The legacy version of the product catalog specification and the second version share many similarities. However, a few important differences exist.
The Field Comparison table contains all the available attributes in both versions and indicates which attributes have been renamed or removed.
Field Comparison
| Field | v2 | Legacy | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
item_group_id | ✔ | ✔ | Replaces the product_id field from the legacy catalog |
id | ✔ | ✔ | Replaces the sku field from the legacy catalog |
title | ✔ | ✔ | Replaces the product_name field from the legacy catalog |
image_link | ✔ | ✔ | Replaces the product_image_url field from the legacy catalog |
link | ✔ | ✔ | Replaces the url field from the legacy catalog |
description | ✔ | ✔ | Replaces the product_description field from the legacy catalog |
price | ✔ | ✔ | |
product_type | ✔ | ✔ | Replaces the category_name field from the legacy catalog |
additional_image_link | ✔ | ||
adult | ✔ | ||
age_group | ✔ | ||
availability | ✔ | ✔ | |
availability_date | ✔ | ||
brand | ✔ | ✔ | |
color | ✔ | ||
condition | ✔ | ||
energy_efficiency_class | ✔ | ||
expiration_date | ✔ | ||
gender | ✔ | ||
google_product_category | ✔ | ||
is_bundle | ✔ | ||
loyalty_points | ✔ | ||
material | ✔ | ||
mobile_link | ✔ | ||
mpn | ✔ | ||
multipack | ✔ | ||
pattern | ✔ | ||
promotion_id | ✔ | ||
sale_price | ✔ | ✔ | Replaces the alt_price field from the legacy catalog |
sale_price_effective_date_begin | ✔ | ||
sale_price_effective_date_end | ✔ | ||
shipping | ✔ | ||
shipping_height | ✔ | ||
shipping_label | ✔ | ||
shipping_length | ✔ | ||
shipping_weight | ✔ | ||
shipping_width | ✔ | ||
size | ✔ | ||
size_type | ✔ | ||
tax | ✔ |
Use Case Considerations for Each Catalog Version
In most cases, it is in your best interest to use the current product catalog specification, especially for future-proofing your product catalog. However, there are a few situations in which you may want to continue using the legacy product catalog if your account already has one in Monetate.
| Use Case | Catalog v2 | Legacy Catalog |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy recommendations | ✔ | |
| Use non-category attributes to filter product recommendations (size, color, material, etc.) | ✔ | |
| Display recommendations based on SKU-level attributes | ✔ | |
| Use catalog attributes within the Segmentation tool | ✔ | |
| Use your catalog as context for an Automated Personalization experience | ✔* | |
| Use custom categories with your product catalog | ✔* | |
Include more than one value in a product_type field | ✔* | |
| Use brand-based targeting or conditions in an experience | ✔ | ✔* |
*The Monetate product catalog specification is currently under active development and additional features will be added to alleviate some of the current limitations.
Circumventing Product Type String Limitations
Although you cannot include more than one string value for the product_type field in the current product catalog specification, you can pass the string in a hierarchical format (for example, Mens > Jeans > Bootcut) for increased granularity.