Feeder

Feeder turns Craft elements (products, entries, categories, orders, customers, users, assets) into export files for external channels — marketplaces, price comparison sites, affiliate networks, or any partner that consumes a periodic CSV/JSON/XML feed instead of an API integration.

Instead of one fixed export format, Feeder is built around independently configurable profiles:

• A feed picks a source (element type + site), an output format, and how it runs (manually, by schedule, or via the console).
• A mapping translates values from your store's vocabulary to a channel's vocabulary — most commonly categories (e.g. Electronics > Phones → a marketplace's numeric category ID).
• A rule is a reusable element condition (date range, related-to, slug pattern, ID list, …) that can be attached to one or more feeds to filter which elements get exported.

Why teams use it

• One feed profile per channel, no code. A store with five sales channels (a marketplace, two comparison engines, an affiliate network, an internal BI export) configures five feeds from the CP — each with its own source, fields, and delivery target — without a developer touching code per channel.
• Format flexibility. Built-in CSV/JSON/XML writers cover the common case; Template mode (header/element/footer patterns with {field|modifier} placeholders) covers channels with a specific XML schema or a format none of the built-in writers produce.
• Delivery included. A feed can push its output straight to an FTP, FTPS, or SFTP target after generating it — no separate cron script needed to move the file where the channel expects it.
• Traceable runs. Every generated export (successful or failed) is recorded in History, with the row count, delivery target, and — for local files — a direct re-download link.

Admin use cases

• Publish a Google Shopping–style or marketplace product feed on a daily schedule, in the exact field order and format the channel requires.
• Re-map internal category names or attribute values to a partner's taxonomy using a mapping profile, without renaming anything in Craft.
• Restrict a feed to a subset of products (e.g. only entries related to a specific category, or created after a given date) using rules, instead of hand-maintaining a filtered element source.
• Push a generated feed directly to a marketplace's FTP/SFTP drop folder as part of the same run that generates it.
• Audit past export runs — row counts, delivery target, failures — from History, and re-download a previously generated file.
• Trigger or inspect exports from the console for CI/deploy pipelines or cron, instead of relying on the CP.

Feed model

Concept	What it is
Feed	A named export profile: source element type + site, output format (CSV/JSON/XML or a custom template), row filtering (conditions + attached rules), field selection, run mode, and optional FTP/FTPS/SFTP delivery.
Mapping	A named source-value → target-value lookup table (e.g. category or attribute translation), referenced from a feed's field template with the map modifier.
Rule	A named, reusable element condition (by date, ID, slug, related-to) with a priority, attachable to any number of feeds.
History	A log of every export run, per feed: status, row count, delivery target, and (for local writes) a download link.

A feed's row filtering combines its own inline condition with every rule attached to it (via rule_ids) — a feed doesn't need its own bespoke condition if an existing rule already expresses it.

Supported sources

Feeder discovers export sources from the current Craft/Yui installation. Always available: Entries, Categories, Users, Assets. When the relevant plugin is installed, also available: Products, Variants, Orders, Customers (from the store/commerce plugin). The full, currently-registered list — including each source's default currency and capabilities — is shown at the bottom of Feeder → Settings.

Basic setup

1. Open Feeder → Feeds → New Feed, pick a source (element type) and site, and give the feed a name and filename.
2. Choose an output format (CSV, JSON, XML) — or leave the header/element/ footer pattern fields blank for the built-in writer, or fill them in to use Template mode (see Usage → Fields, Template mode and modifiers).
3. Optionally restrict rows with the feed's own conditions and/or by attaching one or more rules.
4. Optionally enable FTP/FTPS/SFTP delivery so the generated file is pushed to the channel automatically.
5. Choose how the feed runs: Manually (via the Generate feed button or console), or By Schedule (a cron expression, processed by a recurring feeder/export/run-due console call — see Developer API → Scheduling).
6. Save, then use Generate feed to run it once and confirm the output in History before relying on the schedule.

Further reading

• Settings — plugin-wide defaults: export path, chunk size, history retention, and feature toggles.
• Usage — creating feeds, mappings and rules, template mode and modifiers, generating exports, and reading history.
• Developer API — the console command, the craft.feeder Twig variable, PHP services, and scheduling feeds via cron.
• Release Notes