Preparing data

Note: You will find a detailed description in our supplier manual of how to prepare your data before delivery – a PDF of the manual is available for download at the bottom of this article. We have summarised the most important information for you below.

Data requirements

Your articles must be structured within a joint XML file. The specifications and information on both the mandatory and optional XML fields can be found in our supplier manual.

If you wish to provide article components (PDF files, or photos) in addition to the articles, the file names must be referenced in the appropriate cell in the XML file.

We would like to point out that the data must be complete and correspond to the original in its entirety.

Data file size

The total size of your data file should not exceed 1.8 GB.

Please deliver photo files in the JPEG (e.g. JPG, JFF), GIF or PNG format. The size of a single photo file should not exceed 3 MB. It should have a resolution of at least 600 px (min. 72 dpi – max. 300 dpi) and be delivered in the RGB colour mode.

PDF files should not exceed 10 MB in size and should have a resolution of at least 72 dpi to a maximum of 110 dpi.

Character set

We recommend using UTF-8. Alternatively, you can also use Latin-1 (ISO- 8859-1).

Compilation of data

Please ensure that the reference to the article components in the XML file is identical to the respective file name. Both the XML and the referenced files of the article components must be stored in a ZIP folder.

Depending on the content to be transferred, two different formats are possible:

1. If you intend to deliver photos or PDF files in the form of attachments to an article, the use of the ZIP format is essential for compressing the data.
2. If only the article itself is to be transferred, you can provide it in the GZIP format.

When importing the ZIP folder, the XML file is checked against the PMG XML (XSD) file, which defines the type and combination of elements and attributes used in XML documents and enables their validation.

File naming

When naming the XML file, please select the name of the ZIP folder without the file extension (e.g. ZIP folder: bil-01102023.zip; XML: bil-01102023.xml).

The name of the file for supplying data is always structured as follows:

[SUPPLIERID-]SOURCECODE-PUBLICATIONDATE[-SEQUENCE NUMBER].Extension.

Umlauts and special characters may not be used. Only the following characters are permitted: A–Z, a–z, 0–9, - (minus)

Supplier ID

The supplier ID is optional and is not evaluated during import. If a supplier ID is not known or has not been provided, you do not need to add this information to the data name.

Source initials

The publication initials are an integral part of the file name and must be specified. Upper- and lower-case letters (A–Z, a–z) and numbers (0–9) are accepted, but umlauts and special characters are not permitted.

Publication date

The publication date is also an integral part of the file name and must be specified in the format DDMMYYYY.

Sequence number

The sequence number is optional and must be specified with a maximum of 10 digits. If the number is missing, 0 (zero) is assumed.

The sequence number must be a decimal number and may contain leading zeros. If letters or special characters are included, the delivery will be rejected. Specifying a sequence number is only permitted for sources that are enabled for automatic update deliveries. For all other sources, only deliveries without a sequence number or with the assumed sequence number 0 (zero) will be accepted.