This page explains how you can upload and manage your products programmatically. Using the Merchant Products API, you can insert or update a product in a data source, retrieve a product from your account, and delete a product from a data source.
Merchant Products API contains two resources.
productInputsrepresents the input parts of your products.productsrepresents the processed products that was constructed from your input parts.
productInputs can be primary and supplementary, depending whether it is
uploaded to a
primary data source
or a
supplemental data source.
Each product will be constructed from a single primary productInput and any
number of supplemental productInputs.
You can use the Merchant Products API to create an online or local store
catalogs, these are products which can appear on
multiple shopping destinations.
You can use the productInputs resource once you have created your
Merchant Center account, set up your first
data source and are
ready to upload an initial set of products through the API.
Although merchants have the ability to upload products using a file called a PrimaryProductDataSource, there are several advantages of creating and deleting products using the Merchant API. These advantages include faster response time and the ability to update products in real time, without the need to manage large files. It may take up to several hours for product changes made by API calls to show in the Shopping database.
Prerequisites
If you don't have a data source, create a data source using the Merchant DataSources API or the Merchant Center.
If you already have a data source that you created either using the Merchant Center UI or using the API, then you can use the Merchant Products API to add your products. If you are using the Content API for Shopping to add products, refer to the migration guide to understand how to get started with the Merchant Products API.
You are responsible for complying with the Shopping Ads and free listings policies. Shopping Ads reserves the right to enforce these policies and respond appropriately if we find content or behavior that violates these policies.
Resources
The products resource lets you retrieve product information from the
Shopping database.
The
productInput
resource represents the input data you submit for a product. It also provides
methods that let you update, or delete product information one at a time, or
many at a time in batch mode. A
productInput resource must have the following fields:
channel: The channel of the product.offerId: The unique identifier for the product.contentLanguage: The two-letter ISO 639-1 language code for the product.feedLabel: The feed label for the product.
Upload a product input into your account
To upload a product input into your account, use the
accounts.productInputs.insert method. You must pass the
unique identifier of the primary or supplemental data source.
Retrieve a processed product from your account
To retrieve a processed product from your account, use the
accounts.products.get method. It can take several minutes for
the processed product to appear after insertion.
You can get the resource name of the processed product from the product field
in the
response of accounts.productInputs.insert
Delete a product input from your account
To delete a product input from your account, use the
accounts.productInputs.delete method. You must pass the
unique identifier of the primary or supplemental data source that the product
belongs to for deleting a product using the Merchant Products API.
List products from your account
To list the processed products in your account, use the accounts.products.list
method.