Data requirements for integrating with Northfork

Overview

In order for Northfork to be able to do it’s work, we need to persist data in our end. This includes recipe, product and inventory data. This allows us to make the best choice possible when it comes to for instance transforming a recipe into a list of products. Northfork take pride in being able to handle pretty much any kind of format that can be made available to us.

Recipes

We’ve probably seen every type of format there is, for recipes, and are very flexible in whatever format you prefer.

1. Schema.org

   If your content is formatted using the Schema.org standard, Northfork can take advantage of that and import your data seamlessly. Below is the list of the data we need to make your recipes shopable.

   For more information about the format, visit Schema.org.

   Mandatory fields

   identifier
   Unique identifier. Used as reference to communicate between Northfork and the Publisher.

   name
   Recipe title.

   image
   Image URL or URI.

   recipeYield
   Number of portions/servings that the recipe yields.

   recipeIngredient
   A list of ingredients.

   recipeCategory
   Categories/tags associated to the recipe.
   

   url
   Source URL or URI to display the recipe’s page.

   Optional fields

   cookTime
   Total time it takes to cook the recipe (including preparation and waiting).

   recipeCuisine
   Type of cuisine. 

   recipeInstructions
   Instructions on how to cook the recipe.

   about
   Short description of the recipe.

   aggregateRating
   Rating of the recipe. Can be used to filter by e.g. popularity.
   

   author
   Owner of the recipe.

2. Customised

   Regardless of the way you store your recipe data currently, Northfork can ingest it to our system. Below is an JSON example of what it could look like:

   [
     {
       "id": 12345,
       "title": "Fish Taco deluxe",
       "image_url": "https://somesite.com/images/fish_taco_deluxe.jpg",
       "portions": 4,
       "ingredients": [
         {
           "name": "Tortillas",
           "amount": "2",
           "unit": "pcs"
         },
         {
           "name": "Fish fillet",
           "amount": "200",
           "unit": "g"
         },
         {
           "name": "Lime juice",
           "amount": "1",
           "unit": "oz"
         }
       ]
     }
   ]

Products

1. Products

   MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
   
   ProductID/EAN/GTIN 123456
   Name Yellow onion
   Manufacturer   Barilla
   Size 180
   Unit g
   Section 1/2/3 Vegetables/greens/avocado
   Image 245_IMG
   
   RECOMMENDED REQUIREMENTS
   
   State (labels) Frozen/fresh/canned
   Country DK/SE/US
   Environmental marking (labels) Organic, CO2 Emissions etc.
   Popularity is relative 1
   Perishable date 3 days / 2017-08-02
   Order type Piece|Weight
   

   AVAILABILITY
   
   MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
   
   Store id 123456
   Product id 123
   Price 14,35
   Discount Price   12,34 (when applicable)
   Availability y/n
   In stock y/n

2. Customised
   
   

   Catalog

   Northfork will need meta information about all grocery products, which are available in one or more stores, that ingredients can be converted to. Below is a JSON example of the basic meta data Northfork needs:

   [
     {
       "identifier": 12345,
       "title": "Penne",
       "brand": "Barilla",
       "size": "500",
       "unit": "g",
       "image_url": "https://somesite.com/images/penne_250x250.png"
     },
     {
       "identifier": 12346,
       "title": "Fusilli",
       "brand": "Barilla",
       "size": "350",
       "unit": "g",
       "image_url": "https://somesite.com/images/fusilli_250x250.png"
     }
   ]

   Inventory & Pricing

   In order for the Northfork Smart Cart Resolver to be able to recommend the best available products for the end user, Northfork need data about the products’ inventory status and prices. Below is a JSON example on what it could look like:

   [
     {
       "store_id": 1,
       "product_id": 12345,
       "price": 1.49
     },
     {
       "store_id": 1,
       "product_id": 12346,
       "price": 1.69
     }
   ]

Continuous updates

API integration

Northfork is able to adapt to whatever APIs the retailer has available for third parties to keep the data as “up-to-date” as possible.

Full files

The most common way for Northfork to continuously synchronise data with a retailer is with full files, especially for the product catalog. When it comes to Inventory & Pricing, it varies depending on the amount of data we need to keep track.

Push
SFTP – You push files to Northfork’s server.
AWS S3 – You push files to a Northfork provided S3 bucket.

Pull
Customised – Northfork can pull files from a setup you currently use.

Message Bus
Push – Retailer produces messages to Northfork’s message bus (Kafka)
Pull – Northfork consumes messages from an external message bus.