Understanding mandatory attributes

The Product Catalog API validates variant data based on the feed configuration and validation rules.

The required and available attributes depend on whether the feed is enrich-ready or non-enrich-ready.

Feed types

Mandatory attributes

Mandatory attributes are defined in the Unified Data Schema documentation.

For non-enrich-ready feeds, refer to the (Non-Enrich Ready) Mandatory column.

For enrich-ready feeds, refer to the (Enrich Ready) Mandatory column.

How mandatory validation works

A mandatory attribute does not need to be included in every API request.

Mandatory means that the attribute must exist in the final stored variant state.

The variant_id attribute must always be provided in every imported event or request.

Example: Request fails

The following request fails because the variant does not yet exist and the mandatory attributes are missing.

{
  "variant_id": "123",
  "product_description": "this is my description"
}

The request fails because the required mandatory attributes are not yet stored for the variant.

Example: Request succeeds

The following variant already exists with all mandatory attributes.

{
  "variant_id": "123",
  "product_id": "fdasfsa",
  "product_title": "this is my title"
}

The client sends a partial update request.

{
  "variant_id": "123",
  "product_description": "this is my description"
}

This request succeeds because the variant already exists and already contains all mandatory attributes.

Related information

Review the validation and feedback documentation for more information about request validation and processing behavior.