With Icecat, you can generate personalized or customized CSV or Excel files that only contain product data for products that are relevant for your company. It helps to simplify your implementation process. The personalized interface file and catalog file generated by Icecat in CSV or Excel format contain both the basic information and rich media assets of the Icecat product data-sheets matching your catalog. To obtain personalized files, you first need to upload your product feed via the User Login area.
The user of Open Icecat product data (in a free Open Icecat subscription or as part of the Full Icecat data) is required to respect the Open Icecat Fair Use Policy.
Explicitly relevant for website development is:
The CSV interface may be accessed by all Icecat Data (XML) users – free or paid. Open Icecat users can access the data of the sponsoring brands.Full Icecat users can access the data of all brands in the Icecat database.
However attractive the free Open Icecat database is, the Full-Icecat database still contains many, many more brands: 10,000s. If you are interested in subscribing to the Full Icecat database, please contact us via the website. If you want specific brands to be included in free Open Icecat, please, recommend Icecat to your manufacturer contacts. To sum up, what are the main advantages of Full Icecat over free Open Icecat?
Read more about the main advantages of Full Icecat over free Open Icecat. In case you need higher catalog coverage, you will need Full Icecat. For more information, see the Icecat Subscription Plans.
If you want to upgrade to Full Icecat, please contact us via the contact form, or click on the “request Full Icecat access” link after the User Login.
The following CSV conventions are followed in Icecat’s CSV output files:Column separator: , (comma)Line break: \nQuote symbol: “Escape symbol: “Optional quotation: N
Value separators:
To generate unique personalized CSV files, the Icecat system requires a product feed (a product catalog or price file) from a user. It could be a CSV, XML or Excel (XLS or XLSX) file, with at least the main product identifiers for matching purposes:
and/or
The quality of your product feed is one of the main factors that determine the quality of the Icecat match.
NOTE: uploading XML product feeds might require support from Icecat. CSV or Excel product feeds hardly ever require support.
You can read more here about relevant product feed file formats and structures for CSV and Excel.
Based on the product identifiers described above, the Icecat system is performing a match between your product feed and the Icecat database. After that, Icecat automatically adds product information to your matching data and generates customized files that can be downloaded from the user interface (after loging into the Icecat.biz website) in CSV or XLS and can be used for your e-business purposes. The download can be manual or fully automated.
Icecat generates the following types of personalized output files:
Using the PIF might simplify your implementation process by outsourcing the matching process to the Icecat platform. The PIF is a customized index file that contains basic information about matched product data-sheets, links to product XML files, and some additional columns, listed below:
Your product ID can simplify product identification if when matched, it actually contains a different product identifier on our side, and the product was matched according to product mapping rules. It allows you to match an Icecat data-sheet with your company’s own internal product ID.
The path column will contain links to product XML files depending on the language you’ve selected during PIF creation at the Import\Export tab.
In short, the PCF is a customized file with detailed information per matched product. This type of file is available only to users with an Icecat Data subscription. Icecat supports two different options of this file:– Firstly, PCF without spec names as column headers
– Secondly, PCF with spec names as column headers (default option)
The first three columns contains the information for your that allows you to understand on what basis Icecat system found a matching between an item from your file and product from Icecat database.
You can download all the images you need with just one click, based on your product feed, language, and format selection. Integrate them in your webshop or PIM system, enrich your website, and improve the shopping experience of your customers.
This section provides a step-by-step guide to get personal CSV files.
If you want to have a daily regenerated PIF and PCF, please hit the request button. Once that is set by Icecat account management, you can daily access the updated PIF or PCF from the same address. In order to access or download your PIF or PCF without login to the User Panel, please use the deeplink formats below:
PIF: https://icecat.biz/index.cgi?login_form=user_import_report;type=match;layout=csv;login=XXXXX;password=XXXXX
PCF: https://icecat.biz/index.cgi?login_form=csv_content;csv_file=/products_csv_lists_new/IcecatUserID_LangCode(.csv/.xlsx);login=XXXXX;password=XXXXX
where XXXXX should be the login name and password respectively of your Icecat account. IcecatUserID can be found on the PCF user interface on www.icecat.biz. Using these deeplinks helps you to automate and simplify the process of data import from Icecat.
If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Read further: Manuals, CSV, Icecat
Hi,
Does you service allow me to do an EAN lookup by product name?
I have a XML/CSV file with a couple of thousand product names & brands which I need to lookup/match the correct existing EAN. Preferably by bulk uploading CSV.
Is it possible with your system? Do i need to register for a full Icecat for that?
Please let me know.
Thanks in advance. Miler
Yes it does. We reply to you separately.
I’m trying to create csv with icecat, the truth is not clear when I ask that suva file from my pc I do not understand if it should be empty or full of products ando super lost if someone could show video or pass me a sample csv.
Thank you
Dear Joaquin, thanks for your comment. We should better understand your path. Please contact us and we will support you. Kind Regards, Gloria
We also have so many laptop batteries and adapters for selling, but really I do not find the correct way to upload,how to upload the price list and product detail. I think it must has a templet there,where is it?
In section 2 you describe that a dedicated list of product codes and/or EAN is necessary for individual download. Is there also a possibility to get all products by e.g. brand name?
