Setup
Setup consists of three building blocks: your Icecat account, the decision what may be pulled, and the throttling of the background run. The guided path is the wizard; the setup card contains everything from the wizard plus automation and throttling.
Hub first
The wizard automatically redirects to the hub setup as long as the merchantCENTRAL platform has not been configured yet.
The Setup Wizard
Assisted Setup → merchantCENTRAL: Set up Icecat product content (group AD merchantCENTRAL – Setup):
- Welcome — explains what the module does, and what it deliberately does not.
- Your Icecat account — enter the Icecat User Name (shop name), store the API Token and Content Token through the input dialog, optionally set Full Icecat Subscription. Test Connection immediately verifies that account and tokens work.
- What to pull — descriptions, images (with a per-item maximum), documents, specifications.
- Almost done — the Account line shows whether everything is present. Finish saves.
The wizard only writes on Finish; closing with X or Esc discards. The two tokens are the exception: they go straight into the encrypted store and are never displayed again. The account step may be skipped and completed later.
The Setup Card
Search for Icecat Setup.
General and Account
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Enabled | The master switch. It writes through to the hub module registry so the setup card and the module list can never disagree. Switching on requires a licence or a running demo |
| Icecat User Name | Your shop name at Icecat |
| API Token / Content Token | Show Stored or Not stored; a click opens the input. Both tokens are required |
| Full Icecat Subscription | Informational only: phrases the message for missing brand coverage accordingly |
The Test Connection action sends a single request for a known Open Icecat test article. Even "test article not found" counts as success — it proves Icecat accepted the account; only a technical failure fails the test and names the reason.
Content and Automation
| Field | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Import Descriptions | on | Cache marketing texts |
| Import Images | on | Fetch the gallery and copy it into your own media storage |
| Import Documents | on | Attach datasheets and manuals as product documents |
| Import Specifications | off | Cache technical specifications |
| Write Item Attributes | off | Write enabled specifications as BC item attributes (see Attribute Mapping) |
| Queue New Items Automatically | off | New items, and items whose GTIN, manufacturer code or manufacturer part number changes, queue themselves |
Automation after the first run
Queue New Items Automatically is deliberately off so a data migration does not silently turn into tens of thousands of requests. Switch it on after the first coverage run is through.
Item Data
| Field | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Max. Images per Item | 5 | Every image costs storage and transfer |
| Set Item Picture When Missing | on | The first image becomes the item picture — only for items without one |
| Fill Empty Item Description | off | Writes the Icecat title into empty item descriptions. Careful: this is master data that appears on documents |
Throttling
| Field | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Max. Items per Run | 200 | Upper limit of one background run |
| Stagger (ms) | 200 | Pause between two requests |
| Recheck Items Without Match After (Days) | 30 | Re-check for items Icecat did not know. 0 = never |
| Refresh Content After (Days) | 180 | Refresh of already fetched content, at the lowest priority. 0 = never |
Background Run and Languages
- Schedule Background Run creates the hourly job queue entry — deliberately on click only, and only while the module is active with a complete account, never at installation.
- The Languages action opens the language list. Every active language multiplies the requests; the language with the lowest sort order is the leading language. Prefer deactivating languages over deleting them.
The licence FactBox on the setup card shows the module status and offers Register Demo.