LinkConnector Product Data Feeds for Affiliates 101

Introduction to LinkConnector Datafeeds
Merchants with Feeds
Pulling Feeds and Automating It
Feed Format
The Feed Columns
FTP Access to the Data Feeds
Feed Export File Naming Conventions

Introduction to LinkConnector Datafeeds

LinkConnector is a small affiliate network that is around since 2005. One of its features is called "Naked Links", which provides some SEO benefits to the advertiser who utilizes this feature. LinkShare also offers advertisers to make a product data feed available to its publishers through the LinkConnector network.

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Merchants with Feeds

Return to Network Specific Implementation Guides and Documentations or to Affiliate Datafeeds Resources.

LinkConnector has a few merchants that provide a data feed, 40 to be precise when I last checked in December 2007. You can get a list of all LinkConnector merchants who offer a product data feed via the following URL:

https://www.linkconnector.com/member/merchantlist.htm?refreshvariable=true&s_sort=0&s_order=asc&kungfuProductFeed=Yes&btnSubmit=Submit&ddDisplay=250

You have to be logged in prior using this link or it won't work. Their login screen does not redirect to the page that was originally requested and made you bounce to the login page.

The LinkConnector help to the product feeds feature is very basic. You can have a look at it at the following URL: https://www.linkconnector.com/member/help.htm?help_id=36

I talked with some folks over at the network and they said that a more detailed documentation will become available soon.

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Pulling Feeds and Automating It

Return to Network Specific Implementation Guides and Documentations or to Affiliate Datafeeds Resources.

Feeds can be downloaded via the affiliate interface on the LinkConnector website. The direct download link for an advertiser feed has the following structure.

https://www.linkconnector.com/member/merchantfeeds.htm?saveas=true&f_merchck%5B%5D=ADVERTISERID

You have to replace ADVERTISERID with the actual numeric ID for the advertiser you want to pull the feed for. You also have to be logged in to be able to pull the feed, which is a problem for automation. I tried to pass along my login credentials via a link that looked like the one below, but it did not work.

https://www.linkconnector.com/member/merchantfeeds.htm?UID=USERNAME&PWD=PASSWORD&saveas=true&f_merchck%5B%5D=4602

I will maybe provide a VBScript that does a login and then pulls the feed in a little bit. A script like this could be written in any programming language, but it is not that easy, because you don't have just to pull content from a URL, but also pull cookie data from the first request and then send those cookie data with the actual request for downloading the feed itself.

I talked to the guys at the LinkConnector network about the option to be able to pull feeds via HTTP by passing along the username and password of the affiliate account and they said that they will be looking into this option. I have a good feeling though that they will make it available eventually, because it is also in their interest. It is easier to manage and to provide access than it is via FTP (see last paragraph) and HTTP works fine, if the product feed to pull is not too large in size.

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Feed Format

Return to Network Specific Implementation Guides and Documentations or to Affiliate Datafeeds Resources.

Standard CSV Format, which means the following:

Column delimiter: COMMA
Row delimiter: CRLF or Carriage Return + Line Feed or for the programmers among you: CHR(13) + CHR(10), the standard windows line break

All values are enclosed in double quotes, no matter if they are actually numeric or not. Every value is basically treated as a string.

The format follows the CSV specifications by the book, which means that double quotes within the content itself are okay, but replaced by 2x double quotes (" becomes "").

Keep in mind that empty fields also have 2x double quotes. This is important if you parse the CSV files yourself without using a tool or programming class that handles the CSV file management for you.

Note: Here is a little trick for how to change the format to something that is easier to use for imports into a database, let's say a pipe delimited feed without the double quotes around the values. 1. Remove the double quote at beginning of each record and the one at the end of each record
2. Then replace ",""," with "||"
3. Then replace "," with |
4. And finally replace "" with ".

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The Feed Columns

Return to Network Specific Implementation Guides and Documentations or to Affiliate Datafeeds Resources.

The first row of the feed contains the column-names. No spaces or characters are used for the column names and no headaches will be caused by it. The LinkConnector data feed has a whopping 50 columns.

Most of the 50 columns are not required though.

