Brands

The Brands page lists every brand (manufacturer) of the shop and shows what is missing: logo, brand text, website and the product safety details (GPSR). plinth compares the shop with the data sources set up for it and shows the differences as suggestions. You review them, apply them after a preview, and can undo every run.

Where to find it

Open Products > Brands.

• The tiles at the top count the brands: Brands, Complete, With suggestions, No data and Safe fields. A click on a tile filters the list.
• Below, Filter by note: offers quick filters: Logo missing, Text missing, Text too short, Copied text, GPSR incomplete and, depending on your setup, Without SKU code.
• Click a brand in the list to open its details on the right. Back to list closes them.
• Further down you find the cards Audit log (all runs of this page), Unmatched (only when there is something to assign) and Data sources.
• Reload in the page header reads the brand data from the shop and the data sources again.

Keyboard: j and k select a brand, Enter opens the details, / jumps to Search brands, R reloads.

What you need

Permissions are assigned under Access.

• The shop must be connected, see Onboarding.
• Writing needs a shop that is not read-only. In a read-only shop you can view everything, but every write is refused.
• The lookup works without AI. Only if no website is known for a brand can the AI feature Brand lookup suggest one. That needs an AI key, see AI. Only the brand name is sent.
• If your role works with approvals, your changes are submitted first and written only after approval, see Workflow.

How do I add a brand?

1. Click Add brand in the page header.
2. Enter the Name. It is required.
3. Optional: enter the Website. It must start with http:// or https://.
4. Depending on your setup there is a field SKU code (see below). You can leave it empty and add the code later.
5. Click Create brand.

plinth then creates the brand in the shop right away, with name, website and SKU code. There is no separate preview for this step. The Result window shows the progress and offers Undo. Undo deletes the new brand again.

Logo, brand text and GPSR details are not part of this form. Add them afterwards on the brand, or use the lookup, which fills them in one step.

The SKU code field

This field exists only if SKU codes are set up for your shop. Otherwise the form says SKU codes are not set up for this shop, so there is no SKU code field. The brand is created with its name and website only.

• The SKU code is the prefix of the product numbers of new products of this brand.
• Allowed are letters A to Z, up to five per code. Separate several codes with a comma.
• While you type, plinth checks the code against all other brands and shows Next product number: with an example.
• If another brand already uses the code, you see a warning with the name of that brand. You can only continue after ticking Use it anyway (the product numbers of both brands will start the same).

To change the code of an existing brand, open the brand, go to the card SKU code, type the code and click Save SKU code. A preview follows as for every other field.

How do I look up a brand and add it with the data found?

1. Click Look up brand in the page header.
2. Enter a name or a web address in Brand name or website. If you know the website, also fill in Brand website (optional). This makes the lookup more precise.
3. Click Look up.
4. Check the proposal. Every value shows its source and a Confidence. Values marked please check need a closer look. You can change every field.
5. Under Logo, choose one of the logos found or leave No logo selected.
6. Click Add brand.

Nothing is written to the shop before you click Add brand. After that the brand is created with all values of the proposal: name, website, manufacturer, postal address, e-mail address, the responsible person in the EU if one was found, the SKU code if your shop uses them, and the chosen logo. The run can be undone.

What the lookup reads

• First the data sources of your shop (see the card Data sources).
• Then the brand's own website: the front page, the imprint or contact page, the structured data of the site and up to four logo candidates. plinth only reads public pages, respects the robots.txt of the site and limits the number of requests.
• If no website is known and the AI feature is on, the AI suggests a web address. It is marked AI suggestion. A suggested site that does not mention the brand is shown but not read.
• If your shop uses SKU codes, a free code is proposed from the name. Other free codes offers alternatives.

Under Pages read you see which pages were opened. Notes below the form explain what could not be found, for example No imprint or contact page found: no address.

If the shop already has a brand with that name, the proposal says The brand already exists and Add brand stays off.

Note: Addresses and logos from a website are proposals. Check them before you add the brand, in particular the country at the end of the address.

The SKU code in the dialog

If your shop uses SKU codes, the dialog shows the field SKU code with a proposal derived from the name.

• Next product number: shows what the first own product number of this brand would look like.
• Other free codes offers alternatives. You can also type a code yourself.
• If another brand already uses the code, you see SKU code ... is already used by: .... You can then only continue after ticking I know another brand uses this code too.

The code is the start of the own product numbers of new products of this brand, see own product numbers.

Unknown brands during a product import

If an import file in Products names brands the shop does not have, a notice Unknown brands appears there and the import step Brands is open, see 3. Brands.

1. Click Look up and add all. plinth looks up all brands in the background.
2. In the dialog you tick or untick each brand, correct values with Edit and pick a logo.
3. Click Add selected. Only now are the brands created. The import file is then analyzed again with the new brands.

How do I add a missing logo?

There are two ways.

A logo from the data sources

1. Open the brand. The card Logo shows Logo in shop and, if a source has one, Suggested logo.
2. Click Apply, check the preview and confirm.

If the shop only has an image file and the source has an SVG, the card shows Upgrade. A file that is not safe to use is marked Can't be applied.

