WO2017187126A1 - An apparatus for controlling data held by an online merchant center - Google Patents

An apparatus for controlling data held by an online merchant center Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2017187126A1
WO2017187126A1 PCT/GB2017/050889 GB2017050889W WO2017187126A1 WO 2017187126 A1 WO2017187126 A1 WO 2017187126A1 GB 2017050889 W GB2017050889 W GB 2017050889W WO 2017187126 A1 WO2017187126 A1 WO 2017187126A1
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WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
data
rule
override
optimiser
source
Prior art date
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PCT/GB2017/050889
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French (fr)
Inventor
Glyn Stewart POWDITCH
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Dream Agility Limited
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Publication of WO2017187126A1 publication Critical patent/WO2017187126A1/en

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    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q30/00—Commerce
    • G06Q30/06—Buying, selling or leasing transactions
    • G06Q30/0601—Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q30/00—Commerce
    • G06Q30/06—Buying, selling or leasing transactions
    • G06Q30/0601—Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
    • G06Q30/0603—Catalogue ordering

Definitions

  • An apparatus for controlling data held by an online merchant center is an apparatus for controlling data held by an online merchant center.
  • the present invention relates to an apparatus for controlling data held by an online merchant center. More particularly, but not exclusively, the present invention relates to an apparatus for controlling data held by an online merchant center comprising an optimiser and a content management system, the optimiser being adapted to receive a data set from a data source, the data set comprising at least one data object, perform a rule application step comprising applying at least one rule to at least one data object to provide an amended data set, generate a data feed from the amended data set and upload the data feed to the on-line merchant center, the content management system being adapted to obtain a data object from the online merchant center by a merchant center API, amend it and then upload the amended data object to the online merchant center by the API.
  • Google shopping An increasingly popular method of shopping for goods and services is by online shopping.
  • One (non-limiting) example of this is Google shopping.
  • a user submits a search string describing the desired product to the Google search engine.
  • the Google search engine returns a list of products matching the search string and which are being offered for sale by merchants.
  • the data feed is typically derived from a plurality of data objects, each object corresponding to a particular product.
  • Each data object typically has a plurality of attributes such as size, weight, colour etc.
  • a merchant often requires to upload a data feed derived from a large number of data objects. This could be tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of data objects. The data feed can therefore be large and difficult to maintain.
  • Software is known which manages such data feeds. The software typically reviews the data objects making up the data feed before converting them into a data feed and uploading them to the merchant center. The software may apply one or more rules to the data objects before converting the data objects to a data feed. For example if a shoe manufacturer decides to make all of their shoes out of suede rather than leather the software will replace the term 'leather' in the material attribute of each data object with the term 'suede' before creating the data feed.
  • Such software is useful as it reduces the amount of time consuming manual management of the data objects that is needed.
  • the rules employed by the software tend to be quite general and it can be difficult to generate rules which handle the majority of data objects but also the 'edge cases'. For example if the initial data in one or more data objects is corrupt, blank or in a non-standard format application of the rule may produce a unexpected result.
  • the present invention seeks to overcome the problems of the prior art.
  • the present invention provides an apparatus for controlling data held by an online merchant center, the apparatus comprising a rule source comprising at least one rule for application to data objects; an optimiser connected to the rule source, the optimiser being adapted to
  • the apparatus according to the invention provides the best of both worlds. It enables automated optimisation of the data objects according to rules in a rule source. However, it further enables a user to obtain one or more data objects corresponding to individual products from the merchant center amend them and re-upload them, so allowing for the use of human intuition for better search engine optimisation of the data feed.
  • the content management system receives an override product identifier and obtains the data object having a product identifier corresponding to the override product identifier.
  • the content management system receives a search string and obtains data objects based on a match to the search string
  • the apparatus further comprises an override data store connected to the content management system, the content management system being adapted to store the product identifier and associated overridden attribute values for overridden data objects in the override data store.
