Managing a BigCommerce Channel

How to configure your channel after connecting your BigCommerce store in Plytix to send product content directly to your storefronts

After you’ve set up the connection between Plytix and your desired BigCommerce storefront, it’s time to configure your channel preferences to start sending your products to your store 🎉 In this article we will walk you through the different tabs of your channel — from adding products and mapping BigCommerce fields to setting up automatic processing and understanding your process log —, so you can add the information you need and be all set to go live 🚀

 

 

Creating a BigCommerce Channel 

Channel Dashboard

Process Log

Products

Mapping

Custom Fields

Settings

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

---

Creating a BigCommerce Channel 

To create a BigCommerce Channel, you first have to set up the connection between Plytix and your store through Plytix’s app. It’s a simple process with no coding required! To learn how to set up this connection, check out this article. 

---

Channel Dashboard

The channel dashboard gives you essential information about the channel. The following are some of the elements you can find on your dashboard:

Channel Name and Status

At the top left, you can see a section that shows the channel name and type. 

Here you can: 

1. Change the channel name by clicking on it, then hit "enter" to save.

2. Go back to the channel overview by clicking on the arrow

Processing Information

At the top right, you can see information related to processing the channel. 

Here are a few bits of information and some actions you can take. 

Information: 

• Created: the time the channel was created
• Modified: the last time the channel was updated in any way
• Processed: the last time a channel was processed either manually or on a schedule

Actions: 

• Process Now: clicking this button will start the channel processing which will push information to your BigCommerce store. 

• Arrows: these arrows will take you to the previous/next channel
• Trash Icon: Delete your BigCommerce Channel

---

Process Log

The process log shows the records of the last time information was sent from Plytix to BigCommerce. If you have not processed your BigCommerce channel yet, this tab will be the “Instructions” tab until you process it for the first time. 

The log shows:

• Start Date: the date and time the process was started
• Finish Date: the date and time the process completed
• Status: if the process is 'Syncing', 'Processing', 'Canceled', or 'Finished'
• Products: how many products were processed
• Result: if the information was sent correctly, as 'Success', if not, as a note with the number of errors the process had. 

Log Detail

If there are any errors in processing, you can check what happened at a product-level by clicking on the 'Start Date' information of a process. This will take you to the log detail. 

Here you will be able to review error messages from BigCommerce to get information on how to fix them. Click on the 'info' icon to see more information about the error.

In the log detail you can also see: 

• Action: If the product was "Created", "Updated", or "Skipped" (a product is "Skipped" after processing the channel, when it was already cached and hasn't experienced any changes since the last sync).

• Result: If a new or updated product was correctly processed, you will see the result as "Success". If there were any errors with processing it to your store, the result will show as "Error".  If a product that was already cached is processed again with no updates to it, it will be skipped and thus the result will show up as blank.

You can also view a summary note with the total number of parents and singles that were reviewed in your product list (processed), and the number of products that were either created or updated in your storefront (synced). 

---

Products

In this section, you will select a product list. This product list defines the products that will be sent to this BigCommerce store.

 

---

Mapping

Here you will match attributes from Plytix to BigCommerce fields. Find a detailed guide of how to map BigCommerce fields in Plytix here. 

To map a new attribute: 

1. Click on 'Match attribute' in the "PIM Attributes" column
2. Select the attribute you want to match, or create a Computed Attribute
3. Then click 'Apply'
4. To save your changes, click 'Save changes' in the save bar that appears at the top
   
   

To unmatch, click the 'Unmatch' icon. 

Formatting Attributes

Just like with other channels in Plytix, you are able to apply attribute transformations for certain attribute types. To do this: 

1. Hover over the attribute you want to edit
2. If it has transformation options available, a "Settings" icon will appear to the right
3. Click the "Settings" icon, and all the options will appear

1. Make your changes
2. Click 'Apply'
3. Click 'Save Changes' to save your transformations

---

Custom Fields

Custom fields are additional fields you can create in your BigCommerce store, beyond those listed in the “Mapping” tab.

To create a new custom field, click ‘Create custom field’. 

Give it a name and confirm by clicking ‘Create custom field’ again. 

Then, click on “Match attribute” to match your new field with a Plytix attribute. Just like the Mapping section, you can match your custom field with an existing Plytix attribute or by creating a new computed attribute. 

After selecting the attribute, click ‘Apply’.

If the attribute type you matched your custom field with allows for formatting options, you will view the settings icon in the “Formatting” column. 

---

Settings

In the settings tab, you can:

• Schedule periodic processing of your channel
• Manage custom field processing preferences
• Clear the cache

To schedule periodic processing of your channel, toggle the option on. Then, select the frequency at which you’d like your channel to automatically process and your preferred day and time. 

In the “Custom fields” section, you can set your preferences for when custom fields with empty values are processed. In the dropdown options, select whether those fields should just be ignored when they have an empty value, or if they should overwrite an existing value. 

To clear your channel’s cache, click “X Clear cache”. 

 

 

---

What's next? 

• Learn how to connect Plytix to your BigCommerce store
• Learn how to generate a backup of your data
• Learn about the different channel options  available in Plytix 

 

If you have any questions just click on the chat box in the bottom-right corner and we'll be happy to answer them...

 

and please let us know 👇