Overview of Merchant Data sources API

This page shows how to programmatically create and update your data sources that let you insert products. Automated data sources make it easier to send your product data to Google. Automated data sources make sure that the most up-to-date information about relevant products from your website reach Google.

Content API for Shopping only lets you create primary data sources. With Merchant Data sources API, you can create the following types of data sources:

• Primary product data sources
• Supplemental product data sources
• Local inventory data sources
• Regional inventory data sources
• Promotion data sources

Content API for Shopping only allowed managing data sources with file input. Merchant API lets you manage data sources with both file and API inputs.

Using Merchant Data sources API, you can do the following:

• Create a new primary data source with a specific feedLabel and contentLanguage.
• Create a wildcard data source. A wildcard data source doesn't have feedLabel and contentLanguage fields set. Wildcard data sources let you insert products with different combinations of feedLabel and contentLanguage into a data source.
• Create a supplemental data source to link to an existing primary data source.
• Set up a schedule for a file data source.
• Enroll your account for automatic management of data sources.
• Manage API data sources.
• Manage the default rule of data sources using primary product data sources.
• Use other types of data sources like promotions.

Prerequisites

• Your account must have been migrated to single locale feeds.

• To verify that the account is already migrated to data target split, use the data source list or get methods. In case you aren't eligible, you will receive the following exception message and you should contact support.

  This account is in the data sources migration process and can't be used with
  this API yet. Contact support for more info on when this account will be able
  to use the data sources endpoint.
  

Create a new data source

To create a new primary data source with a specific feedLabel and contentLanguage, set the feedLabel and contentLanguage fields in the type-specific configuration. For example, PrimaryProductDataSource.

To view your newly created data source, create a GET or a LIST request.

Create a new wildcard primary data source

To create a new wildcard primary feed, configure your data source using PrimaryProductDataSource and don't set the feedLabel and contentLanguage fields.

Using Content API for Shopping, there is only one API data source created for you. Using Merchant Data sources API, you can have multiple API data sources, some of which can be wildcard.

Only data sources with API input can be wildcard data sources. Wildcard data sources aren't supported for file inputs.

Create a supplemental data source and link it to the primary data source

You can use supplemental data sources to make partial updates to product data by adding the unique identifier of the data source as a query parameter when making calls to the accounts.productInputs.insert and accounts.productInputs.delete methods. You can only use supplemental data sources to update existing products.

To create a supplemental data source, configure your data source using SupplementalProductDataSource and then link it by updating the defaultRule field on your primary data source.

Supplemental file data sources cannot be wildcard data sources. Supplemental API data sources must always be wildcard data sources.

Set up a schedule for your file data source

To set up a schedule for your file feed, configure your data source to be a file data source by using the FileInput field and then set up fetchsettings using the FileInput.FetchSettings field.

Delete a data source

To delete an existing data source from your account, use the accounts.dataSources.delete method.

Fetch data source

To fetch a file configured in the data source, use the accounts.dataSources.fetch method. This method perform the data fetch immediately on a data source from your account. This method only works on data sources with a file input set.

Get data source

To retrieve the data source configuration for your account, use the accounts.dataSources.get method.

List data source

To list the configurations for data sources for your account, use the accounts.dataSources.list method.

Patch data source

To update the configuration of an existing data source, use the accounts.dataSources.patch method.

Link data sources

Primary product data sources let you manage the default rule of data sources. The default rule is the rule that applies to all attributes in your data source. The default rule can be set while creating the data source or by updating an existing data source through the default rule field.

The following sample configuration ensures that all attributes are first taken from the data source with the unique identifier 1001. Then the missing attributes are added from the primary data source. Eventually, the remaining attributes will be taken from the supplemental data source with the unique identifier 1002 if not already provided in any other data source. If the same attribute is provided in multiple data sources, the value higher in the list is selected.

defaultRule {
 takeFromDataSources: [
   '1001', // Supplemental product data source
   'self', //  Self reference to the primary data source
   '1002' // Supplemental product data source
 ]
}

Note: Custom rules cannot be modified through the API.

Auto-management of feeds

To enroll your account for automatic management of data sources, you must do the following:

• Check whether your account is eligible for enrollment by calling the Accounts.AutofeedSettings.Get method.
• Make sure that you account isn't a marketplace account.

After your account is eligible for enrollment, you can use the Accounts.AutofeedSettings.Update method to enable automatic management of data sources. Enabling automatic management of data sources lets Google automatically add your products from your online store and ensure they are always up to date on Google's platforms.

Retrieve file upload status

To get the status of a data source with either file, fetch or spreadsheet, you can call the GET method of the FileUpload service. To obtain the result of the last retrieval of the data source computed asynchronously when the data source processing is finished, use the name identifier latest.

GET https://merchantapi.googleapis.com/accounts/v1beta/{accountId}/datasources/{datasourceId}/fileUploads/latest

The file upload status might contain a detailed view of your products, including any potential issues.

Note that the file upload status might not exist if the file was never uploaded. The file upload status might be in the processing state if requested soon after the file is uploaded.