Thanks in advance
Yes, use a “batch” interface https://iceclog.com/manual-how-to-import-product-content-into-your-webshop-via-icecat/ from the index you can select the brands that you want. Probably, handy to limit to market as well.
Hi Julie, thanks for your message! You can actually follow step-by-step this guide, namely at point #5. If you have questions on how to go ahead with uploading your price list, please contact us
Is there a possibility to force PIF creation after uploading new price list, not via the icecat interface, but via an API call / URL request?
Hi Remi, yes there is. Please, contact your account manager.
I am in UK and need full products catalogue. what do i need to do to get it regularly on json format. please advice
You can register here for free https://icecat.biz/en/authorization . (Your comment had been forwarded internally already before)
Hello team,
I generated a csv file based on my supplier data, and the file generated is 1.34 gb csv, when I download it, it downloads too fast for a 1.34 gb file so not surprisingly the file is corrupt. What could be the problem?
Thank you Younes
Dear Yuones,
I will send you an email to understand the problem better and put you in contact with the right person to help you solve it.
Kind Regards, Laura
Just had a strange experience. I have +/- 20 suppliers that provide me in total of over 500.000 products. I act smart to download the icecat’s csv’s. – product_names – product_features – all csv’s related to product_features – products listings – products_descriptions
Products ARE found in the products listing, yet not ALL in product_names or product_descriptions. Find out later, there is NO csv file that hold the productTitle…….. mmm ok…. then let’s move back to single product datasheets (.xml) Try to lookup: https://uk.icecat.biz/en/p/10zig+technology/9011/not+categorized-optional+pcie+card+for+10zig+68xx+thin+client-22551232.html when i click in right bottom: XML product data for 10ZiG Technology 9011 i get: EN Access to this product is restricted. Please contact your account manager at Icecat. ( the link should be: https://data.icecat.biz/xml_s3/xml_server3.cgi?prod_id=9011;vendor=10ZiG%20Technology;lang=EN;output=productxml )
I have THOUSANDS of these , yet….. out of the CSV products i imported from icecat, all of them exist in the database, yet i not get access to them via the output=productxml links.
So what is going on here? I have FULL icecat catalog access with the vertical “Computers & Electronics” and language English. And i KNOW this product exists in the icecat database.
Hello, I have a XML/CSV file with a couple of thousand product names (Manufacturer code, EAN code) which I need to lookup/match the correct attributes like RAM, Os system, Storage type or capacity. Preferably by bulk uploading CSV.
Thanks in advance.
You can match via your Open Icecat account (assuming you’re registered) after login. By uploading the file and match on brand + brand product code or GTIN (EAN). For Open Icecat (sponsoring) brands you can look up all data with a free account. For non-sponsoring brands you will need a Full Icecat subscription.
thanks for the quick reply. The way i did it gives back 1 URL for every line. Is there also any ways to extract the information separated by columns directly in the output?
You can choose to get a Personal Catalog File (CSV) as output for your whole catalog via the user interface.
Yes, that is the so-called Personal Catalog File option in the frontoffice interface (login area).
Hello, I am trying to upload a product feed from URL. The file fails with the message: Failed to configure input file. Please check if file settings are correct, and try again.
I have confirmed that the URL is accessible. That the file can be downloaded. That the file is in the correct format. I have manually uploaded the same file and it works without issue.
Can you please assist?
Thanks.
Dear Andrew, communicated this to operations. If your email is the same as your account’s, they’ll come back to you. Otherwise, use the icecat Contact form or the Chat after login.
Is possible to create a file with products descriptions in spanish?. I just see the “EN” buttom.
I’m registered as a “open catalog” user
Thanks!
Dear Javier
You should have changed the user country to Spain. I did it for you. now you can get content in Spanish language.
I have tested the deeplink example in your post and that downloads the PIF file, how do I configure that to download the PCF file instead please? https://icecat.biz/index.cgi?login_form=user_import_report;type=match;layout=csv;login=XXXXX;password=XXXXX
Thanks
Dear Chris I updated the manual with the link to download PCF file.
This article seems to indicate that we can generate the PIF on a daily basis by ‘hitting the request button’, but I cannot find this button.
Also our product inventory changes quite regularly so we’d like to be able to automatically upload our product inventory on a daily basis so that we can get up to date images. Is this possible to do?
Many thanks
Dear Glen Once you indicate in Icecat link to your feed and go to “My downloads” you will see button “Request daily updates”
Kind regards
Vazha Abramishvili
When generating the PIF, it is also indicated how many doubles were found. In our case, we know we have double products in our feed. This means we upload a file with multiple same EANs, but every time with a different ‘custom product id’.
After generating the PIF, these doubles are grouped together and only 1 of the matching ‘custom product IDs’ is returned.
Is there a way to either – See the entries marked as doubles – Get a grouped list of all ‘custom product IDs’ in the PIF (e.g. separated by pipes, just like is done with the EANs)
Many thanks!
Dear Sven Thank you for your question. Currently the 2 functionalities mentioned by you do not exist. Icecat country manager for Belgium will contact you to discuss how we can help you further.
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