  • the override data store is connected to the optimiser, the optimiser being further adapted such that for each product identifier in the override data store the optimiser overrides the attributes of the data object in the amended data set having the product identifier with the associated override attribute values in the override data store prior to generating the data feed.
  • the data source is a database.
  • the optimiser further comprises a web interface, the optimiser being adapted to receive a rule from the web interface and add it to the rule source.
  • the web interface is a graphical interface whereby a rule can be created by dragging and dropping elements on the interface or by pointing and clicking.
  • each rule is applied to each data object in the data set.
  • At least one rule in the rule source is adapted to amend the value of at least one attribute of the data object to which it is applied.
  • At least one of the attributes which is amended is an attribute read by the rule.
  • at least one of the attributes which is amended is not an attribute read by the rule.
  • At least one rule of the rule source is adapted to add an attribute to at least one data object, preferably the data object to which it is applied.
  • At least one rule of the rule source is adapted to create a new data object which is added to the data set.
  • At least one of the rules of the rule source is adapted to remove a data object, preferably the data object to which it is applied, from the data set so that it does not appear in the amended data set.
  • the online merchant center is the Google Merchant Center.
  • an apparatus for controlling data held by an online merchant center comprising a rule source comprising at least one rule for application to data objects; an optimiser connected to the rule source, the optimiser being adapted to
  • rule application step comprising applying at least one rule from the rule source to at least one data object of the data set to amend the data set if prescribed by the rule the set of data objects after the rule application step being the amended data set;
  • Figure 1 shows an apparatus for controlling data held by an online merchant center according to the invention in schematic form.
  • the present invention is described with reference to the Google Merchant Center. For the avoidance of doubt the invention is not so limited. The invention is also suitable for use by other on-line merchant centers such as Amazon, eBay, Rakuten etc.
  • FIG. 1 Shown in figure 1 is schematic form is an apparatus 1 according to the invention.
  • the apparatus 1 comprises an optimiser 2 which receives a data set 3 from a data source 4.
  • the optimiser 2 is shown connected to the data source 4 which is typically a database.
  • the connection need not be permanent, typically the optimiser 2 makes a connection to the data source 4 when required then drops the connection once the required data has been read.
  • the optimiser 2 obtains a data set 3 from the data source 4.
  • the data set 3 comprises at least one (typically many) data objects, each of which corresponds to a product.
  • Each data object has a plurality of attributes.
  • One attribute is a product identifier, typically a product ID code. It also has at least one attribute which relates to an attribute of the product such as size, weight, material, colour etc.
  • the exact form of the data source 4 is immaterial to the invention.
  • the data source 4 could for example be a SQL database which holds information relating to the products in one or more tables.
  • the data source 4 could be in the form of an XML file, an XLS file, CSV or XT file.
  • the data source 4 could be a distributed data source 4 i.e. may comprise more than one database or file or mixtures thereof.
  • the optimiser 2 will read data from each of the databases and/or files and combine the results together to produce the data set 3.
  • the optimiser 2 is further connected to a rule source 5.
  • the rule source 5 contains at least one rule 6 for application to the data objects in the data set 3.
  • the optimiser 2 performs a rule application step.
  • the optimiser 2 applies each rule 6 to each of the data objects in the data set 3 and makes an amendment to the data set 3 if prescribed by the rule 6.
  • the amendment to the data set 3 is an amendment to the data object of the data set 3 to which the rule 6 is applied.
  • a merchant may decide to change the material of all mens size 8 leather shoes from leather to suede.
  • An appropriate rule 6 is included in the rule source 5. This rule 6 is applied to every data object in the data set 3.
  • the data object does not correspond to a mans size 8 leather shoe no amendment is made to the data object. If the data object does correspond to a mans size 8 leather shoe then the material attribute of the data object is changed from leather to suede. In the above example the attribute which was amended was read by the rule 6. In an alternative example the attribute which is amended is one which is not read by the rule 6. As an example, a merchant may decide to source all size 8 mens leather shoes from Germany. The associated rule will read the gender, product and size attributes for each data object. If these are 'mens', 'shoe' and 'size 8' then the rule amends the source attribute for that data object to 'Germany'.
