How to collect custom product fields

If your eCommerce has data that is not collected by default in the product pages, you can include it using various methods. This article explains the different ways to collect custom product fields, depending on how the integration is set up.

1. Properties

• All product data is collected through the Product Visited tag and is contained within the "Product" object type.

You can review all the properties that Connectif collects from the "Product" object type in this article.

• If you want to collect data that is not included by default in the product pages, such as product sizes or colors, you can include them in the custom fields of Connectif's product pages. This involves modifying the Connectif integration to bring that information into the tool. 
• Custom fields use a text format (string).
• Only three custom product fields are allowed.
• To add more than three extra fields, you can use product tags as an alternative.
• Product tags use a text format (string).

For products with variants, if you want to recommend the variants as independent products, you must assign different IDs to each variant from your eCommerce so that they are collected as independent products in the Connectif catalog. 

2. How to send custom product fields to Connectif

a. Sending information through HTML tags

If your catalog synchronization is done using HTML tags, you will need to modify the properties of the Product Visited tag to add custom product fields. Alternatively, if you need to add more than three properties, you can use product tags:

a.1. Filling out custom product fields

Custom product fields are part of the cn_product_visited tag. This tag is responsible for passing—and updating—product data to Connectif when a product is visited in the eCommerce.

<span class="custom_field_1">custom_info_1</span>

In Connectif's product pages, there are three custom fields that correspond to the custom_field_1, custom_field_2, and custom_field_3 tags contained in cn_product_visited.

By sending information through this tag, you can transfer it to one of these three fields.

The information you want to transfer must be in text format.

The following example shows how information about a product with a custom field would be transferred: 

<div class="cn_product_visited" style="display: none">
<span class="url">http://example.org/products/pr10633</span>
<span class="product_id">pr10633</span>
<span class="name">Microsoft Office 365 Personal 1 License 1 Year</span>
<span class="description">The Office you can use at home and on the go.</span>
<span class="image_url">http://example.org/img/products/pr10658.jpg</span>
<span class="unit_price">45.50</span>
<span class="availability">InStock</span>
<span class="category">/Computers/Software</span>
<span class="brand">Microsoft Office</span>
<span class="review_count">7</span>
<span class="rating_value">3.9</span>
<span class="thumbnail_url">http://example.org/img/thumbnails/products/pr10658.jpg</span>
<span class="related_external_product_id">pr10636</span>
<span class="related_external_product_id">pr11939</span>
<span class="related_external_product_id">pr12653</span>
<span class="priority">6</span>
<span class="published_at">2020-05-20T15:24:20Z</span>
<span class="custom_field_1">Example custom information</span>
</div>

a.2. Using product tags

If more than three custom product fields are needed, you can transmit additional product information by including unlimited tags.

To use tags, text format must also be used. Details of all tags included in cn_product_visited can be found here.

The following example shows how the same product as above could include two tags, "Microsoft" and "Software": 

<div class="cn_product_visited" style="display: none">
<span class="url">http://example.org/products/pr10633</span>
<span class="product_id">pr10633</span>
<span class="name">Microsoft Office 365 Personal 1 License 1 Year</span>
<span class="description">The Office you can use at home and on the go.</span>
<span class="image_url">http://example.org/img/products/pr10658.jpg</span>
<span class="unit_price">45.50</span>
<span class="availability">InStock</span>
<span class="category">/Computers/Software</span>
<span class="tag">Microsoft</span>
<span class="tag">Software</span>
<span class="brand">Microsoft Office</span>
<span class="review_count">7</span>
<span class="rating_value">3.9</span>
<span class="thumbnail_url">http://example.org/img/thumbnails/products/pr10658.jpg</span>
<span class="related_external_product_id">pr10636</span>
<span class="related_external_product_id">pr11939</span>
<span class="related_external_product_id">pr12653</span>
<span class="priority">6</span>
<span class="published_at">2020-05-20T15:24:20Z</span>
<span class="custom_field_1">Example custom information</span>
</div>

b. Sending information via API

If your catalog synchronization is done via API, you can send custom product data in the same way as other information.

• Check the Connectif API documentation to make these adjustments.

c. Sending information via Product Feed

If your catalog synchronization is done via Product Feed, synchronizing custom fields is done similarly to HTML tags. 

In this case, you must also include the custom_field_1, custom_field_2, and custom_field_3 tags in the XML file so that Connectif can transfer that information to your catalog during synchronization.

• Check the documentation on catalog synchronization via Feed to learn how to prepare your file.

Keep learning!

To fully utilize your Connectif account, we recommend continuing with the following articles:

• Synchronization and Product Verification Methods in Connectif, to review how each of these processes work.
• Check your Store Integration, to ensure that all data is being synchronized correctly in your Connectif account.
• Product Segments, to have real-time product groups available for various strategies.
• Deleting Products in Connectif, to understand the implications of removing products from your catalog and how to do it.