Supplying Content Data

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Categories
3. Site pages
4. Blog posts
5. Brands
6. Available shop integrations
7. Providing content data
8. Recurring content feed
9. Manual content upload
10. XML format
11. CSV format

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Introduction

In order for the Hello Retail search feature to work with content, we need to have information about the content on your webshop. We require that each content has a title and a unique URL, and preferably they also have a description, keywords, and maybe a hierarchy.

Currently, our system can distinguish between these content types:

• Categories
• Site pages
• Blog posts
• Brands

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Categories

Categories are a specific content type that represents an item's category in your shop. This could be "Shoes", or more specifically "Shoes for men".
Observe that "Shoes for men" can be a sub-category of "Shoes" and therefore categories can be part of a hierarchy.
Normally categories do not need too much more data than:

• Title
• URL
• Hierarchy

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Site pages

Site pages are a specific content type that resembles an info page in your shop. Examples could be: "Opening hours" or "Contact us".
Normally site pages do not need to have much more data than:

• Title
• URL

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Blog posts

Blog posts are a specific content type that resembles content related to your shop. These could be "Wooden shed DIY" or "Protein pancake recipe".
Normally blog posts do not need to have much more data than:

• Title
• URL

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Brands

Brands is a specific content type, focused on the specific product brands that your shop is offering.
Normally brands do not need to have much more data than:

• Title
• URL

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Available shop integrations

Before we get any further, take a look at the list of integrations below - if you are running any of these platforms, you should skip the step about creating a feed. Make sure you have followed our guide for that specific platform and go down to the "supplying your feed to Hello Retail" step:

• Categories
  • Magento
  • Magento 2
  • Shopify
  • WooCommerce
  • SmartWeb
  • DanDomain
  • Prestashop
  • Golden Planet / OpenBizBox
  • ScanNet Webshop
  • Wannafind Webshop / Hostedshop
  • Starweb
  • Shoporama
  • E37
  • Norce
  • Lightspeed
  • Nordisk E-Handel
• Site pages
• Blog posts
• Brands
  • Site pages, Blog posts and Brands are fairly new in our system. Sadly, none of our current shop extensions/plugins provide a feed out of the box.

Providing content data

There are two ways of providing Hello Retail with content data:

1. Recurring content feed
2. Manual content upload

What is a feed?

Feed is a file containing a list of entries for a specific content type. Here is an example.

Recurring content feed

If your platform wasn't on the list in Available shop integrations, you will have to provide the feed by yourself.

A recurring feed is a feed that Hello Retail call regularly to re-apply its content into Hello Retail. It is therefore optimal if your feed is constantly updated and readily available to Hello Retail via a URL such as: https://www.yourdomain.com/feeds/categoryfeed.xml

The smart thing about a recurring feed is that you don't have to log in and upload a file manually each time you want to make changes to the content data already provided to Hello Retail.

The structure of your content feed can be in either XML, CSV or JSON.

To provide a recurring content feed:

1. Start by logging into your Hello Retail account.
2. On the dashboard view, navigate to the left-hand side menu. Under the Configuration section, click on Data Setup to unfold the drop-down menu.
3. Next, from the drop-down menu, click on Contents.
4. Click on the button "Set up automatic content synchronisation" and pick the desired content type.This picture shows steps 2, 3 and 4. 
5. Alternatively: Choose one of your existing content feeds from the list shown on the page and click on the button "Edit" if you need to make changes.
6. You will now land on a new page where you should choose the shop platform matching the one you have used for your store. If it is not among the available options, choose "Other".
7. Fill in the requested information.
8. Contact support@helloretail.com and they will configure our system to call your feed regularly.

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Using Google Sheets to set up the content feed

You can also provide us with a Google Sheet containing the title and url, with which we can help you to manually set up the content recurring feed.

The sheet must be uniformed into columns and at minimum include; one column for the title(s) and one column for the url(s) such as:

   

This image shows an example of how to set it up in Google Sheets with content categories for title and url.

If you want to, you can also add more columns such as description, keywords, hierarchy etc. By adding more columns, you will get better search results.

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How to share the Google Sheet link with Support Hello Retail

It is crucial that the Google Sheet link is available with sharing access and permissions in order for us to help set it up.

