Introduction

For a product to be recognized it must be setup in the product catalogue.

A product catalogue is a single, continuously updated source of information on all of the products that may be available for sale across all stores.

It is essential to create a product catalogue that contains the products you wish to recognize with the Tiliter API. This article will guide you through the process of creating a product catalogue in preparation to map products to Tiliter archetypes, which is described in the next section.

A simplified example of a product catalogue is as follows:

Retailer Product ID	Product name used in store
834437	Large Banana
930655	Loose Limes
567001	Portobello mushrooms
129554	Red Bell Pepper
290123	Opal Apple
645433	Yello Apple

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure you have a list of products you want to recognize

The list of products should be exported from your internal database of all sold products. Depending on the arrangement of the organisation, this could be simple, or it could prove to be challenging.

The next step can be made easier by distilling down the export to just the relevant items that are sold without barcodes. For instance, if the export contains flowers and baked goods with packaging, they may clutter the list and make the next step more difficult.

Creating Products

Creating a product involves registering it with the Tiliter Recognition API. This process creates a virtual product with essential information like the product name, ID, and other retailer-specific details.

Here's a sample API call to create a product using a Unix-like command-line interface:

curl -X POST "<https://api.tiliter.com/products"> -H "tiliter-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" -d '{ "product_id": "apple123", "product_name": "Red Apple", "description": "Delicious red apple", "weight_grams": 150 }'

Product Parameters

Each product can have other special parameters, as follows:

Product property	Description
Product ID	A unique identifier for the product.
Product name	The name of the product.
Product description	A brief description of the product.
Recognition enabled	If true (default), this product will be recognised. Set to false to have the product ignored.
Lookup code	An alternative to the product ID field. Can correspond to a PLU (product lookup code) or UPC (universal product code).
Department	The department the product is sold in. Can be fresh_produce or bulk_goods.
Required attributes	Use this field to specify essential attributes always present on a Retailer Product. For instance, if peanuts must be in a brown paper bag and cannot be sold loose, set the brown bag attribute as required. The Tiliter Recognition API will only return peanuts if a brown bag is detected.
Optional attributes	Use this field to specify optional attributes that may be present on a Retailer Product. For instance, if bananas may be organic or not organic, set the specialty label as an optional attribute. That way, the Tiliter Recognition API will know that bananas can be sold in both ways and provide responses accordingly.
Sale method - Currency	ISO4127 code representing the Sale Currency. Can be USD, AUD, NZD, EUR
Sale method - Unit price	Price with up to two decimal places
Sale method - Weight unit	kg, g, lb, oz
Sale method - Quantity unit	ea
Sale method - Tare (only applicable to sold by weight)	Tare with up to three decimal places

More information on the product parameters can be found in Create Product.

Products can be created, updated, and deleted, and can also be retrieved in a list, and retrieved individually using the API functions provided. In addition, a list of all issues with products can be retrieved.

Products in the catalogue need to be linked to a Tiliter Archetype before they can be recognised. This process is known as mapping, and is described in Product Mapping.

Ongoing Product Management

New products are introduced all the time, such as when a new variety of apple is created. When each new product is introduced into any store, new products will need to be created and setup just like existing products were.

The process is exactly the same from a technical perspective. It is recommended to establish practices and processes that ensure that product creation within the Tiliter Recognition API is part of the standard checklist of work required to introduce a new product into any store.

Conclusion

The Recognition API can only recognize products that are in the product catalogue (and mapped to a Tiliter Archetype and in stock). Creating and managing products is required to use the Recognition API. Good management of products will result in the best outcomes, performance, and accurate and useful usage and performance statistics. For more information, see Products.