Partner Galleries in Every Channel and Full Icecat via MCP: Icecat Release Notes 260

Release 260 completes the move to partner-specific product galleries. After Product XML in Release 259, JSON, Live HTML, icecat.biz, CSV and the Personal Catalog File now deliver the gallery that applies to each account and locale. Icecat MCP now serves Full Icecat products to entitled Channel Partners, gives a clear reason for every refusal, and connects faster and more reliably. Category managers get a new page in Icecat Brand Cloud to manage relation types for related products, and two more EU documents can now be found through search. Alongside this, we’ve made a round of behind-the-scenes improvements.

For additional details, please refer to the previous Icecat Release Notes.

Product Gallery

This release includes two Product Gallery updates. First, the market-specific galleries introduced in Product XML in Release 259 now reach every other delivery channel: JSON, Live HTML, product pages on icecat.biz, CSV and the Personal Catalog File. Second, adding images by URL in Icecat Brand Cloud is now more reliable, and editors can see exactly why an image cannot be added. 

Market-Specific Product Galleries in Every Channel

In Release 259, Product XML started delivering the gallery that applies to each account and locale. JSON, Live HTML, icecat.biz, and CSV now follow the same model, so a partner receives the same images, in the same order, with the same main image, regardless of the channel used.

How the gallery is selected

The rules are the same as in Product XML. Icecat goes through the account’s taxonomy priority list in order and uses the first gallery that has at least one valid image for the locale. The Icecat gallery is one of the entries on that list. The selected gallery is delivered complete, and images from different galleries are never combined.

Images follow the order set for the locale when that order covers every image in the gallery. Otherwise, the global order is used. A single gallery never mixes the two.

JSON

• Gallery remains a flat list of images.
• When a Channel Partner gallery is selected, each image in it carries TaxonomyName. This follows the same pattern as Multimedia, the other block delivered as a list.
• When the Icecat gallery is selected, TaxonomyName is not delivered.
• No runs 1, 2, 3 and so on, without gaps or duplicates.
• The first image is the main image and is the only one marked IsMain=”Y”. The Image block describes the same image.

Live HTML

Live HTML shows the same gallery the account receives in JSON, with the first image as the main image. Videos and 3D tours stay in the same slider, in front of the images.

icecat.biz

For a user logged in with a Channel Partner account, the product page shows the same gallery that account receives in JSON. Visitors who are not logged in, and brand users, see the Icecat gallery, as before. The rules that decide whether a gallery shows at all haven’t changed, and neither has how the page displays it.

CSV and Personal Catalog File

• The gallery is still delivered in ProductGallery, ProductGallery Resolution and ProductGallery ExpirationDate.
• The order of the images follows their position in these lists, which still line up entry by entry.
• HighPic, HighPic Resolution, LowPic, Pic500x500 and ThumbPic are filled from the first image of the selected gallery.
• No column is added. As with descriptions in these files, nothing in the file names the gallery’s source.

Compatibility

No key or column has been renamed, removed or changed in type. Integrations that work today keep working without changes.

The gallery content can change for existing integrations in these cases:

• the account’s taxonomy priority list places a Channel Partner gallery above the Icecat gallery
• No values are renumbered from 1 without gaps
• the main image is the first image of the gallery, so an international image no longer takes priority just for being international
• for accounts entitled to private content, a private image can be the main image

With this release, every channel delivers galleries using the same logic.

More Reliable Image Downloads by URL

Icecat Brand Cloud now downloads images added by URL more reliably. Links from supplier download portals that open in a browser are now accepted directly, so editors do not need to download the file first or edit the address. The image is then added the same way as an uploaded file: same locale, same position, same checks.

When an image cannot be downloaded, the message now states the reason:

• the supplier refused access, with the supplier’s response named
• there is no file at that address
• the supplier did not respond in time
• the address could not be reached, with an address that does not exist shown separately from a server that did not answer

Nothing else about adding images by URL has changed: the accepted formats, the size limits and who can add images stay the same.