Column Name	Length	Required	Description
ProductID	50	X	Unique product identifier for a product with the feed
Type			Blank or one of: book, music, video, other
Categories	60		A category hierarchy starts with the top category and ends with the lowest category where the product is actually attached to. The individual product categories are separated by " > ".
Title	80	X	Name of the product
Description	65536	X	Detailed product description, no line breaks!
Price		X	Selling price in US dollars (decimal number x.xx)
URL		X	URL to the product page (direct link to advertiser's website without affiliate ID encoded) Does not track!
ThumbURL			URL to your thumbnail image
ImageURL			URL to your product detail image
Retail			Blank or retail price in US Dollars (decimal number x.xx)
InStock	1		Blank = N/A, Y = Yes, N = No
Quantity			Blank = N/A or quantity in stock (integer)
Availability			Blank = N/A or the number of days to ship (integer)
PromoText	100		promotion information, text
Shipping			Blank or shipping cost in US dollars (decimal number x.xx)
ShippingWeight			Blank or shipping weight in pounds (decimal number x.xx)
ShippingSurcharge			Blank or shipping surcharge (decimal number x.xx)
ShippingClass	20		Blank or your shipping class (shipping classes are not a standard and should only be considered as "FYI", because the classes can vary from merchant to merchant)
UPC	15		Universal Product Code (UPC)
Brand	20		brand name
Manufacturer	30		Manufacturer
ManufacturerID	20		Manufacturers Product ID
Model	20		Model (e.g. "Escort" for a Ford Escort)
Classification			Blank, new, used, refurbished, open box, returned, overstock or liquidation
Condition			Blank, new, like new, very good, good or acceptable
EAN	15		EAN Number, European Article Numbering code
Currency	3		Currency code, blank = USD
Language	2		Language code, blank = EN
ShipTo	2		Country code where the merchant ships to (e.g., US), Blank = worldwide
ShipFrom	2		Country code from where the shipments originate, Blank = US
Format			Blank, cd, tape, minidisc, LP, EP, 45, paperback, hardback, audiobook, ebook, mp3, itunes, ogg, sacd, wma, dvd or vhs
ISBN			ISBN or ISBN13 number for books
Author	30		Author name
Publisher	30		Publisher name
ReleaseDate	15		Release date (text, no format specified)
Artist	30		Artist name
Director	30		Director name (movies)
Starring	30		Starring actors, headliners (movies)
Rating	10		Parental rating code, R for movies, M for video games for example.
Keywords	255		Keyword list, not specified, but assume that multiple keywords are separated by comma
Commission			Commission amount in US dollars (decimal number x.xx), can be blank = n/a
SubCategory	30		Sub category name
Gender	1		Blank, M = male, F = female
AgeGroup	15		Age group (text), such as adult, teenager, child, baby etc.
AgeRange	15		Age Range (text), such as "10-15" or "10 to 15"
Size	15		Product size
NRFSize	15		National Retail Federation - NRF standard size see NRF website for available standard size and color values.
Color	15		Color, e.g. black, white, pink etc.
NRFColor	15		NRF standard color
Link			Contains the affiliate link with target = _blank and Title as anchor in HTML Format.

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FTP Access to the Data Feeds

Return to Network Specific Implementation Guides and Documentations or to Affiliate Datafeeds Resources.

LinkConnector also provides access to product data feeds via FTP. Contact your responsible contact at LinkConnector to request details about the access via FTP. LinkConnector provided me with a document that describes the naming conventions of the feeds that are made accessible via FTP to some affiliates.

Here is the content of that document:

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Feed Export File Naming Conventions

Return to Network Specific Implementation Guides and Documentations or to Affiliate Datafeeds Resources.

provided by LinkConnector

New feed export file naming conventions (quick version):
The quick version is intended to highlight any changes that may affect your ftp export feed file processes (a more detailed version can be found below). Basically, what will be changing is that file naming will begin containing AffiliateID and MerchantID zero padded to 6 digits and file sequencing information, "<ii>of<nn>" (where ii is the file number of a given file set and nn is the number of files in a given set). If you get your ftp export file as one file containing all of your merchant feeds see section 1. If you get your ftp export files in separate files per merchant see section 2.

