What is a product feed?
A product feed, often referred to as a data feed or product data feed, is a structured file that contains information about products in a standardized format. Net32 will generate a product feed (JSON format) every 4 hours, which contains products available for purchase on Net32. Each product included in the feed includes:
- MPID: The mpid (Manufacturer Product ID) is Net32’s unique ID for a manufacturer product. It is a unique number assigned by Net32 that identifies a manufacturer product in Net32’s catalog.
- Description: A brief explanation that contains information about the product.
- Link: This URL will take you to the product detail page (PDP).
- Availability: This will tell you if the product in the buy box is Stocked, MFR order or Drop Ship from the seller.
- Buy Box Price: The cost of the item for a single quantity purchase. Shipping charges and any additional fees are not included in the price.
- Shipping Fees: The total shipping and heavy shipping fees that would be added to the buy box price in the feed for a single quantity purchase.
- MP Code: Manufacturer product code (mp code) is the unique identifier the manufacturer assigns to a specific product.
- Manufacturer: The company that makes the product.
Here is a snapshot of product data from the feed:
What is a JSON File?
A JSON file is a file format used to store and exchange structured data in a lightweight and human-readable manner. JSON stands for "JavaScript Object Notation." It is widely used for data interchange between a server and a client, between different programming languages, and for configuration files. JSON is easy for both humans and machines to understand, making it a popular choice for representing data in various applications.
JSON data is organized into key-value pairs, where each key is a string and each value can be a string, number, boolean, null, array, or another JSON object. }
Here's a breakdown of the components:
- Key-Value Pairs: Each piece of data is represented as a key-value pair. The key is always a string enclosed in double quotes, followed by a colon, and then the value.
- Strings: Strings are sequences of characters enclosed in double quotes.
- Numbers: Numbers can be integers or floating-point numbers.
- Booleans: Booleans can be either true or false.
- Null: Represents a null value.
- Arrays: Ordered lists of values, enclosed in square brackets [], where each value is separated by a comma.
- Objects: Unordered collections of key-value pairs, enclosed in curly braces {}.
JSON is used extensively in web development, APIs, data serialization, and configuration files. It's easy to generate and parse in most programming languages, making it a versatile choice for exchanging and representing data.
How to access the feed?
The feed can be viewed and downloaded from Net32 using the following URL. Please note that the file size may be too large to be opened in certain browsers:
https://www.net32.com/feeds/vendors/Net32.json
How to use the feed?
- Integrate: Have your developer build a connection to the file to get the lowest price every 4 hours.
- Using your Browser: If you will be using your browser to access the product feed please be aware that the browser stores a copy (cached version) because it is a lot faster for your browser to load the website locally, as opposed to downloading the website from the internet again. Although storing pages to the browser's cache makes loading pages faster, it will mean that you won’t see the updated feed every 4 hours. In this situation, you would hard refresh your browser to clear the cache and download the new content. Performing a hard refresh is easy, and the commands vary depending on your browser and operating system. The information below shows how to hard refresh Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Safari browser.
Google Chrome:
- Windows/Linux:
- Press Ctrl + F5 simultaneously.
- Mac:
- Press Command + Shift + R simultaneously.
Mozilla Firefox:
- Windows/Linux:
- Press Ctrl + F5 simultaneously.
- Mac:
- Press Command + Shift + R simultaneously.
Apple Safari:
- Mac:
- Press Command + Option + R simultaneously.
Microsoft Edge:
- Windows:
- Press Ctrl + F5 simultaneously.
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