  • the set of data objects at completion of the rule application step is the amended data set.
  • the optimiser 2 then creates the data feed from the amended data set and uploads it to the Google Merchant Center 7.
  • Google reviews the data feed and if it is acceptable makes the products available for searching.
  • Each on-line merchant center may have its own preferred form of data feed.
  • the optimiser 2 may produce one particular form of data feed.
  • the optimiser 2 is adapted to produce data feeds of different formats depending on the on-line merchant center to which it is connected.
  • the optimiser 2 may amend the data objects as prescribed by the rules 6 and then generate a plurality of different data feeds each for a different merchant center.
  • the optimiser 2 compares every data object to every rule 6 in the rule source 5 in the rule application step.
  • the optimiser 2 may have more flexibility than this with only some of the rules 6 being applied to the data objects, or different groups of the rules 6 being applied to different data objects in the rule application step.
  • the optimiser 2 may connect to different rule sources 5 depending upon the data source 4.
  • the optimiser 2 can obtain a first data set 3 from a data source 4 from one merchant and apply one set of rules 6 to it. It can then connect to a different data source 4 from a different merchant and apply a different set of rules 6 to the data objects received from that data source 4.
  • the optimiser 2 comprises a web interface.
  • the web interface By means of the web interface the user can generate rules 6 to be stored in the rule source 5.
  • the web interface is a drag and drop type interface enabling users to drag and drop elements together to form rules 6. These are then converted into programmatic rules and stored in the rule source 5. Alternatively, one can click on the interface at the point where one wishes to insert a rule 6. A selection box appears as a pop up. A user can select a desired item from the selection box which is inserted at the selected space. This type of interface is more suited to use on mobile devices.
  • a rule 6 may amend the data set 3 by adding new attributes to data objects in that data set 3.
  • a rule 6 may amend the data set 3 by creating data objects which are added to the date set 3. For example, if the data set 3 comprises a data object relating to a mens shoe of size 8, a rule 6 may automatically generate corresponding data objects for equivalent shoes of all other sizes which are added to the data set 3.
  • a rule 6 may read attribute values from one or more data objects and then amend an attribute value of a further data object based on the read values.
  • a rule 6 may delete one or more data objects such that they do not appear in the amended data set 3. For example, the rule 6 may delete data objects from the data set 3 based on the product identifier of the data object. As an alternative example the rule 6 may delete a data object from the data set if its availability attribute is Out of stock'.
  • the apparatus 1 also comprises a content management system 8.
  • the content management system 8 provides an interface. A user enters an override product identifier to the content management system 8 via the web interface.
  • the content management system 8 obtains the data object corresponding to the override product identifier from the Google merchant center 7 by means of the Google Content API 9.
  • the user then enters one or more override attribute values for attributes of the data object.
  • the content management system 8 then overrides the values of the specified attributes with the override attribute values.
  • the content management system 8 then re-uploads the overridden data objects back to the Google merchant center by means of the Google content API 9.
  • the content management system 8 allows a user to amend the values for individual product without having to regenerate the entire product feed.
  • the interface of the content management system 8 is more complex.
  • the user interface can accept a search query similar to a google search engine and return one or more data objects which match the search query via the API 9 as described above.
  • the user can then further search or sort these data objects as required.
  • the attributes of these data objects can be changed to override attribute values as described above.
  • the Content management system 8 will then re-upload the amended data object(s) via the API 9.
  • the search query could be a range of product identifiers.
  • the content management system 8 will then return all of the data objects having product identifiers in the range.
  • the search query could be based on one or more attribute values.
  • the content management system 8 will then return data objects which match the attribute values. More complex search queries are possible.
  • an override data store 10 Connected to the content management system 8 is an override data store 10. Whenever the content management system 8 overrides one or more attributes of a data object it stores the product identifier of the data object and the values of the overridden attributes in the override data store 10.
