps involved in Restoring the Maps to the Channels.
To restore a map, you must Launch a channel listing page, click on Channel Actions dropdown and select Restore Channel Mapping.
Now, you will be asked to choose the Backup from the list of backups. You can either select the backup by scrolling down the list of backups or you can search them by using filters in the Backup Name, Channel Name, Backed Up On (date) and backed Up By (user) fields. Once you select the backup, click on Next.
Once you click on Next, the following screen will appear. It will show the Selected Backup Name and Selected Channel, but we will not be able to edit these two fields here. You can click on Back if you want to go back and change the backup. You can either select All Node(s) or Selected Node(s) in Restore Maps To field.
You can click Restore Map if All Node(s) is selected. However, if you choose Selected Node(s), you will get an option to Restore Map of nodes either from Source catalog or Target Catalog. Select the intended Catalog and select nodes from the right panel.
Once you click on the Restore Map button, you will be prompted with a confirmation message “The Restoration process will wipe out the existing maps with the backed up data. Do you want to proceed?”. Click Proceed to confirm.
NOTE | You must keep in mind that the project will be in locked state with a lock icon next to it during the restoration process. While you can have multiple back-ups running simultaneously, you cannot have multiple restorations triggered at the same time on the same project.
Persist Item ID in Target
By default, Persist ItemId will be toggled to No. Turn on the Persist ItemId in Target toggle to Yes to ensure that the distributors do not get a system generated GUID but the Supplier SKU ItemId will be generated for distributor SKUs even after the channel has been built. A tooltip is provided if you hover over the icon as shown below.
Channel Status:
By default, when the channel is created, the status of the channel is OPEN as shown below. The mapping rules can be applied only when the status of the channel is Open. After confirming that all mapping has been done, you need to change the status to “Approved”.
You can click on Channel Status and change it to Approved or Auto Build.
Approved status is for manual build, and Auto build status is for automatic builds. Once all the mapping is done, click Build Channel from Channel Action dropdown to build the channel on Node Mapping page.
