Datafeeds: Introduction

Datafeeds are a great way to enhance the value of your website. Datafeeds are a compiled list of the merchant's products that allow you to display their product information directly on your site and typically includes the product name, price, description, thumbnail image (and often a larger image), and if you're lucky, categories. There are no standards for datafeeds so, depending on merchant or network, there may be more or less fields for each product.

The feeds are usually offered in a .csv or .txt file and delimited in a number of ways, most often with a pipe (|), comma or tab. This allows you to open the file in Excel or alternative spreadsheet program and view and/or modify the product information.

Which brings up a good point. A datafeed by itself is good, but then thousands of other people already know that because they all have the same datafeed displayed on their website. You're a red car in a parking lot of red cars. But if you do something to make yourself stand out then you'll have a better chance of being successful. Consider the datafeed only your starting point.

Back to the delimiters, here's a sample of a Shareasale datafeed, which is pipe delimited.

// column names
ProductID|Name|MerchantID|Merchant|Link|Thumbnail|BigImage|Price|RetailPrice|Category|SubCategory|Description|Custom1|Custom2|Custom3|Custom4|Custom5|LastUpdated|status

453742604|Celebration Funshine Bear Care Bear Bean Bag Plush|8334|Playful Plush Toys|http://www.shareasale.com/m-pr.cfm?merchantID=8334&userID=YOURUSERID&productID=453742604|http://www.playfulplushtoys.com/miva/graphics/00000001/celfunshinetn.jpg|http://www.playfulplushtoys.com/miva/graphics/00000001/celfunshine.jpg|9.99||Toys/Games|Misc.|This is an 8" Funshine Bear Care Bear Beanie from the Celebration Collection. These are new plush styles of Care Bears for 2005 so collect them all!|Plush Toys|Care Bears||||2006-06-15 15:32:01.300|instock
453742606|Cheer Bear Care Bear Celebration Collection|8334|Playful Plush Toys|http://www.shareasale.com/m-pr.cfm?merchantID=8334&userID=YOURUSERID&productID=453742606|http://www.playfulplushtoys.com/miva/graphics/00000001/bearwearcheertn.jpg|http://www.playfulplushtoys.com/miva/graphics/00000001/bearwearcheer.jpg|9.99||Toys/Games|Misc.|This is the Cheer Bear 10" Care Bear Bear Wear style from the new Celebration Collection.  Cheer Bear is dressed in her hula outfit with a grass skirt, a lei and matching flower in her hair.|Plush Toys|Care Bears||||2006-05-25 20:15:01.630|instock
453742613|Plush Mini Chestnut Horse by Douglas Cuddle Toys|8334|Playful Plush Toys|http://www.shareasale.com/m-pr.cfm?merchantID=8334&userID=YOURUSERID&productID=453742613|http://www.playfulplushtoys.com/miva/graphics/00000001/1502acorntn.jpg|http://www.playfulplushtoys.com/miva/graphics/00000001/1502acorn.jpg|6.99||Toys/Games|Misc.|This is a plush mini Chestnut horse by Douglas Cuddle Toys. This plush Chestnut horse named Acorn is 6 inches long made with kohair to make the exceptional Douglas softness.|Plush Toys|Douglas Cuddle Toys||||2006-05-25 20:15:01.630|instock
453742614|Alex the Lion Madagascar Movie Plush Bean Bag Toy|8334|Playful Plush Toys|http://www.shareasale.com/m-pr.cfm?merchantID=8334&userID=YOURUSERID&productID=453742614|http://www.playfulplushtoys.com/miva/graphics/00000001/alextn.jpg|http://www.playfulplushtoys.com/miva/graphics/00000001/alex.jpg|9.99||Toys/Games|Misc.|This is an Alex the Lion plush bean bag toy from the Madagascar movie by Dreamworks.  This lion measures 7 inches and is made by Russ Berrie.  **Images may vary slightly from actual product**|Plush Toys|Madagascar Toys||||2006-03-07 17:57:17.903|instock
453742615|Alex the Lion Madagascar Movie Large Plush Toy|8334|Playful Plush Toys|http://www.shareasale.com/m-pr.cfm?merchantID=8334&userID=YOURUSERID&productID=453742615|http://www.playfulplushtoys.com/miva/graphics/00000001/alextn.jpg|http://www.playfulplushtoys.com/miva/graphics/00000001/alex.jpg|19.99||Toys/Games|Misc.|This is an Alex the Lion plush toy from the Madagascar movie by Dreamworks.  This lion measures 14 inches and is made by Russ Berrie.|Plush Toys|Madagascar Toys||||2006-03-07 17:57:17.903|instock

Now, you're wondering what in the world to do with that. Each row is a product, with the related info separated by a pipe. To make it a little more readable I'll put it into a spreadsheet view.