  • the optimiser 2 is also connected to the override data store 10. Once the optimiser 2 has created the amended data set it then checks the override data store 10. If the optimiser 2 finds a product identifier and one or more associated override attributes values in the override data store 10 it locates the data object in the amended data set having the product identifier. It then overrides the appropriate attributes of that data object with the override attribute values. This process is repeated for every product identifier and associated override attribute values found in the override data store 10. Once this process is completed the optimiser 2 then generates the data feed as described above.
  • This process ensures that the amendments to the data objects made by the content management system 8 are not overwritten when the optimiser 2 performs rule based amendments.
  • the optimiser 2 may also be connected to a code base 1. Developers can develop code which is injected into the optimiser 2. The optimiser 2 will execute this code so providing the optimiser 2 with additional functionality.
  • the injected code could for example connect to external APIs to supplement the data feed with additional information before the data feed is uploaded to the on-line merchant center. Such additional information could for example be location, weather or other data.
  • the code could run algorithms on the data objects in the data set 3, amended data set of data feed. For example, the algorithm could find duplicate objects in the data feed and combine them together.

Abstract

An apparatus for controlling data held by an online merchant center, the apparatus comprising a rule source comprising at least one rule for application to data objects; an optimiser connected to the rule source, the optimiser being adapted to (i) receive a data set from a data source, the data set comprising at least one data object, the at least one data object comprising a product identifier and at least one attribute relating to the product; (ii) perform a rule application step, the rule application step comprising applying at least one rule from the rule source to at least one data object of the data set to amend the data set if prescribed by the rule, the set of data objects after the rule application step being the amended data set; (iii) generate a data feed from the amended data set; (iv) upload the data feed to the online merchant center; and, a content management system, the content management system being adapted to (i) obtain at least one data object via an API of the online merchant center; (ii) override the value of at least one attribute of the at least one data object with a override attribute value to produce an overridden data object; and, (iii) upload the at least one overridden data object to the online merchant center via the API of the online merchant center.

Description

An apparatus for controlling data held by an online merchant center.
The present invention relates to an apparatus for controlling data held by an online merchant center. More particularly, but not exclusively, the present invention relates to an apparatus for controlling data held by an online merchant center comprising an optimiser and a content management system, the optimiser being adapted to receive a data set from a data source, the data set comprising at least one data object, perform a rule application step comprising applying at least one rule to at least one data object to provide an amended data set, generate a data feed from the amended data set and upload the data feed to the on-line merchant center, the content management system being adapted to obtain a data object from the online merchant center by a merchant center API, amend it and then upload the amended data object to the online merchant center by the API.
An increasingly popular method of shopping for goods and services is by online shopping. One (non-limiting) example of this is Google shopping. A user submits a search string describing the desired product to the Google search engine. The Google search engine returns a list of products matching the search string and which are being offered for sale by merchants.
In order to have products appear in this list a merchant must upload a data feed to the associated merchant center. The data feed is typically derived from a plurality of data objects, each object corresponding to a particular product. Each data object typically has a plurality of attributes such as size, weight, colour etc.
A merchant often requires to upload a data feed derived from a large number of data objects. This could be tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of data objects. The data feed can therefore be large and difficult to maintain. Software is known which manages such data feeds. The software typically reviews the data objects making up the data feed before converting them into a data feed and uploading them to the merchant center. The software may apply one or more rules to the data objects before converting the data objects to a data feed. For example if a shoe manufacturer decides to make all of their shoes out of suede rather than leather the software will replace the term 'leather' in the material attribute of each data object with the term 'suede' before creating the data feed.
Such software is useful as it reduces the amount of time consuming manual management of the data objects that is needed. The rules employed by the software however tend to be quite general and it can be difficult to generate rules which handle the majority of data objects but also the 'edge cases'. For example if the initial data in one or more data objects is corrupt, blank or in a non-standard format application of the rule may produce a unexpected result.
The present invention seeks to overcome the problems of the prior art.
