Before we start serving Recommendations for our client we have to synchronize their item catalog with our own database.

Item is actually a piece of content, that helps to get the right Recommendations and these are the actual items we recommend as well.
An item consists of an itemId and any additional metadata.
We are using both of these item's data for displaying Recommendations and calculating Recommendations.
Now we are going to learn the proper way to synchronize a CSV or XML item feed with our engine.

You can set up the feed import under the Integration menu.

Recurrent Import

• This method refreshes our own item database from a URL where there is an XML or CSV file located - provided by the client.
• Sometimes the feed is protected, but you can add the credentials also here.
• You can set a start time for the feed import and add a refreshing frequency that is 24 hours by default.
• Only viable in the production phase.

Manual Import

You just have to upload a preformatted XML or CSV file manually. You can check whether the formatting was fine or not with the Validate Button. After that, you can just run it!