How to Create a Shareable Shopify Product Feed Using Dropbox and EZ Exporter
Creating a Shopify product feed that can be shared with a third-party is one of the more common uses for our app, EZ Exporter.
Our app can do an automated data export to CSV or Excel format as frequently as every 15 minutes. We have customers that export the product feeds to an FTP server, SFTP server, and even to an Amazon S3 bucket. Using an FTP/SFTP server or an Amazon S3 bucket requires someone more technical, however. Often times, the merchants that use these options have their own IT team.
An easier and less technical alternative is to use Dropbox. Our app has a Dropbox integration and can upload the exported file directly to a Dropbox folder. In Dropbox, you then have the option to create a "shared link" of that file that can be shared with others. EZ Exporter will keep the content of that file up-to-date by overwriting it when the scheduled export runs.
Getting started is pretty easy.
Step 1: Connect your Dropbox account to EZ Exporter
Go to the Integrations -> Dropbox page via the left navigation link and click the "Connect Dropbox Account" button.
Step 2: Create a Product Data Settings and select the fields you'd like to include in the product feed
Create a Data Settings and select the fields you'd like to include in the export. You can select as many or as little data as you need.
Step 3: Create an Export Profile and set the destination to the Dropbox account
Create an Export Profile and assign the Data Settings created in the previous step to it. Also set the export destination to the Dropbox account and specify a folder path (the folder will be created automatically if it doesn't exist).
You can set the export schedule and frequency from this page as well.
You're all set! Now let's do a test run to make sure it works.
Creating a Dropbox "shared link"
Log in to your Dropbox account and locate the file that was just exported.
Select the file and click the Share button.
In the pop-up modal, click the Create link link at the bottom right.
Once the link is created, ensure the permission is set to "Anyone with this link can view the file." and then simply click the Copy link link.
That's all there is to it! Now you can send that link to anyone who you'd like to share the file with.
One thing to note is the link will look something like this by default:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nz7ggexj32nv4uq/product_feed_for_store1.csv?dl=0
The last part where it says ?dl=0 basically tells Dropbox to view the file directly in the browser. If you need a direct download link, simply change ?dl=0 to ?dl=1 like this:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nz7ggexj32nv4uq/product_feed_for_store1.csv?dl=1
The first link will show the file content directly in the web browser while the second link will download the file.
Tags: shopify, dropbox, product feed