ProductID
Name
MerchantID
Merchant
Link
Thumbnail
BigImage
Price
RetailPrice
Category
SubCategory
Description
Custom1
Custom2
Custom3
Custom4
Custom5
LastUpdated
status


453742604
Celebration Funshine Bear Care Bear Bean Bag Plush
8334
Playful Plush Toys
http://www.shareasale.com/m-pr.cfm?merchantID=8334&userID=YOURUSERID&productID=453742604
http://www.playfulplushtoys.com/miva/graphics/00000001/celfunshinetn.jpg
http://www.playfulplushtoys.com/miva/graphics/00000001/celfunshine.jpg
9.99
 
Toys/Games
Misc.
This is an 8" Funshine Bear Care Bear Beanie from the Celebration Collection. These are new plush styles of Care Bears for 2005 so collect them all!
Plush Toys
Care Bears
 
 
 
2006-06-15 15:32:01.300
instock


453742606
Cheer Bear Care Bear Celebration Collection
8334
Playful Plush Toys
http://www.shareasale.com/m-pr.cfm?merchantID=8334&userID=YOURUSERID&productID=453742606
http://www.playfulplushtoys.com/miva/graphics/00000001/bearwearcheertn.jpg
http://www.playfulplushtoys.com/miva/graphics/00000001/bearwearcheer.jpg
9.99
 
Toys/Games
Misc.
This is the Cheer Bear 10" Care Bear Bear Wear style from the new Celebration Collection.  Cheer Bear is dressed in her hula outfit with a grass skirt, a lei and matching flower in her hair.
Plush Toys
Care Bears
 
 
 
2006-05-25 20:15:01.630
instock



453742613
Plush Mini Chestnut Horse by Douglas Cuddle Toys
8334
Playful Plush Toys
http://www.shareasale.com/m-pr.cfm?merchantID=8334&userID=YOURUSERID&productID=453742613
http://www.playfulplushtoys.com/miva/graphics/00000001/1502acorntn.jpg
http://www.playfulplushtoys.com/miva/graphics/00000001/1502acorn.jpg
6.99
 
Toys/Games
Misc.
This is a plush mini Chestnut horse by Douglas Cuddle Toys. This plush Chestnut horse named Acorn is 6 inches long made with kohair to make the exceptional Douglas softness.
Plush Toys
Douglas Cuddle Toys
 
 
 
2006-05-25 20:15:01.630
instock


453742614
Alex the Lion Madagascar Movie Plush Bean Bag Toy
8334
Playful Plush Toys
http://www.shareasale.com/m-pr.cfm?merchantID=8334&userID=YOURUSERID&productID=453742614
http://www.playfulplushtoys.com/miva/graphics/00000001/alextn.jpg
http://www.playfulplushtoys.com/miva/graphics/00000001/alex.jpg
9.99
 
Toys/Games
Misc.
This is an Alex the Lion plush bean bag toy from the Madagascar movie by Dreamworks.  This lion measures 7 inches and is made by Russ Berrie.  **Images may vary slightly from actual product**
Plush Toys
Madagascar Toys
 
 
 
2006-03-07 17:57:17.903
instock


453742615
Alex the Lion Madagascar Movie Large Plush Toy
8334
Playful Plush Toys
http://www.shareasale.com/m-pr.cfm?merchantID=8334&userID=YOURUSERID&productID=453742615
http://www.playfulplushtoys.com/miva/graphics/00000001/alextn.jpg
http://www.playfulplushtoys.com/miva/graphics/00000001/alex.jpg
19.99
 
Toys/Games
Misc.
This is an Alex the Lion plush toy from the Madagascar movie by Dreamworks.  This lion measures 14 inches and is made by Russ Berrie.
Plush Toys
Madagascar Toys
 
 
 
2006-03-07 17:57:17.903
instock

These delimiters alow you to split and manipulate a merchant's product information, and each column (ProductID, Name, Merchant, etc) can be assigned as a variable in PHP, ASP or other scripting language and displayed on your website. The most common method of using datafeeds is storing them in a database and retrieving the information through any scripting language that can access a database -- the most common combo is PHP (processing) and MySQL (database).

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