Accordingly, the present invention provides an apparatus for controlling data held by an online merchant center, the apparatus comprising a rule source comprising at least one rule for application to data objects; an optimiser connected to the rule source, the optimiser being adapted to
(i) receive a data set from a data source, the data set comprising at least one data object, the at least one data object comprising a product identifier and at least one attribute relating to the product;
(ii) perform a rule application step, the rule application step comprising applying at least one rule from the rule source to at least one data object of the data set to amend the data set if prescribed by the rule, the set of data objects after the rule application step being the amended data set; (iii) generate a data feed from the amended data set;
(iv) upload the data feed to the online merchant center; and, a content management system, the content management system being adapted to
(i) obtain at least one data object via an API of the online merchant center;
(ii) override the value of at least one attribute of the at least one data object with a override attribute value to produce an overridden data object; and,
(iii) upload the at least one overridden data object to the online merchant center via the API of the online merchant center.
The apparatus according to the invention provides the best of both worlds. It enables automated optimisation of the data objects according to rules in a rule source. However, it further enables a user to obtain one or more data objects corresponding to individual products from the merchant center amend them and re-upload them, so allowing for the use of human intuition for better search engine optimisation of the data feed.
Preferably the content management system receives an override product identifier and obtains the data object having a product identifier corresponding to the override product identifier.
Preerably the content management system receives a search string and obtains data objects based on a match to the search string Preferably the apparatus further comprises an override data store connected to the content management system, the content management system being adapted to store the product identifier and associated overridden attribute values for overridden data objects in the override data store.
Preferably the override data store is connected to the optimiser, the optimiser being further adapted such that for each product identifier in the override data store the optimiser overrides the attributes of the data object in the amended data set having the product identifier with the associated override attribute values in the override data store prior to generating the data feed.
Preferably the data source is a database.
Preferably the optimiser further comprises a web interface, the optimiser being adapted to receive a rule from the web interface and add it to the rule source.
Preferably the web interface is a graphical interface whereby a rule can be created by dragging and dropping elements on the interface or by pointing and clicking.
Preferably each rule is applied to each data object in the data set.
Preferably at least one rule in the rule source is adapted to amend the value of at least one attribute of the data object to which it is applied.
Preferably at least one of the attributes which is amended is an attribute read by the rule. Preferably at least one of the attributes which is amended is not an attribute read by the rule.
Preferably at least one rule of the rule source is adapted to add an attribute to at least one data object, preferably the data object to which it is applied.
Preferably at least one rule of the rule source is adapted to create a new data object which is added to the data set.
Preferably at least one of the rules of the rule source is adapted to remove a data object, preferably the data object to which it is applied, from the data set so that it does not appear in the amended data set.
Preferably the online merchant center is the Google Merchant Center.
In a further aspect of the invention there is provided an apparatus for controlling data held by an online merchant center, the apparatus comprising a rule source comprising at least one rule for application to data objects; an optimiser connected to the rule source, the optimiser being adapted to
(i) receive a data set from a data source, the data set comprising at least one data object comprising a product identifier and at least one attribute relating to the product;
(ii) perform a rule application step, the rule application step comprising applying at least one rule from the rule source to at least one data object of the data set to amend the data set if prescribed by the rule the set of data objects after the rule application step being the amended data set;
(iii) generate a data feed from the amended data set; and,
(iv) upload the data feed to the online merchant center; and, an override data store connected to the optimiser, the override data store being adapted to store the product identifier and associated override attribute values for overridden data objects; the optimiser being further adapted such that for each product identifier in the override data store the optimiser overrides the attributes of the data object in the amended data set having the product identifier with the associated override attribute values in the override data store prior to generating the data feed.
The present invention will now be described by way of example only and not in any limitative sense with reference to the accompanying drawings in which
Figure 1 shows an apparatus for controlling data held by an online merchant center according to the invention in schematic form.
