In the latest Icecat Release Notes 203-204, we have introduced a series of important updates designed to streamline product data management, enhance user experience, and improve platform security. From the implementation of a publish date restriction in product data management to the seamless integration of Icecat Generated PDFs into JSON and live HTML, these enhancements reflect our commitment to continuous improvement. This release includes significant upgrades to the Vendor Central search page reports, user experience enhancements in our reporting engine, and a crucial step toward Single Sign-On with our session REST API. For additional details, please refer to the previous Icecat Release Notes.
We are excited to announce the release of a new feature that allows our brand partners more control over when their product data sheets become available. The newly introduced “Publish Date” restriction is a significant enhancement in our platform, allowing brands to set specific dates for when their product information becomes public.
The “Publish Date” is an optional setting that can be applied to any product data sheet. When this date is set, channel partners will not have access to the product data until the specified publish date arrives. Once the publish date arrives, the system makes the product data available according to the existing public restrictions.
This added flexibility is particularly valuable for brands looking to coordinate product launches, ensuring that information is only accessible when intended.
In this sprint, we extended the Publish Date restriction across multiple file formats, including:
If a product data sheet has a future publish date, the system displays the following error messages when attempting to access it:
These messages provide clarity on why the product data is not accessible, helping users understand the restriction in place.
The publish date also influences the availability of products in index files.
Looking ahead, we plan to extend the Publish Date restriction to other areas of our platform, including:
These upcoming enhancements will further refine how product information is managed and accessed across our platform, providing even greater control and flexibility for brand partners.
In these sprints, we successfully integrated Icecat Generated PDFs into both JSON files and the Live HTML view. This enhancement ensures that the Icecat Generated PDF is now available alongside other product documentation for products that meet specific conditions.
The Icecat Generated PDF is automatically created for products that belong to an Open Icecat brand (a sponsor brand) and do not have a leaflet provided by the brand. This PDF serves as a fallback brochure to provide essential product information. Previously, the Icecat Generated PDF was available only in the XML files. However, we have now extended its availability to JSON files, which automatically display this multimedia object in the “Manuals” section of the Icecat Live HTML view.
In the product JSON file, the Icecat Generated PDF can be found in the “Multimedia” section. Here’s a typical representation:
{ "Multimedia": [ { "ID": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000", "URL": "https://icecat.biz/rest/product-pdf?productId=122274805&Lang=en", "Type": "leaflet", "ContentType": "application/pdf", "KeepAsUrl": "0", "Description": "Brochure {brand name} {product code}", "Size": "0", "IsPrivate": "0", "Updated": "YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss", "Language": "EN", "IsVideo": 0 } ] }
The Icecat Generated PDF can be identified by the following characteristics:
In the Icecat Live HTML view, the system displays the Icecat Generated PDF in the “Manuals” section. It lists the PDF with the name “Brochure {brand name} {product code}”, providing a consistent user experience across different platforms.
This update enhances the visibility of product information for end-users, especially when the official leaflet from the brand is not available. It also ensures that the JSON file remains aligned with the existing XML structure, enabling seamless integration into various systems that rely on this data.
In this sprint, we focused on enhancing the experience for our Vendor Central users who utilize the “Report by email” functionality on the Search page. Previously, when users requested reports via email, the system sent the results without any information about the filters applied during the search. This led to confusion, especially when users were handling multiple reports.
With the recent improvement, the reports now include a list of all filters that users applied during the search. This added transparency ensures that users can clearly understand the criteria used to generate the results in the attached file.
We achieved this enhancement by extending our Product Search API with a new field called “ReportComment”. The front-end part helps this field capture all the filters set by the user, ensuring that the report provides context along with the search results.
For users who frequently request multiple reports within a single day or week, this improvement is particularly valuable. The enhanced reports allow users to:
This update brings greater transparency and usability to the report-generation process, making it easier for users to manage and interpret the information they receive. By providing clear context with every report, we are enabling our users to make more informed decisions and streamline their workflows.
In these sprints, we focused on improving the user experience for those utilizing our Reporting Engine. These updates bring more clarity and accuracy to the data presentation, helping users conduct more accurate analyses and make better decisions.
