Icecat Release Notes April 23, 2020: Improved Verticals Selection, Logging and Authorization Management

In the latest Icecat update a number of issues have been resolved regarding the management of Verticals, logging of editorial changes, reseller authorization management, reporting and Testseek purging.

Exclude brand name from Short and Long Summary Descriptions

We have expanded the functionality of excluding brand names from the product title. With a new function editors can automatically set to exclude a brand name, not only from the product title, but also from Short and Long Summary Descriptions. These summary descriptions are auto-generated texts summarizing the key elements and specs of a product and can be used to populate a shop’s search engine.

User interface adds root categories as Verticals

Thanks to a new function on category level, Icecat taxonomy managers can now indicate which root categories are so-called Verticals. Verticals are main categories that define the catalog for a business sector. Think of Consumer Electronics, Fashion, Automotive, Toys & Entertainment, etc.

Multi-selector of verticals on Registration and My Profile pages

On the Icecat registration page, new users can tick the Verticals that are relevant to their business, during the registration process. Open Icecat users can also change their selected Verticals any time in the “My Profile” page.

“Backup” CAPTCHA for Chinese users

Since China does not support the Google reCAPTCHA, as Google is banned, we have developed an alternative Captcha solution for users connecting from China: the first step is done and the solution is added on the “Contact us” page. The next step is rolling it out to the registration page, product page and password recovery page.

Full Icecat product images are not visible for non-authorized users on Search and Main pages

In the scope of the Brand Authorization Request Management project, Full Icecat product images are now hidden for non-authorized Icecat users on the Search and Main pages of icecat.*.

Purging reviews in the Icecat database from links to third party websites

We deleted techuniverse.it and tecnologia21.com links from Testseek reviews in the Icecat database. As a result, the following links are not visible in the review on the Icecat websites.

In the statistical report column title “Market position” is changed into “Business type”

In the Icecat Product Data-Sheet Download reports for brand owners, the column title “Market position” is changed into “Business type”.

Dummy Release Dates and End Of Life Dates for HP

Regarding the HP data import, we have improved logic for supporting Release Date and the End Of Life Date.
The new logic, requested by HP management and implemented is as follows: for the locales for which we do not get a Release Date or End Of Life date from HP we set dummy dates: 01-01-9999 and 12-31-9999 respectively. This means that the respective product will not be available for the respective locale. Only authorized resellers will be able to get the data for these product in those locales.

Accurate history log in case of updating GTIN data

If the Icecat PIM user deletes or updates a GTIN of a product, the system will log these changes in the history for the user who really made the change and not for the owner of the product as it was in the past.

Update the logic in the Editor Journal regarding the ownership of the product

From now on the last product owner of a product is saved only as product owner in the Editorial Journal. Previous owners are not seen as relevant any more.

Bugs/Support requests

• Removed an unnecessary reload during surfing between unique application pages of icecat.biz.