Operate > IBM Management Center for WebSphere Commerce > Catalogs tool
Upload catalogs
You can upload catalog data by using the Catalogs tool. For example, if the company maintains catalog data in a spreadsheet you can upload the data from the spreadsheet instead of creating catalog data using the Management Center Catalogs tool. However, upload the images associated with the catalog data using the Assets tool.
In the Management Center, you can load the catalog data from a comma-separated value (CSV) file or a compressed file to the WebSphere Commerce database. You can also delete catalog data from the database. The Catalog Upload feature uses the data load utility.
Catalog Upload feature architectureUse the Catalog Upload feature to load:
- A CSV file.
- One or more CSV files in a compressed file (.zip file).
- Multiple language CSV files in a compressed file (.zip file). If you load multiple language CSV files in a compressed file, make sure all the CSV files are using the same file encoding.
Known limitations of the Catalog Upload feature
- Newly created business objects such as catalog entries or categories might not show up immediately on the storefront due to dynamic caching.
To resolve this problem, invalidate cache manually. For more information about cache invalidation, see Remove cache entries through the Cache Monitor.
- The data load utility sample CSV files might not behave the same way as the Catalog Upload CSV files.
Other ways of uploading catalog data
In addition to uploading catalog data using the Catalogs tool, you can also upload catalog data by using the command-line loading utilities such as the data load utility or the mass load utility. The command-line utilities are recommended for large amounts of data, for example, when initially loading the stores catalogs.
- CSV format for catalog data
WebSphere Commerce provides sample CSV files for loading catalog business objects. When loading the catalog data, the CSV file must contain only one type of catalog business object.
- Create catalog data in CSV format
You can create the catalog data to upload into the Management Center in a CSV format.
- Upload catalog data
Use the Catalog Upload feature to upload catalog data in the CSV file or compressed file (.zip) into the database.
Related concepts
Overview of the data load utility
Related tasks
Create catalog data in CSV format
Related reference
Related information
Customize the Catalogs tool to upload data from custom tables