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Channable connection

Use the Channable connection to import product data from a Channable feed into your BlueConic product store. Products in the store can be used for personalization and product recommendations in BlueConic dialogues. This connection is import only, from Channable to BlueConic, and supports scheduled batch imports to keep your product data current.

Connection details

Goal types: Import

Frequency: Batch (scheduled or manual)

Before you begin

Before configuring this connection:

  • Generate a Channable API token in the Channable app under Company settings > Channable API. Only company owners can generate a token. Store it securely, Channable does not show the token again after you generate it.

  • If importing via SFTP instead of a feed URL, obtain your SFTP host, port, username, password, remote directory, and file pattern from your Channable account or feed provider.

  • Know which product fields you want to import. ID, Name, URL, and Type are required; Description, Image, Categories, Text, Price, and In stock are optional.

  • Decide whether you want BlueConic to remove products that fall out of your feed. This is only safe with a complete catalog feed, not a partial or incremental one.

Create a Channable connection

To add a Channable connection to your tenant:

  1. Click Connections in the BlueConic navigation bar.

  2. Click Add connection.

  3. Enter "Channable" in the Search bar.

  4. Click Channable connection. The connection page opens.

  5. Expand or collapse the metadata fields (favorite, labels, description) by clicking the gray chevron. In the metadata section, choose whether to get email notifications when the connection runs or fails to run. Enter a name for your connection at the top of the page.

  6. Click Save.

Authenticate

Add the Channable API token before you can configure an import goal.

  1. Select Set up and run in the left panel.

  2. Under Channable API credentials, enter your API Token.

  3. Save your connection settings at the top of the page.

  4. After a valid API token is saved, BlueConic authenticates with Channable and the Import products from Channable goal becomes available.

Note: If authentication fails, BlueConic shows "Authentication failed — Could not connect to Channable. Please verify your API token." If the token field is empty, BlueConic shows "Credentials incomplete."

Configure the import

1. Collected items

This step shows an overview of collected items:

  • Products collected and updated during the last 24 hours

  • Total products collected

  1. Expand Most recent collected items to see the latest products the connection has picked up. Click View imported data on an item to inspect its metadata.

  2. This section shows "There are no items collected yet" until the connection has run at least once.

On the import goal itself, you can also see: products collected/updated in the last 24 hours, total products in the store, and the most recently collected items. Click View imported data on an item to inspect its metadata.

2. Source configuration

Choose how to retrieve product data from Channable.
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  1. Feed URL: Set Import method to "Feed URL (download from files.channable.com)" and enter the Feed URL. BlueConic reads the column names from the CSV file and shows them as Source fields for matching and mapping. If the file can't be reached, BlueConic shows a warning.

  2. SFTP: Set Import method to "SFTP (read from SFTP server)" and enter the SFTP Host, Port (default 22), Username, Password, Remote directory (default /), and optionally a File pattern (default *.csv, wildcards supported). When more than one file matches, BlueConic imports each and reports counts per file in run history.

3. (Optional) Process your data before the import

  1. Add one or more data processors to transform, filter, or enrich each imported row. Rows a processor drops are treated as not imported, and can be removed if cleanup is enabled.


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4. (Optional) Remove unavailable products

  1. Remove products from the store that aren't part of this import. Use only with a complete catalog feed, changing the matching identifier can also remove products tied to the previous identifier.

Note: Cleanup only affects products this goal imported, and is skipped if the import finds no products or if any SFTP file fails.

5. Link identifiers between Channable files and BlueConic product fields

  1. Link a Channable CSV column to a BlueConic product identifier, matching on ID or URL. Data without a matching identifier is excluded.

Note: The product ID must contain only letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores (up to 500 characters).

6. Link metadata between Channable and BlueConic product metadata

  1. Map CSV columns to BlueConic product metadata. ID, Name, URL, and Type are required (Type is always the static value "product"); if these aren't found, the product isn't imported.


    ​Optional fields: Description, Image, Categories, Text, Price, In stock.

  2. Collected date and Last modified date are set by BlueConic and can't be mapped.

  3. Click Add mapping for additional columns, including custom metadata fields usable later in recommendation placement filtering.

  4. Click the cogwheel on a mapping to configure a selector (e.g. JavaScript) used when testing data collection from a product page URL.

In stock values, if mapped: recognized as in stock — true, yes, 1, in stock, available. Recognized as out of stock — false, no, 0, out of stock, sold out, preorder, backorder, discontinued, unavailable.

Test data collection

Paste a product page URL into Test URL and click Test. The results show the values extracted from that page based on the selector settings on your mappings. This previews page-based collection only, it does not import products.

Run the connection

Make sure the import goal is activated and your settings are saved before running the connection.

  1. Turn the connection On.

  2. Go to Set up and run and scroll to Run history.

  3. To run manually, click Run now.

  4. To schedule, click the settings icon next to Run now and choose: every X minutes, number of times per day, days of the week, days of the month, or weekday of the month. Set a time and click OK.

Note: Saving the connection creates or updates the product store used by this connection. Save As creates a new store. Deleting the connection removes its product store.

Next steps

  • Add the connection to an Objective to manage consent, a connection only processes profiles of visitors who consented to at least one linked Objective.

  • Review Run history after each execution, especially after enabling "Remove products that are not part of this import."

FAQ

Does this connection export data back to Channable?

  • No. Import only, from Channable to BlueConic.

Can I have more than one import goal?

  • No. Only one import goal is allowed. Save As creates a new Product Collector store instead.

Is it safe to enable "Remove products that are not part of this import"?

  • Only with a complete catalog feed. With a partial or incremental file, this can incorrectly remove products still in your catalog. Changing the matching identifier can also remove products that used the previous identifier.

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