Combining BeFree and Commission Junction
Datafeeds
Combining BeFree and Commission
Junction Datafeeds into one feed to be processed by WebMerge if is not easy, but
it is feasible. Here is how I do it.
I use the BeFree field names as my
standard for integration of databases. The table below shows a field by field
comparison of the first 17 field names of BeFree and CJ datafeeds. There are
actually more fields included (often with blank fields).
|
BeFree
|
Commission Junction
|
|
Manufacturer Name
|
MANUFACTURER |
|
Brand Name
|
ftcdatafeed-20records.txt
|
|
Product Name
|
NAME |
|
Short Description
|
DESCRIPTION |
|
Long Description BLANK
|
??
|
|
Product ID
|
(usually same as SKU)
|
|
Product Image URL
|
IMAGEURL |
|
Product URL
|
BUYURL |
|
Tracking Tag
|
IMPRESSIONURL |
|
Primary Category
|
ADVERTISERCATEGORY |
|
Secondary Categories
|
THIRDPARTYCATEGORY ?? |
|
Manufacturer Part Number
|
MANUFACTURERID |
|
SKU Number
|
SKU |
|
UPC
|
UPC |
|
Sale Price
|
SALEPRICE |
|
Retail Price
|
RETAILPRICE |
There is only field show above for
which the data formats are not compatible. This is the the Tracking Tag and
IMPRESSIONURL fields. The Befree feed uses this format for the
Tracking Tag field:
<IMG
SRC="http://service.bfast.com/bfast/serve?bfmid=223938&siteid=39924201&bfpage=datafeed"
BORDER="0" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1" NOSAVE
>
The CJ feed uses this format:
http://www.qksrv.net/image-1419118-10280807
The important differences are the the
opening (<IMG SRC=
) and closing (>) tags
I highlight the IMPRESSIONURL in the CJ
feed, and then use the "find and replace" function in Excel to replace
http:// with <IMG SRC="http://
and replace 10280807 (which is my CJ ID) with
10280807">
This results in <IMG SRC="
http://www.qksrv.net/image-1419118-10280807">
Next, I use Excel to reorder the
columns in the CJ feed (adding, deleting and copying columns) so that they are
arranged to match the structure of the BeFree feed. I then cut and past the
records from the CJ feed and append them to the CJ feed. I also shade in the
records of each feed with a different color, so that when I sort them, I can
easily tell which products come from which feed.
The next step is to sort the combined
feed by Primary Category
and Secondary
Categories. There may be some inconsistencies that require further data
cleaning. For example, one feed
might include a category called "Women’s Apparel"
while the other field calls in "Apparel: Womens".
Once you merge and resort the data, these adjustments can be made (sometimes
easily, sometimes quite tediously).
You can then export the combined feed,
using your favorite delimiter, for to import into WebMerge.
Additional Notes:
You need to make sure that the Product
IDs or SKUs (which are generally used as the file name for the detail product
page) are not duplicated between feeds. If there is a chance of duplication,
then you could add a prefix code to the SKU in one feed, e.g., to make the SKU
12681 become X-12681
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