• Share this Google Sheet link with us by granting your designated account manager access to it or to support@helloretail.com.
• Follow this Google guide on how to share access through a link here: Google share access guide.
• Click on the green Share button. This will prompt a window where you can choose the Get link or to share with groups/people.
• Share: input the email address of your designated account manager to grant access to the sheet or add our support team's email address: support@helloretail.com.  
• Link: Click on the Edit button to choose who you want to share it with.
• Choose the viewer option under the drop-down menu, under permissions for link sharing.

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How to open and use the Inspect tool in three different browsers; Google Chrome, Mozilla FireFox and Apple's Safari the Inspector on Windows

Google Chrome:

• In the top menu bar, select View > Developer > Developer Tools.
• Open Customize and control Google Chrome by clicking the three-dot icon in the top right corner of the browser window. From there, choose More Tools > Developer Tools.
• Use the shortcut control-shift-C on Windows or command-option-C on macOS.

Learn more about how to inspect network activity from Chrome's own guide here. 

 

Mozilla FireFox:

• In the top menu bar, select Tools > Web Developer > Inspector.
• Use the shortcut control-shift-C in Windows or command-option-C in macOS.

Learn more about how to inspect network activity from Mozilla FireFox's own guide here.

 

Apple's Safari:

• In the top menu bar, choose Develop > Show Web Inspector.
• Use the shortcut command-option-I.

Learn more about how to inspect network activity from Apple Safari's own guide here.

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Copy the export link from the Network tab in Inspector

1. Open the Google Sheets file in your preferred web browser.

2. Open up the inspector tool in your respective web browser.

3. If needed, you can use the Clean button so the network log is not overflowing with resources. As soon as you click on anything, it will prompt a new resource in the network log. This will make it easier for step 4 and 5. 

4. Navigate to File at the top menu on the Google Sheet and click on Download. Choose the file type as .csv. 
5. In the inspector, you will be able to see a resource in the log pop up and it should look like the following: 

export?format=csv&id=

As soon as you click on the download button, this link appears in the inspector.

This image shows an example of where to fetch the link that needs to be copied from Inspector on Google Chrome from the Google Sheet. 

    6. Copy the whole link and send it to Support at support@helloretail.com. We will then set it up for you.

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Manual content upload

A manual content upload is an easy way of getting up and running when your shop does not have a content feed available.
The upload file format is required to be CSV.

To provide a manual content upload:

1. Start by logging into your Hello Retail business account.
2. On the dashboard view, navigate to the left-hand side menu. Under the Configuration section, click on Data Setup to unfold the drop-down menu.
3. Next, click on Contents.
4. Click on the button "Upload a file".

 This picture shows step 4.

    5. Choose the right content type from the drop-down. There are four options; Categories, Site pages, Blog posts and Brands.

    6. After choosing the desired content type for upload, a field shows up where it is possible to find the file for upload. Click on the button "Browse", choose your file, and after that click on the button "Upload".

    7. Observe your file being processed.

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XML format

Below you can see an example structure of a category XML file:

<categories>
 <category>
  <title>Summer dresses</title>
  <url>https://mysite/summer-dresses</url>
  <description>We have the best summer dresses in the world</description>
  <keywords>Sundress One-piece</keywords>
  <hierarchy>
   <category>Woman</category>
   <category>Dresses</category>
   <category>Summer dresses</category>
  </hierarchy>
 </category>
 <category>
  <title>Autumn dresses</title>
  <url>https://mysite/autumn-dresses</url>
  <description>We have the best summer dresses in the world</description>
  <keywords>Sundress One-piece</keywords>
  <hierarchy>
   <category>Woman</category>
   <category>Dresses</category>
   <category>Autumn dresses</category>
  </hierarchy>
 </category>
</categories>

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CSV format

The delimiter of the CSV file needs to be:

;

Column structure of the CSV file has to be in this fixed order:

title; url; hierarchy; searchable keywords; description

Below you can see an example structure of a category CSV file:

Category title; http://example.com/categories/1/2/3; category hierarchy 1, category hierarchy 2, category hierarchy 3; keyword1 keyword2; This is an example description
Baby sandals; http://example.com/shoes/baby/sandals; Shoes, Baby, Sandals; baby shoes sandals babies boy girl; Category containing the most beautiful sandals for your baby