How to map your catalog fields

Your source file has whatever column names your shop or supplier decided on: foto_principal, PVP, art_nr. AdMotion works with a standard vocabulary instead — image_link, price, id — so that rules, sets, templates and feeds can be written once and work with any source.

The Fields tab of a catalog is where those two worlds meet. It's worth ten minutes after your first import, because most of what feels broken later starts here.

What the screen shows

Each row is one column from your file:

• Imported field — the column name exactly as it appears in your source. You can't change it here; it comes from your file.
• Catalog field — the standard name AdMotion will use for it from now on. This is the name you'll pick in rules, sets and templates.
• Field type — what kind of data it holds.
• Field subtype — a detail that depends on the type.

We map these automatically on the first import, reading each column's name and a few of its values. It's usually right, but it isn't magic — check it.

Field types

Two names can't share the same Catalog field — once you use title, it greys out everywhere else. Types aren't protected the same way, so read the next section carefully.

The four things to check first

1. Item ID. This is the single most important field in your catalog. Get it wrong and we can't tell one import from the next: no new/changed/deleted counts, no history, and rules that act on changed products stop making sense. Pick a column that is genuinely unique and never empty.

Two fields set to Item ID won't both stick. Nothing stops you choosing it twice, but on save the first one wins and the second silently becomes Text. If a type doesn't seem to save, this is why.

2. The main image. "Main" literally means the first image, and it's what templates and the background remover use. If no field is marked Main image, whichever image happens to come first becomes the main one — which is how you end up with a template rendering the wrong picture. Exactly one image field should be Main image.

3. The decimal separator. This is the most common silent mistake in the whole product. Prices and numbers default to Decimal point (0.01). If your file writes 1.234,56, you must switch to Decimal comma (0,01) by hand — we don't detect it. Get it wrong and 1.234,56 is read as 1.23456, so every rule comparing prices quietly misbehaves while looking fine on screen.

4. Names that look like raw headers. Every row is always mapped to something, so there's no "unmapped" list to check. A column we didn't recognise simply keeps its own name and lands under Custom fields. Scan for names that look like they came out of your file, and remap the ones that matter.

Naming fields yourself

The Catalog field dropdown offers about 77 standard names, grouped by purpose — basic data, price and availability, category, identifiers, details, shipping, tax, custom labels and so on. Pick from these whenever one fits: they're what channels expect, and what our automatic mapping to each channel is built around.

If nothing fits, type your own name and pick Add: your-name. It'll live under Custom fields and works everywhere a standard name does.

What happens when you save

Saving stores the mapping. It doesn't re-import anything, and most changes take effect straight away:

The row order is saved too, and it matters — dragging rows around changes the order fields come out in downstream. It doesn't survive the next import, though: each import puts the rows back in your file's column order. Don't reorder just to tidy up.

Your manual choices are safe — with one exception

Once you've saved this screen, later imports leave your names, types and subtypes alone. Automatic mapping only ever touches fields it hasn't seen before: the first import, or a genuinely new column. It never overwrites what you set by hand.

The exception is worth knowing, because it's silent:

If your supplier renames a column, its mapping is lost. We recognise a column by its name in your file. When foto_principal becomes main_photo, that's not the same field being renamed — it's an old field disappearing and a new one arriving, which then gets mapped automatically from scratch. Your type, subtype and name choices for it are gone, and any rule or template using the old catalog name stops resolving if the new column gets a different one.

Whenever your source file's headers change, come back to this screen.

Group ID and your product count

Group ID marks variants of the same product. Setting it does two things: it's the field pre-filled to group variants by when a set keeps one variant per product, and it changes how you're billed — products sharing a group id count as one product against your plan, not one per variant.

If this field type isn't switched on for your project, it won't appear in the list.

Common issues