Imports

A push replaces; an import merges. An import brings a spreadsheet of products into your drafts in the Business Portal. Nothing is published until a person reviews the drafts and seals them (Publishing through the portal).

How it works

1. In the portal, choose the file and map its column headings to fields. The file is read in your browser.
2. The portal sends every row — valid and invalid, with the problems it found — each with the columns your file actually has.
3. MasterDB validates every row itself: every rule a record meets when published, and the scope rule, on the columns the row provides; a new product must also be complete.
4. Each row is matched to a draft by your own business_product_id:
   • a new product becomes a new draft;
   • an existing one is merged: only the columns your file provides change. A provided empty cell clears that field; a column your file does not have is left as it was.
5. You see the result — every row’s outcome and, for each draft, the diff since it was last published — and seal what you want to publish.

Row errors never fail the import: the good rows land, and the bad rows are listed with their reasons. Running the same file again answers updated for each row and never makes duplicates. A large file is sent in parts of up to 2,000 rows.

Images in an import

An image set by hand in the portal survives an import that omits the image columns. An image that comes from an import is marked as a feed image, and a later hand-set image replaces it.

Imports and pushes together

If your system pushes products (Path A) and people also import or edit them, the last thing sealed wins, whichever way it came: a push replaces the record, and the draft is refreshed from it so the portal shows what is live.