Icecat Release Notes July 03, 2020: Brand Rank page roll-out, Partner code in Vendor Central, and PHP 7.4 upgrade

Brand Rank page roll out

In the previous version we introduced a sneak preview of the Brand Rank page. Now, we did a soft introduction throughout the Icecat website, and added some functionalities to the brand rank page.

The graph can now be changed to a graph by:
– Icecat Rank
– datasheet downloads
– unique user platforms

Rank pages have been made accessible via each product page, by adding a stats icon behind each brand name.

Expanded Catalog icons on Main Page

To reflect all the verticals we’re active in, the main page now shows an expanded set of Catalog icons:

Front Office: PHP upgrade to 7.4 and removal Smarty

After a long process of migration, we are finally there to upgrade our PHP version from 5.6 to 7.4. It will give performance improvements and it is now easier to support code and features. Our product pages are noticeably faster now.

In the scope of maintenance, we also replaced the outdated Smarty framework from the product page with our own PHP code. This simplifies code support a bit as well.

Syndication improvements

Set the correct separator for EN_MY

In the EN_MY languages had a separator – comma and after a request from the Client changed it on a dot to this language as a separator

LIVE authorization for accessing videos and Product Stories

If a brand is a sponsor in our system then in principle all products are open for all users, though some of the digital assets inside a product data-sheet can still be private and visible only to authorized resellers. Now, the issue is resolved that already authorized resellers got still a request for re-authorization in icecat.biz and Icecat LIVE for such Video and Product Story assets.

Coverage report: now works with XML feeds

Fixed issue and now our coverage report can work not only with XLS but with XML input files as well.

Partner code in PIM

In previous release notes, we mentioned that we added a Brand Partner Code to identify brand authorized resellers. Changes:

Sever account manager types are now allowed to add Brand Partner Code to an Brand/Reseller Authorization relation.
The Partner Code attribute field length is expanded from 35 to 200 symbols.
We added error messages to the back-office interface

Philips: cleansing old specs

Philips auto-import is one of the oldest auto-import in the system. As a consequence, we have in the system a lot of old spec mappings. After a decision by the taxonomy team, we removed all obsolete mappings, and kept only the active ones.