The present invention is described with reference to the Google Merchant Center. For the avoidance of doubt the invention is not so limited. The invention is also suitable for use by other on-line merchant centers such as Amazon, eBay, Rakuten etc.
Shown in figure 1 is schematic form is an apparatus 1 according to the invention. The apparatus 1 comprises an optimiser 2 which receives a data set 3 from a data source 4. The optimiser 2 is shown connected to the data source 4 which is typically a database. The connection need not be permanent, typically the optimiser 2 makes a connection to the data source 4 when required then drops the connection once the required data has been read.
The optimiser 2 obtains a data set 3 from the data source 4. The data set 3 comprises at least one (typically many) data objects, each of which corresponds to a product. Each data object has a plurality of attributes. One attribute is a product identifier, typically a product ID code. It also has at least one attribute which relates to an attribute of the product such as size, weight, material, colour etc.
The exact form of the data source 4 is immaterial to the invention. The data source 4 could for example be a SQL database which holds information relating to the products in one or more tables. Alternatively, the data source 4 could be in the form of an XML file, an XLS file, CSV or XT file. The data source 4 could be a distributed data source 4 i.e. may comprise more than one database or file or mixtures thereof. In this case the optimiser 2 will read data from each of the databases and/or files and combine the results together to produce the data set 3.
The optimiser 2 is further connected to a rule source 5. The rule source 5 contains at least one rule 6 for application to the data objects in the data set 3. In use the optimiser 2 performs a rule application step. In the rule application step the optimiser 2 applies each rule 6 to each of the data objects in the data set 3 and makes an amendment to the data set 3 if prescribed by the rule 6. Typically, the amendment to the data set 3 is an amendment to the data object of the data set 3 to which the rule 6 is applied. As an example, a merchant may decide to change the material of all mens size 8 leather shoes from leather to suede. An appropriate rule 6 is included in the rule source 5. This rule 6 is applied to every data object in the data set 3. If the data object does not correspond to a mans size 8 leather shoe no amendment is made to the data object. If the data object does correspond to a mans size 8 leather shoe then the material attribute of the data object is changed from leather to suede. In the above example the attribute which was amended was read by the rule 6. In an alternative example the attribute which is amended is one which is not read by the rule 6. As an example, a merchant may decide to source all size 8 mens leather shoes from Germany. The associated rule will read the gender, product and size attributes for each data object. If these are 'mens', 'shoe' and 'size 8' then the rule amends the source attribute for that data object to 'Germany'.
The set of data objects at completion of the rule application step is the amended data set.
The optimiser 2 then creates the data feed from the amended data set and uploads it to the Google Merchant Center 7. Google then reviews the data feed and if it is acceptable makes the products available for searching.
Each on-line merchant center may have its own preferred form of data feed. The optimiser 2 may produce one particular form of data feed. In an alternative embodiment the optimiser 2 is adapted to produce data feeds of different formats depending on the on-line merchant center to which it is connected. The optimiser 2 may amend the data objects as prescribed by the rules 6 and then generate a plurality of different data feeds each for a different merchant center.
In the above embodiment the optimiser 2 compares every data object to every rule 6 in the rule source 5 in the rule application step. The optimiser 2 may have more flexibility than this with only some of the rules 6 being applied to the data objects, or different groups of the rules 6 being applied to different data objects in the rule application step. The optimiser 2 may connect to different rule sources 5 depending upon the data source 4. The optimiser 2 can obtain a first data set 3 from a data source 4 from one merchant and apply one set of rules 6 to it. It can then connect to a different data source 4 from a different merchant and apply a different set of rules 6 to the data objects received from that data source 4.
Typically, the optimiser 2 comprises a web interface. By means of the web interface the user can generate rules 6 to be stored in the rule source 5. Typically, the web interface is a drag and drop type interface enabling users to drag and drop elements together to form rules 6. These are then converted into programmatic rules and stored in the rule source 5. Alternatively, one can click on the interface at the point where one wishes to insert a rule 6. A selection box appears as a pop up. A user can select a desired item from the selection box which is inserted at the selected space. This type of interface is more suited to use on mobile devices.