Merge all merchant feeds file naming: <AffiliateID>-pfo-<ii>of<nn>.<ext> If you are getting an ftp export file in the form 1234-pfo.csv, starting 12/03/07 your export file will be named 001234-pfo-01of01.csv.
Separate files per merchant feed file naming: <AffiliateID>-pfo-<MerchantID>-<ii>of<nn>.<ext> If you are getting ftp export files in the form 1234-pfo-5678.csv, 1234-pfo-9012.csv, starting 12/03/07 your export files will be named 001234-pfo-005678-01of01.csv, 001234-pfo-009012-01of01.csv.

New feed export file naming conventions (long version):

Merge all merchant feeds in one file vs. separate feeds per merchant files. This functionality may be new to some of you. While our default going forth will be to generate separate feeds per merchant files, if you have been used to all merchant feeds being merged into one file you will still get them that way unless you notify us that you would like separate files.
- Merge all merchant feeds file naming: <AffiliateID>-pfo-<ii>of<nn>.<ext>Where : <AffiliateID> is your AffiliateID zero padded to 6 digits e.g., 001234 <ii> is the sequence number for this file within a file set zero padded to 2 digits e.g. 01 <nn> is the total number of files in a file set zero padded to 2 digits e.g., 01 <ext> is the file extension (csv - comma separated values, txt - tab separated values, are currently supported) Note: When you choose to merge all merchant feeds, the "file set" includes all feed files related to the affiliate.
- Separate files per merchant feed file naming: <AffiliateID>-pfo-<MerchantID>-<ii>of<nn>.<ext> Where : <AffiliateID> is your AffiliateID zero padded to 6 digits e.g., 001234 <MerchantID> is the MerchantID of the contained feed records zero padded to 6 digits e.g., 005678 <ii> is the sequence number for this file within a file set e.g., 01 <nn> is the total number of files in a file set zero padded to 2 digits e.g., 01 <ext> is the file extension (csv - comma separated values, txt - tab separated values, are currently supported) Note: When you choose separate files per merchant feed, each "file set" includes all feed files related to the combination of affiliate and merchant.
Large merchant feeds. Large merchant feeds are currently defined as merchant feeds containing 1,000,000 records or more. If you are approved for and wish to include a large merchant feed in your ftp export certain exceptions to the above apply.
- All large merchant feeds export files will be generated as a separate file per merchant export file set. If you already get your export files as separate files per merchant nothing will be different (other than the fact that the large feed export will be a file set containing more than one file). Your large merchant feed file will be one of your merchant file sets with naming, <AffiliateID>-pfo-<MerchantID>-<ii>of<nn>.<ext>. However, if you get your export file with all merchants merged into one file, the large merchant feed will be created as a separate file set with naming, <AffiliateID>-pfo-<MerchantID>-<ii>of<nn>.<ext>. You will still get your normal feed export file containing your other non-large merchant feeds with naming <AffiliateID>-pfo-<ii>of<nn>.<ext>.
- Individual files of a large merchant feeds export file set will contain 500,000 records (or less for the last set file) and be zipped. Note: zipping of your other feed export files is optional but the large merchant feeds file set files will be zipped.
Manifest files. A new manifest file will be created for each file set you have in your export. The manifest file naming <AffiliateID>-pfo-manifest.<ext> (merged merchant feeds) or <AffiliateID>-pfo-<MerchantID>-manifest.<ext> (separate files per merchant). The manifest file contains more detailed information about each export file set including each file in the set, the record count, and file size. Note: If you chose to merge feeds and one or more large merchant feeds were created as separate file set(s), all files - both the merged one and the separated large feed(s) - will still be listed within the single manifest file, in accordance with your merge preference. Below is an example.Manifest file name: 001234-pfo-005678-manifest.csv

"FileName","Record Count","File Size(MB)" "001234-pfo-005678-01of01.csv","404","0.2"
(this example is a separate file per merchant feed, a merged feed would be called 001234-pfo-manifest.csv)

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Other Data Feed Guides, Articles and Resources for Affiliates and Advertisers