Icecat MCP: Full Icecat Content and More Stable Connections

This release includes two updates to the Icecat MCP server. Channel Partners with a Full Icecat subscription can now retrieve Full Icecat products through MCP, and every refusal explains its actual reason. Connections to the server are also more stable and are established faster.

Full Icecat Products via Icecat MCP

Icecat MCP now returns Full Icecat products to Channel Partners whose Icecat subscription includes Full Icecat. This is the same content and the same access these partners already have through the Icecat XML and JSON interfaces.

• Access follows the subscription. The account is identified by the API token in the MCP configuration, and the account’s own subscription decides what it can see. When a brand moves between the Full and Open Icecat catalogues, or an account’s subscription changes, MCP follows automatically.
• Same tools, same output. All 19 tools keep their names, inputs and output fields. A Full Icecat product is returned in exactly the same shape as an Open Icecat product.
• Access is unchanged. Icecat MCP remains available only to Channel Partner accounts. Brand authorizations, product vertical limits and release dates continue to restrict access exactly as before.

Clear Reasons for Every Refusal

When Icecat MCP cannot return a product, the AI assistant now receives a message that names the reason and the next step:

• Subscription. The product belongs to the Full Icecat catalogue, and the account’s subscription does not include it.
• Brand restriction. The brand limits the product to authorized or selected resellers, or the product is not yet published for the account.
• Product verticals. The product falls outside the verticals the account covers.
• Release date. The data sheet becomes available on the brand’s official release date.
• Product not found. No product matches the brand and product code, or the GTIN.
• No data sheet yet. The product exists in Icecat, but its data sheet has not been created yet.
• Input errors. The product identifiers, the GTIN or the language code are invalid. A brand name or product code longer than 60 characters is rejected before the request is sent.
• Account and token. The account is not a Channel Partner account, or the API token is not valid.
• Temporary unavailability. The service is briefly unavailable, and the message suggests trying again or checking status.icecat.biz.

Where relevant, each message points to the next step: the profile page on icecat.biz or the Icecat Account Manager.

More Stable and Faster Connections

The connection between an AI assistant and Icecat MCP now stays stable for the whole session. Setting up a connection is also faster: the server immediately answers the checks a client runs before connecting, so the connection is ready almost at once. This applies regardless of which AI assistant or MCP client you use, and users don’t need to change anything in their setup.

The Icecat MCP entry in the MCP registry now lists the connection type the server supports, so clients that use the registry connect correctly from the start.

Product Relations: Relation Type Management in Icecat Brand Cloud

Product XML and JSON mark each related product with a relation type, such as Accessory, Service, Consumable, Alternative or Compatible, so partners can show related items in the right place on a product page. These types come from rules defined per pair of categories. Icecat Brand Cloud now has a dedicated page where category managers can review and maintain these rules.

The Relation Types Page

The page is available under Definitions → Relation types.

• One rule per category pair. Each rule covers both directions of a pair of categories. Icecat creates a rule automatically as soon as products from two categories are linked for the first time.
• Coverage at a glance. Three counters at the top show the total number of rules, how many already have a type, and how many still need one.
• Filters and sorting. Rules can be filtered by one or both categories and by relation type. You can sort by category, type, or the number of linked products (default: largest first). Each row shows how many product relations the rule affects.

Setting a Relation Type

A type is set from the main product’s perspective. For example: when viewing a laptop, the customer sees a bag as an Accessory. The reverse direction is filled in automatically:

• Accessory, Service and Consumable are one-directional. The reverse direction receives Compatible.
• Alternative and Invalid apply in both directions.

For one-directional types, the user can swap which category is the main one. Two kinds of pairs get their type automatically, and it cannot be changed:

• a pair that includes “Not Categorized” is always Invalid
• a pair of identical categories is always Alternative

How Relation Types Reach Product XML and JSON

• Assigned types. The type assigned to a category pair is delivered with every related product between those categories: as RelationType in Product XML and as RelationTypeCode in JSON.
• Invalid. Relations of type Invalid are excluded from related products in both formats. This is the way to remove irrelevant category pairs from the output.
• Unset. A pair without a type is still delivered. Product XML gives no RelationType, and JSON gives an empty RelationTypeCode.