Alternative forms of rule 6 are also possible. For example, a rule 6 may amend the data set 3 by adding new attributes to data objects in that data set 3. As an alternative, or additionally, a rule 6 may amend the data set 3 by creating data objects which are added to the date set 3. For example, if the data set 3 comprises a data object relating to a mens shoe of size 8, a rule 6 may automatically generate corresponding data objects for equivalent shoes of all other sizes which are added to the data set 3. As a further example of a rule 6, a rule 6 may read attribute values from one or more data objects and then amend an attribute value of a further data object based on the read values.
As an additional example of a rule 6, a rule 6 may delete one or more data objects such that they do not appear in the amended data set 3. For example, the rule 6 may delete data objects from the data set 3 based on the product identifier of the data object. As an alternative example the rule 6 may delete a data object from the data set if its availability attribute is Out of stock'. The apparatus 1 also comprises a content management system 8. The content management system 8 provides an interface. A user enters an override product identifier to the content management system 8 via the web interface. The content management system 8 obtains the data object corresponding to the override product identifier from the Google merchant center 7 by means of the Google Content API 9. The user then enters one or more override attribute values for attributes of the data object. The content management system 8 then overrides the values of the specified attributes with the override attribute values. The content management system 8 then re-uploads the overridden data objects back to the Google merchant center by means of the Google content API 9.
The content management system 8 allows a user to amend the values for individual product without having to regenerate the entire product feed.
In an alternative embodiment of the invention the interface of the content management system 8 is more complex. The user interface can accept a search query similar to a google search engine and return one or more data objects which match the search query via the API 9 as described above. The user can then further search or sort these data objects as required. The attributes of these data objects can be changed to override attribute values as described above. The Content management system 8 will then re-upload the amended data object(s) via the API 9. Several different types of matching are possible. For example the search query could be a range of product identifiers. The content management system 8 will then return all of the data objects having product identifiers in the range. Alternatively, the search query could be based on one or more attribute values. The content management system 8 will then return data objects which match the attribute values. More complex search queries are possible. Connected to the content management system 8 is an override data store 10. Whenever the content management system 8 overrides one or more attributes of a data object it stores the product identifier of the data object and the values of the overridden attributes in the override data store 10.
The optimiser 2 is also connected to the override data store 10. Once the optimiser 2 has created the amended data set it then checks the override data store 10. If the optimiser 2 finds a product identifier and one or more associated override attributes values in the override data store 10 it locates the data object in the amended data set having the product identifier. It then overrides the appropriate attributes of that data object with the override attribute values. This process is repeated for every product identifier and associated override attribute values found in the override data store 10. Once this process is completed the optimiser 2 then generates the data feed as described above.
This process ensures that the amendments to the data objects made by the content management system 8 are not overwritten when the optimiser 2 performs rule based amendments.
The optimiser 2 may also be connected to a code base 1. Developers can develop code which is injected into the optimiser 2. The optimiser 2 will execute this code so providing the optimiser 2 with additional functionality. The injected code could for example connect to external APIs to supplement the data feed with additional information before the data feed is uploaded to the on-line merchant center. Such additional information could for example be location, weather or other data. Additionally/alternatively, the code could run algorithms on the data objects in the data set 3, amended data set of data feed. For example, the algorithm could find duplicate objects in the data feed and combine them together.

Claims

1. An apparatus for controlling data held by an online merchant center, the apparatus comprising a rule source comprising at least one rule for application to data objects; an optimiser connected to the rule source, the optimiser being adapted to
(i) receive a data set from a data source, the data set comprising at least one data object, the at least one data object comprising a product identifier and at least one attribute relating to the product;
(ii) perform a rule application step, the rule application step comprising applying at least one rule from the rule source to at least one data object of the data set to amend the data set if prescribed by the rule, the set of data objects after the rule application step being the amended data set;
(iii) generate a data feed from the amended data set;
(iv) upload the data feed to the online merchant center; and, a content management system, the content management system being adapted to
(i) obtain at least one data object via an API of the online merchant center;
(ii) override the value of at least one attribute of the at least one data object with a override attribute value to produce an overridden data object; and,
(iii) upload the at least one overridden data object to the online merchant center via the API of the online merchant center.
