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      Linking Assets with Products in Bulk

      How to associate a large amount of assets with existing products in Plytix

      The fastest ways to link assets and products together in Plytix are either by choosing criteria in your asset file names to link them to products automatically, or by importing asset URLs in a CSV file. This article will discuss these two methods for bulk asset mapping, as well as what to do if you need to generate URLs for your assets using the PIM.

       

      Autolinking Assets to Products

      Linking Assets in Bulk via CSV Import

      Linking Assets in Bulk via CSV Import without URLs

       

      *Skip to any section in this article by clicking on the links above

       

      Autolinking Assets to Products

      If you have a standard naming convention for your assets, then you can link them to your products by using the information contained in their file names, such as SKU, GTIN, or handle.

      ℹ️ In order to use this feature, your asset file names must include text that matches an attribute value stored in Plytix. If your asset file names contain more than just this value, it must be separated from the rest of the text by a unique right or left delimiter, or both. For example: watercolor_set#RM9730008-1.jpg (delimiters for the SKU value here would be "#" and "-".)

      1. Starting from the Assets overview, select which assets you want to link, then click 'Link to...' and select 'Products.'From the assets overview, select the assets you want to link and then select "link to products."
      2. Next, click the 'Based on asset name' option on the left side of the screen.Select the option to link assets to products based on the asset name.
      3. In section 1, choose the attribute to which you want assign your assets.Select which media attribute assets should populate.
      4. In section 2, select which attribute will be used by the system to match products to assets. Select which criteria is contained within the asset file names.
      5. If your asset names contain more text in addition to the attribute you select, you'll need to choose a delimiter to designate where the selected attribute value starts and/or a delimiter to designate where it ends. A preview will appear below.

        If needed, you can select delimiters to mark where the attribute value is within the file name.
      6. Lastly, click 'Link.'

      Once you have adjusted the settings, click on the "link" button.You will be taken back to the Assets overview. After the linking process has finished, you'll see a notification message at the bottom of the screen to tell you how many assets and products were linked.

      ℹ️ You can autolink up to 1000 assets at a time.

       

      Linking Assets to Products in Bulk via CSV Import

      Linking Thumbnails to Products

      First, you'll need a CSV file with the SKUS of your products in one column and the links to your assets in another column. Import this file by selecting 'Import' from the 'Products' tab in the main navigation bar.

      Select 'Import' from the 'Products' tab of Plytix to import assets.

      Select the CSV file you want to import. 

      Upload a CSV file to Plytix by dragging and dropping or click to browse.

      On the following screen you'll see a preview of your file. Click 'Next.' 

      Preview of CSV file settings, click 'next' button

      There is no need to change import options. Click 'Go to matching.'

      Import options, no need to change, go to matching

      To associate a single image with a product, match your SKU column to the 'SKU' attribute. Match your column of image links to the 'Thumbnail' attribute. 

      data matching section with SKU and Thumbnail attributes

      💡 If any of your product SKUs do not have assets, you can choose to ignore them, or erase existing assets associated with them. If you've previously associated assets with any of your SKUs, you can choose to add new assets or overwrite the old ones.

       

      For linking multiple files with a product, keep reading.

      Linking Multiple Assets to Products

      To associate multiple images (and/or videos) with a product, match your SKU column to the 'SKU' attribute and your column of links to a custom 'Media Gallery' attribute or 'Media Single' attribute.

      If using a media single attribute with multiple asset links, be sure to choose 'Add' in the "New Values" selector rather than 'Overwrite.' Selecting 'Add' will create a new media single attribute for each imported asset.

      a gallery custom attribute matches to a set of link for multiple images

      💡 If any of your product SKUs do not have assets, you can choose to ignore them, or erase existing assets linked to them. If you've previously linked assets with any of your SKUs, you can choose to add new assets or overwrite the old ones.

      Viewing Uploaded Assets

      Your newly uploaded assets will now appear on the product detail page of linked products and in the columns of the product overview table.

      view products and linked assets in the product overview table in Plytix

      In addition, you can find all the assets you've uploaded in the 'Assets' tab of the main navigation bar. 

      view assets in the 'Assets' tab in the Plytix main navigation bar. Search for assets by name or filter.

      Here you can search for assets by name or sort them using filters. You can view when each asset was created or modified, and by which user. By clicking on an asset, you can also view all of its linked products. 

       

      ℹ️ Note that Plytix does not have a built in video player for previewing video attributes. This means that you cannot view videos within the system, but they will appear with the rest of your assets when exported.

       

       

      Bulk Association of SKUs and Assets (without URL)

      ℹ️ This method requires you to have the SKU in the file name.


      If your assets use a naming convention where the SKU is included in the file name, this the fastest way besides autolinking to organize your files when you are first setting up Plytix. 

       

      What you need:

      • Your files accessible from a local device
      • Your files with the SKU you'll use in Plytix included in the file name (e.g 4562WE2_blue.png)
      • A Plytix account


      What you need to do: 

      First you will need to generate URLs and put them into a CSV file. To do this:

      1. Take all of your files and upload them into Plytix following the steps from the first section of the article Uploading and Importing Assets. 
      2. The from the 'Assets' tab, select all assets. 
      3. Click 'Export.'
      4. Choose the 'CSV' option (XLSX is also good if you work directly with Excel).
      5. Select the asset attribute 'File Name' to include in the CSV.

        To export a CSV of your assets, select export and choose to export the file name along with the URL.
      6. Click 'Export.'
      7. Your CSV will be automatically downloaded in the browser or you will receive an email, depending on the size of the file requested.

      💡 When exporting, use filters with the "Create Date" if you already have assets in the system that you don't want to include in this process.

       

      Once you've downloaded your file, you will need to open it in a spreadsheet to format the file for import.

      To do this: 

      1. Open your CSV or XLSX as a spreadsheet. Excel or Google Sheets is recommended. 
      2. Choose the "File Name" column.
      3. Split the file name to isolate the SKU in its own column (see tip below).
      4. Then find the column that holds your SKU and name it "SKU". 
      5. Rename the "URL" column to the attribute you want to import on, for example the "Thumbnail" system attribute.
      6. Delete any unnecessary columns.
      7. Export the file as a CSV.

      💡 Use these links to learn how to split text into separate columns:

      ⚠️ You may need to trim white space and perform other actions to make sure that your SKU column is properly isolated and formatted. 


      Now you are ready to import the CSV file into Plytix. When your import has completed, all the files will be linked to your products. 

       


      What's next?

       

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