A rule can be deleted only when no products are linked between its two categories. As long as products are linked, set the type to Invalid to exclude the pair.

Access

The page is available to category managers. The relation types in Product XML and JSON remain the same; only how the rules are maintained has changed.

EU GARAN Label (nested) and EU Data Act in the Assets Filter

Release 259 added two predefined short descriptions for other digital assets: “EU GARAN Label (nested)” and “EU Data Act”. Both are now also values of the Assets filter on the search page in Icecat Brand Cloud. Users can see which products already carry these documents and which still need them.

The two values appear under “Other digital assets”, directly after “EU GARAN Label”. They work like the other values in the group:

• They can be found by typing part of their name.
• They can be combined with each other and with other filter values.
• They can be narrowed to one or more locales, including International.

The two labels are filtered separately. A product that carries only the EU GARAN Label is not returned by “EU GARAN Label (nested)”.

The filter also finds documents uploaded before this release, so no one needs to re-open or re-save existing objects. Access rights are unchanged: everyone who can use the Assets filter can use the new values.

Other Developments in Release 260: Behind-the-Scenes Improvements

Release 260 also includes mostly invisible, behind-the-scenes work. It keeps the new Product Gallery in order, makes search on icecat.biz faster and easier to monitor, strengthens security, improves development tooling, and resolves an issue in search.

Product Gallery Maintenance

• Images checked across the gallery. All Product Gallery images have been checked. Images that could not be displayed correctly have been replaced or removed.
• Catalog-wide image refresh. You can now refresh image access for the whole catalog in a single run, keeping every product’s images in order after large data updates.
• Removed products are removed everywhere. All Icecat services are now informed when a product leaves the catalog, including when duplicate products are merged or undescribed products are cleaned up. Every service stays in step with the catalog, and we no longer keep content for products that no longer exist.

icecat.biz

• Search quality is measured automatically. Search relevance on icecat.biz is now checked on a schedule against a set of reference queries. We store each result, so you can trace changes in how well a product is found back to the day they started.
• Faster page interaction. The Icecat chat widget now loads after the page, so pages become interactive sooner, and chat speed no longer affects how the site works.
• Up-to-date server platform. The servers behind icecat.biz now run a new Debian version.

Development and Delivery Tooling

• Safer service updates. Updating the shared template for Icecat services can no longer overwrite production settings, and a deployment with a missing setting is stopped before it reaches running services. Each service package now contains only its own code.
• Centralised request tracing. Request traces from all services are now collected in one place, with routine technical traffic filtered out, so you can investigate slow requests faster.
• Test environments ready to use. After each deployment to a test environment, an automatic check reports whether every component started correctly, so testing begins only on a working environment.
• AI-assisted development. Shared rules for developing with an AI coding agent are now in place, so AI-supported code follows the same standards and review process as all other code.
• New audit service. We’ve set up deployment for a new audit service.
• Product Story 2.0 from Icecat Studio. Product Story 2.0 content built with Icecat Studio is now accepted at import, while all other HTML checks stay as strict as before.

Resolved Issues

• An issue that could cause search results on icecat.biz, sorted by date from new to old, to show only one product on the first page has been resolved.

Summary

Release 260 brings the same product gallery to every channel, so partners receive the image set, order and main image intended for their market wherever they take Icecat content. Channel Partners with Full Icecat now get their full catalog through AI assistants, with stable connections and clear messages when access is limited. Together with self-service relation type management, search filters for new EU documents, and steady work on platform reliability and security, these changes help partners rely on Icecat content in every channel they use. Want to know how market-specific galleries or Full Icecat via MCP affect an integration? Contact the Icecat team for more information.