Migrate data sources

This guide explains how to migrate your integration from the datafeeds and datafeedstatuses services of the Content API for Shopping to the Data sources sub-API in Merchant API. The new Data sources sub-API provides more direct control over your data pipelines and simplifies data sources management.

For more information on the new features, see the Manage your data sources guide.

Key differences

Compared to Content API for Shopping, Merchant API offers several advantages.

• Explicit data source creation. The API no longer automatically creates a "Content API" data source on your first product insertion. In Merchant API, you explicitly create data sources before you can upload products to them. This gives you more control over the organization and management of your product data pipelines from the start.

• Support for multiple API data sources. In the Content API for Shopping, you were limited to a single, automatically created "Content API" data source. With Merchant API you can create and manage multiple data sources of the API input type.

• Data sources without label and language. The Merchant API lets you create a primary data source without specifying a feedLabel and contentLanguage. This type of data source accepts products in any combination of feedLabel and contentLanguage, which simplifies product uploads for integrations that don't require separate data sources for different regions.

• Simplified data targets. Each data source now corresponds to a single target, defined by a unique combination of feedLabel and contentLanguage. Multi-data target feeds are deprecated in Merchant API.

• Dedicated file upload status. Merchant API represents the status of file-based data sources using a separate, read-only fileUploads resource. To retrieve the status of a file upload, use the fileUploads.get method with the latest alias.

• New data source types. The DataSource resource supports more verticals, including promotions, local inventory, and regional inventory, providing a unified way to manage all your data pipelines.

Requests

The following table compares the request URL formats between the Content API for Shopping and the Merchant API.

Request description	Content API for Shopping	Merchant API
Create a data source	POST https://shoppingcontent.googleapis.com/content/v2.1/{MERCHANT_ID}/datafeeds	POST https://merchantapi.googleapis.com/v1beta/accounts/{ACCOUNT_ID}/dataSources
Get a data source	GET https://shoppingcontent.googleapis.com/content/v2.1/{MERCHANT_ID}/datafeeds/{DATAFEED_ID}	GET https://merchantapi.googleapis.com/v1beta/accounts/{ACCOUNT_ID}/dataSources/{DATASOURCE_ID}
List data sources	GET https://shoppingcontent.googleapis.com/content/v2.1/{MERCHANT_ID}/datafeeds	GET https://merchantapi.googleapis.com/v1beta/accounts/{ACCOUNT_ID}/dataSources
Update a data source	PUT https://shoppingcontent.googleapis.com/content/v2.1/{MERCHANT_ID}/datafeeds/{DATAFEED_ID}	PATCH https://merchantapi.googleapis.com/v1beta/accounts/{ACCOUNT_ID}/dataSources/{DATASOURCE_ID}
Delete a data source	DELETE https://shoppingcontent.googleapis.com/content/v2.1/{MERCHANT_ID}/datafeeds/{DATAFEED_ID}	DELETE https://merchantapi.googleapis.com/v1beta/accounts/{ACCOUNT_ID}/dataSources/{DATASOURCE_ID}
Fetch a data source	POST https://shoppingcontent.googleapis.com/content/v2.1/{MERCHANT_ID}/datafeeds/{DATAFEED_ID}/fetchNow	POST https://merchantapi.googleapis.com/v1beta/accounts/{ACCOUNT_ID}/dataSources/{DATASOURCE_ID}:fetch
Get data source status	GET https://shoppingcontent.googleapis.com/content/v2.1/{MERCHANT_ID}/datafeedstatuses/{DATAFEED_ID}	GET https://merchantapi.googleapis.com/v1beta/accounts/{ACCOUNT_ID}/dataSources/{DATASOURCE_ID}/fileUploads/latest
List data source statuses	GET https://shoppingcontent.googleapis.com/content/v2.1/{MERCHANT_ID}/datafeedstatuses	Not available. Use dataSources.list and fileUploads.get for each file-based data source.

Identifiers

The Merchant API uses a string-based resource name as the identifier.

Identifier description	Content API for Shopping	Merchant API
Data source identifier	datafeedId (numeric)	name (string, format: accounts/{account}/dataSources/{datasource})

Methods

This table compares the methods from the Content API for Shopping datafeeds and datafeedstatuses services to their equivalents in the Merchant API.

Content API for Shopping method	Merchant API method	Availability and notes
datafeeds.custombatch	Not available	Use individual API calls instead.
datafeeds.delete	dataSources.delete	Available.
datafeeds.fetchnow	dataSources.fetch	Available. This method now only works for data sources with a file input.
datafeeds.get	dataSources.get	Available.
datafeeds.insert	dataSources.create	Available.
datafeeds.list	dataSources.list	Available.
datafeeds.update	dataSources.update	Available. Uses PATCH semantics instead of PUT.
datafeedstatuses.custombatch	Not available	Use individual API calls instead. See Send multiple requests at once for more details.
datafeedstatuses.get	fileUploads.get	Available for file-based data sources. Use the latest alias to get the status of the most recent upload. For other data source types, status information is part of the DataSource resource.
datafeedstatuses.list	Not available	To get the status of multiple data sources, first list all data sources with dataSources.list. Then call fileUploads.get with the latest alias for each file-based data source.

Detailed field changes

This table shows the field-level changes between the Datafeed and DatafeedStatus resources in the Content API for Shopping and the DataSource and FileUpload resources in the Merchant API.

Content API for Shopping	Merchant API	Description
Datafeed	DataSource	The main resource for data source configuration.
id	name	The resource identifier. Changed from a numeric ID to a string resource name.
name	displayName	The user-facing name of the data source.
contentType	primaryProductDataSource.channel	Specifies the product vertical. The string values (products, local products) are replaced by an enum (ONLINE_PRODUCTS, LOCAL_PRODUCTS, PRODUCTS).
attributeLanguage	primaryProductDataSource.contentLanguage	The two-letter ISO 639-1 language code of the items in the data source.
fileName	fileInput.fileName	The name of the uploaded file. This field is now nested under fileInput.
fetchSchedule	fileInput.fetchSettings	The schedule for fetching a file-based data source. This is now nested under fileInput.
fetchSchedule.paused	fileInput.fetchSettings.enabled	The logic is inverted. paused: true is equivalent to enabled: false.
format	Not available	The fileEncoding, columnDelimiter, and quotingMode fields are removed. These are now auto-detected.
targets	primaryProductDataSource.feedLabel, primaryProductDataSource.contentLanguage, primaryProductDataSource.countries	The repeated targets field is removed. Each data source now has a single target defined by these fields, reflecting the deprecation of multi-data-target feeds.
DatafeedStatus	FileUpload	The status of a file upload is now a separate, read-only resource.
datafeedId	name	The identifier for the file upload, referencing its parent data source.
processingStatus	processingState	The processing status of the upload. The string values (success, failure, in progress) are replaced by an enum (SUCCEEDED, FAILED, IN_PROGRESS).
errors, warnings	issues	Errors and warnings are merged into a single issues list. Each issue has a severity field (ERROR or WARNING).
lastUploadDate	uploadTime	The timestamp of the last upload. The format changed from a string to a Timestamp object.
country, language, feedLabel	Not applicable	These fields are no longer on the status resource. They are part of the DataSource resource.
targets[].included_destinations, targets[].excluded_destinations	primaryProductDataSource.destinations	The two separate lists for included and excluded destinations are replaced by a single destinations list. Each item in the new list is an object that specifies the destination and its state (ENABLED or DISABLED), providing a more explicit configuration.