2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the content management system receives an override product identifier and obtains the data object having a product identifier corresponding to the override product identifier.
3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the content management system receives a search string and obtains data objects based on a match to the search string
4. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising an override data store connected to the content management system, the content management system being adapted to store the product identifier and associated overridden attribute values for overridden data objects in the override data store.
5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the override data store is connected to the optimiser, the optimiser being further adapted such that for each product identifier in the override data store the optimiser overrides the attributes of the data object in the amended data set having the product identifier with the associated override attribute values in the override data store prior to generating the data feed.
6. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the data source is a database.
7. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the optimiser further comprises a web interface, the optimiser being adapted to receive a rule from the web interface and add it to the rule source.
8. An apparatus as claimed in claim 7, wherein the web interface is a graphical interface whereby a rule can be created by dragging and dropping elements on the interface or by pointing and clicking.
9. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claimsl to 8, wherein each rule is applied to each data object in the data set.
10. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein at least one rule in the rule source is adapted to amend the value of at least one attribute of the data object to which it is applied. 1. An apparatus as claimed in claim 10, wherein the at least one of the attributes which is amended is an attribute read by the rule.
12. An apparatus as claimed in either of claims 10 or 11, wherein at least one of the attributes which is amended is not an attribute read by the rule.
13. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 12, wherein at least one rule of the rule source is adapted to add an attribute to at least one data object, preferably the data object to which it is applied.
14. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 13 wherein at least one rule of the rule source is adapted to create a new data object which is added to the data set.
15. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 14, wherein at least one of the rules of the rule source is adapted to remove a data object, preferably the data object to which it is applied, from the data set so that it does not appear in the amended data set.
16. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 15, wherein the online merchant center is the Google Merchant Center.
17. An apparatus for controlling data held by an online merchant center, the apparatus comprising a rule source comprising at least one rule for application to data objects; an optimiser connected to the rule source, the optimiser being adapted to
(i) receive a data set from a data source, the data set comprising at least one data object comprising a product identifier and at least one attribute relating to the product;
(ii) perform a rule application step, the rule application step comprising applying at least one rule from the rule source to at least one data object of the data set to amend the data set if prescribed by the rule the set of data objects after the rule application step being the amended data set;
(iii) generate a data feed from the amended data set; and,
(iv) upload the data feed to the online merchant center; and, an override data store connected to the optimiser, the override data store being adapted to store the product identifier and associated override attribute values for overridden data objects; the optimiser being further adapted such that for each product identifier in the override data store the optimiser overrides the attributes of the data object in the amended data set having the product identifier with the associated override attribute values in the override data store prior to generating the data feed.
PCT/GB2017/050889 2016-04-26 2017-03-30 An apparatus for controlling data held by an online merchant center WO2017187126A1 (en)

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Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US20070282693A1 (en) * 2006-05-23 2007-12-06 Stb Enterprises, Inc. Method for dynamically building documents based on observed internet activity
US7870038B1 (en) * 2004-05-07 2011-01-11 American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. System and method for managing electronic catalogs within an enterprise
US20120078731A1 (en) * 2010-09-24 2012-03-29 Richard Linevsky System and Method of Browsing Electronic Catalogs from Multiple Merchants

Patent Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US7870038B1 (en) * 2004-05-07 2011-01-11 American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. System and method for managing electronic catalogs within an enterprise
US20070282693A1 (en) * 2006-05-23 2007-12-06 Stb Enterprises, Inc. Method for dynamically building documents based on observed internet activity
US20120078731A1 (en) * 2010-09-24 2012-03-29 Richard Linevsky System and Method of Browsing Electronic Catalogs from Multiple Merchants

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