In releases 207-208, we introduced a range of important updates aimed at improving both user experience and platform efficiency. Key developments include the replacement of the old Completeness Score with the new Data Health Score, enhancements to brand partner communication, and the launch of the Catalog Object Cloud Service. Additionally, we optimized storage solutions, cleaned up outdated search functionality, and refined crawler behavior, ensuring a more streamlined and efficient system. For additional details, please refer to the previous Icecat Release Notes.
In this sprint, significant improvements were made to enhance the accuracy and flexibility of product data quality measurement. The primary change was the replacement of the old Completeness Score with a new and more flexible Data Health Score. The recent update impacts several key areas of our platform and offers users improved functionality.
The Data Health Score now fully replaces the old Completeness Score across the platform. This metric provides a more comprehensive view of the product data’s quality score. Consequently, helping users and brands better understand the areas that need improvement.
All internal processes related to product data are now aligned with the new Data Health Score functionality. This ensures consistency across the platform and eliminates any discrepancies. Users can now trust that every action, report, or data update reflects the new Data Health framework.
We’ve introduced additional customization options on the Data Health Score Settings page. One of the most important new features is the ability to add a mandatory locale to the score settings.
Previously, the data health assessment would apply to all locales related to a product. Potentially causing confusion when different locales had different data needs. Now, users have the flexibility to add a mandatory locale, meaning the Data Health Score will only assess the data quality for that specific locale. This is particularly useful for channel partners operating in one region, ensuring data-sheet editors can focus on the most critical locale-specific data quality.
This sprint’s updates lay a strong foundation for enhanced product data management, making it easier for users to track and improve data quality, particularly when dealing with multi-locale products.
In this sprint, we initiated the development of a new service – Catalog Object Cloud, which will present product data in a different way. Initially, this service will contain limited information about products, but its final goal is to present a future Digital Product Passport Catalog. This marks an exciting step toward creating true permanent product pages, which will ensure product information remains accessible indefinitely.
One of the most important aspects of the Catalog Object Cloud Service is the introduction of permanent product pages. Unlike traditional product pages, which may be removed or archived over time. These new pages will serve as true permanent links. No matter how the product evolves, whether it is discontinued or updated, its unique product page will always exist within the cloud service.
This offers several key advantages:
Each product in the catalog will now be assigned a UUID (Universally Unique Identifier). Which serves as its unique identifier within the Catalog Object Cloud Service. In the future, the UUID will serve as the backbone for the Digital Product Passport Catalog. Consequently, allowing the product’s history, sustainability, and regulatory data to be tracked in a transparent and accessible way.
The Catalog Object Cloud Service represents a major step forward in product data management. Offering permanent, reliable product pages and setting the stage for the future of Digital Product Passports. By adding a UUID to each product and ensuring true permanence in product links, we are building a service that will support long-term, sustainable, and transparent product data practices. We look forward to its upcoming release and the future possibilities it holds for the industry.
In this sprint, we introduced several key enhancements to the new Product History interface. Aimed at improving usability and providing a more efficient way to interact with product data. These updates focus on making the product history easier to navigate and ensuring users can quickly access the information they need.
The first major improvement involves the filtering system for the “Product part” filter and the history table view. Previously, bullet points and descriptions were grouped together, making it harder to filter through specific elements.
Now, we’ve split these into separate values:
This separation enables more precise filtering, allowing users to focus on specific areas of product changes.
Another enhancement is the addition of a “Reset Filters” button. This feature offers a simple yet powerful way to restore the entire product history view after applying multiple filters.
With one click, users can now:
This functionality is especially useful for users who need to perform multiple queries or adjustments on the product history and then quickly return to the full dataset without hassle.
These enhancements reflect our ongoing commitment to optimizing the user experience, ensuring that the product history interface remains a powerful and flexible tool for tracking product changes.
In this sprint, we introduced a powerful new capability to the Export Tool, designed to provide users with greater control over the data they can export. The new functionality allows users to export hidden features. Those marked as “hidden” in our taxonomy and typically concealed in a separate section on the product page of the Icecat Brand Cloud platform. This enhancement gives users more flexibility in managing product information, especially for internal analysis or specific use cases.
The new function makes it easier to access and manage data that is usually hidden from the standard view. Here’s how it works:
The new “Export hidden features” function is a significant step forward in enhancing the usability and flexibility of the Export Tool. By making hidden features accessible, users now have the power to generate more complete reports, enabling better analysis, decision-making, and internal processes.
In this sprint, we made a key improvement to the Icecat Brand Cloud Tokens System. Aimed at enhancing the efficiency of the token management process. The update focuses on removing an outdated editor used for managing token styles, which had been causing issues for token managers. This change not only simplifies the workflow but also ensures a smoother process for handling translations.
Previously, the token system utilized an editor for managing token text styles, which had become outdated and not needed for token managers. This editor often introduced issues when adding translations, particularly related to how styles were handled in the token translations.
To address this, we decided to remove the editor altogether. Now, the tokens system only includes a simple input field for adding translations, without the complexities of managing styles within the editor. The front end will automatically apply the necessary styles, ensuring that translations are displayed correctly without requiring manual adjustments by the token manager.
This approach has two major benefits:
This small but significant improvement to the Icecat Brand Cloud Tokens System marks an important step toward simplifying translation management. By removing the outdated editor and delegating style management to the front end, we’ve improved both the speed and reliability of the token management process. This update allows token managers to focus on managing translations. Without the distraction of style issues, ultimately improving the overall efficiency of the system.
In this sprint, we implemented improvements in how we communicate with our brand partners when their status changes within the Icecat Brand Cloud platform. These enhancements ensure that brand partners are promptly informed about their authorization status. Giving them a clearer understanding of their access rights and available tools in the platform.
When a brand partner is authorized by the vendor manager in the Icecat Brand Cloud, they now receive an automatic email notification. This email provides clear instructions on the new possibilities available to them within the platform. The goal is to help brand partners quickly understand how to take full advantage of the platform’s features. Consequently, this ensures a smoother onboarding process.
On the other hand, when a brand partner is unauthorized, the system now sends an immediate notification email. Alerting them to the change in their status. This transparent communication helps avoid confusion by clearly informing the partner that they no longer have access to specific brand features.
These updates to our communication flow improve transparency with our brand partners. By keeping partners informed of their status changes, we help them stay on top of their permissions within the platform. Whether they are being granted new access or having it revoked.
This sprint also saw several key technical updates aimed at improving performance, efficiency, and the handling of data within the Icecat platform.
In this sprint, we moved the “Distributors_mapping” folder and its files, which are located at data.icecat.biz/export, from Mounted storage to S3 storage.
The aims of migration:
This migration will help improve the overall performance and management of large datasets on the platform.
We also made a significant cleanup in the platform by removing the old Search functionality from the Icecat Brand Cloud, along with the entire codebase connected to it.
The aims of the removal:
This cleanup was a crucial step in ensuring that our platform remains agile and modern, paving the way for future improvements.
Lastly, we optimized the redirect behavior from icecat.biz product pages to the search page in cases where the product page cannot be accessed by the user.
The aims of this change:
These updates and release notes reflect our continuous effort to optimize the Icecat platform, making it more user-friendly and efficient. Furthermore, by focusing on enhancing data quality, improving communication, and refining our backend processes, we aim to provide a more seamless experience for our partners and users worldwide.
Read further: Icecat, brand cloud, development updates, icecat release notes