Find logos on the brands' websites

1. Click Find missing logos in the page header.
2. Confirm Find missing logos? with Start the search. A background job starts. One search covers up to 60 brands without a logo; start it again for the rest.
3. Wait for the result. Cancel stops the search; nothing has been written at that point.
4. For each brand, choose a logo or untick Accept to skip it.
5. Click Apply selected logos.

Only then are the chosen pictures uploaded to the media of the shop and set as the logo of the brand. If a brand got a logo in the meantime, the run is refused for it. The run can be undone; undo removes the uploaded files again.

How do I add or change the brand text?

1. Open the brand and go to the card Description (brand text).
2. If the shop has no text and a source has a draft, it is shown under Suggestion. You can edit it before applying, then click Apply.
3. Without a suggestion, type the text into the field (Enter value) and click Save.
4. Check the preview and confirm.

Rules for brand texts:

• A text that is already in the shop is never replaced by a suggestion. You can only change it by typing.
• A brand text never counts as safe. It is not part of Apply safe fields.
• Texts must not contain links or web addresses.
• The card Brand page tips tells you if the text is missing, too short or probably copied (for example because several brands have the same text).

How do I fill in the GPSR details?

GPSR means the product safety details of the manufacturer. plinth expects:

• Manufacturer (company)
• Postal address
• Email address
• Responsible person in the EU, only if the address ends with a country outside the EU and the EEA

Steps:

1. Open the brand. In the list, the pill GPSR details shows how many of the needed details are present.
2. For each field, either apply the suggestion with Apply or type the value and click Save.
3. Check the preview and confirm.

Write the address in one line and end it with the country, for example "Example Street 5, 12345 Example Town, Germany". plinth reads the country from the last part of the address. If that part is not a country, the tip Country of the address not recognized appears and plinth cannot check whether a responsible person in the EU is needed.

How do I review and apply suggestions?

Each field of a brand shows the value In shop and, if there is one, the Suggestion with Source and Confidence. The status says how they relate:

A field is marked safe when it is empty in the shop, the source is reliable and nothing needs review. Everything else with a suggestion is marked review.

There are three ways to apply:

1. One field: click Apply in the field card. You may adjust the value first.
2. All safe fields of one brand: click Apply safe fields at the top of the brand.
3. All safe fields of all brands: click Apply all safe fields above the list. This button is only shown with the permission Apply all safe brand data.

In every case a Preview opens first. It lists brand, field, old value and new value. Tick I've reviewed the preview and want to apply this. and click Apply. Only now does plinth write to the shop, brand by brand. Afterwards it reads the values back and checks them. The Result window shows the progress.

Note: If an approval rule applies to you, you see Submitted for approval. Nothing is changed until a team lead approves. The change is written after the approval.

Names that do not match

The card Unmatched lists names from the data sources that match no brand in the shop. Choose the right brand under Choose brand and click Assign. This only links the name; nothing is written to the shop. The suggestions then show up on that brand.

How do I undo a change?

1. Scroll to the card Audit log, or use Undo directly in the Result window after a run.
2. Click Undo in the row of the run.

Undo restores the state before the run:

• Changed fields get their earlier values back.
• Logos uploaded by the run are removed. The earlier logo file was never touched.
• Brands created by the run are deleted again.

If brands were changed after the run, plinth warns you and lists them. Undo anyway overwrites them with the state before the run.

A run can be undone by the person who started it or by someone who may manage jobs. A run over all brands also needs the permission Apply all safe brand data.

How do I export what a run changed?

Click Snapshot in the row of a run in the card Audit log, or in the Result window. You get a JSON file with all changes of that run, before and after. This needs the permission Download run snapshots, and every download is logged, see Audit.

How do I change the settings?

1. Click Settings in the page header. The button is only shown with the permission Change brand settings.
2. The window Settings for this shop (JSON) shows the settings as technical text. It is meant for admins.
3. Change the values and click Save settings.

The settings cover the length below which a brand text counts as too short (80 characters by default), additional fields of a brand that should be shown and checked, and which data sources are switched off. The folders the file sources are read from are set by the operator of plinth and cannot be changed here.

The card Data sources shows which sources are read and how many records each one has.

What do I do when I set up plinth for the first time?

If SKU codes are set up for your shop, the setup overview (see Setup) contains the item Brand SKU codes. It opens the Brands page filtered to Without SKU code.

1. Open each brand in the filtered list.
2. Enter the code in the card SKU code and click Save SKU code.
3. Repeat until the setup item reports that all brands have a SKU code.

The count is refreshed whenever the Brands page is opened. Until then the item says Not counted yet: open the brands page once. In shops without SKU codes this item does not exist.

Where do I see running and finished jobs?

Every write on this page runs as a job: applying fields, adding brands and applying logos. The searches Find missing logos and the lookup of several brands are jobs too, but they write nothing. You find all of them under Jobs; the runs that changed something are also listed in the card Audit log with the status running, applied, failed or undone.

Only one apply run and one lookup can run per shop at the same time.

Common errors and fixes

See also

• Products
• Images
• Quality
• Workflow
• Jobs
• Audit
• AI
• Setup