Previously, when users selected the “Include last year” filter in the Reporting Engine, the system included the previous year’s data below the current year’s data in the report. This layout made it difficult for users to compare and analyze information across different years effectively.
With the latest improvement, the system now displays the previous year’s data on the right side of the current year’s data. This intuitive arrangement allows users to conduct year-over-year comparisons more easily, leading to more precise analysis and informed decision-making.
When users previously requested reports in Excel format, the system formatted all downloaded data together with additional calculations as text. This made it difficult for users to perform calculations or analyses without reformatting the data first.
Now, when users download reports in Excel format:
This enhancement simplifies the reporting process by allowing users to work with data directly without needing to perform preliminary formatting adjustments. However, we still recommend selecting the CSV format when dealing with very large numbers, as Excel might sometimes format them incorrectly. Choosing CSV ensures that we retain and present all valuable information accurately.
In the past, our statistics for visits to icecat.biz did not differentiate between human users and machine visits (such as bots, spiders, or crawlers). This lack of distinction created a wrong perception of the data and made it challenging to analyze real user behavior.
We have now introduced a separate user to capture all non-human visits. This separation allows us to analyze real human interactions more accurately, leading to better insights and decision-making.
These improvements to the Reporting Engine focus on enhancing data clarity, user efficiency, and analytical accuracy. Whether it’s displaying past year data in a more meaningful way, ensuring correct formatting in Excel reports, or filtering out bot traffic for cleaner statistics, these updates collectively deliver a more effective and user-friendly experience for our Reporting Engine users.
As part of our long-term roadmap, we aim to create a unified entry point for all our platforms. This strategic vision involves building a seamless Single Sign-On (SSO) system, enabling users to navigate across our various platforms using a single identity.
Today, we’ve taken a simple step in this direction by enhancing our Session REST API response with a new field: UserUUID.
We will use the UserUUID, a universal user identifier, across all our platforms to synchronize user data. The UserUUID is specifically intended for inter-platform communication. This means that while it does not grant direct access to any Icecat services, it will play a crucial role in ensuring that users can move smoothly between platforms as part of a future SSO system.
The UserUUID is just the first of many enhancements in our journey toward SSO. Over the coming periods, we’ll continue to build and expand on this foundation, eventually leading to a fully integrated, single-entry experience across all our platforms.
During sprints 203-204, our team completed several significant developments that enhanced both the user experience and the underlying infrastructure of our platform. Here is a summary of the key developments:
We have modernized the appearance of our site by updating the font to Montserrat. This change brings a fresh and contemporary look, improving readability and user experience across the board.
We have made a crucial upgrade to the CategoryFeaturesList.xml file. We introduced a new attribute, “IsHidden,” within the “Feature” tag. This attribute informs users whether a particular feature is archived or hidden from editors’ view due to its legacy status. This enhancement streamlines content management and improves the decision-making for the users of the CategoryFeaturesList.xml file.
In an effort to optimize our storage solutions, we moved the CSV folder, along with all its contents, from mounted storage to S3 storage. This migration improves our storage efficiency and scalability, ensuring that we can better manage the files important for our partners.
We successfully completed the upgrade of our platform to PHP 8.3. This upgrade not only enhances the security of our project but also provides us with more opportunities for future development, enabling us to take advantage of the latest features and improvements offered by PHP.
User security is always a top priority. We’ve enhanced our Vendor Central login page with an important security feature related to password management. We previously implemented reCaptcha only on the user interface, which left our API potentially vulnerable. During these sprints, we added a new field, “GRecaptcha”, to our ResetPassword API. This field validates user actions on the server side, allowing us to remove reCaptcha from the user interface while simultaneously boosting security for our Vendor Central users.
Our transition to a configless solution further bolstered security improvements. This move significantly enhances the protection of sensitive data, reducing the risk of configuration-related vulnerabilities.
Finally, we added Clickhouse and Video Encoder to our health monitor. This addition allows us to keep a closer eye on the performance and health of these crucial components, ensuring that our platform remains stable and responsive.
These developments mark a significant step forward in our ongoing efforts to enhance the functionality, security, and performance of the Icecat platform. As we continue to evolve, our focus remains on delivering the best possible experience for our users.
Read further: Icecat, News, e-commerce, Icecat, product content, release notes
