Metadata-driven processing of supplemental data feeds

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

• maintain feed metadata comprising a first set of semantics describing a transformation of seller feed data to customer-facing data for listing of items in an item catalog and a second set of semantics defined for a feature of the item catalog, the second set of semantics describing a transformation of an attribute related to the feature of the item catalog;
• receive supplemental feed data from a seller comprising a value for the attribute related to the feature for an item listed in the item catalog, the supplemental feed data further indicating a target feature of the item catalog;
• validate the value for the attribute in the supplemental feed data based on the second set of semantics defined for the target feature of the item catalog;
• and
• transform the supplemental feed data to supplemental listings data for inclusion in the item catalog based on the second set of semantics defined for the target feature of the item catalog, wherein the value for the attribute of the item in the supplemental listings data is merged with listings data containing values for attributes for the item periodically loaded from seller feed data based on the first set of semantics in the feed metadata.

A method for supplementing customer-facing listings in an item catalog, the method comprising:

• receiving, at one or more computers, a selection of a feature of the item catalog;
• generating, by the one or more computers, a supplemental feed template from a second set of semantics maintained in feed metadata, the second set of semantics corresponding to an attribute of items in the item catalog, the attribute related to the selected feature of the item catalog, the supplemental feed template comprising header information identifying the selected feature of the item catalog;
• receiving, at the one or more computers, supplemental feed data from a seller comprising a value for the attribute of an item listed in the item catalog, the supplemental feed data created from the supplemental feed template;
• validating, by the one or more computers, the supplemental feed data based on the second set of semantics corresponding to the attribute, wherein the feed metadata further comprises a first set of semantics describing a transformation of seller feed data to customer-facing data for inclusion in the item catalog;
• transforming, by the one or more computers, the supplemental feed data to supplemental listings data for the item based on the second set of semantics corresponding to the;
• and
• merging, by the one or more computers, the supplemental listings data into the item catalog containing customer-facing listings data corresponding to the item loaded from seller feed data based on the first set of semantics, wherein the value for the attribute in the supplemental listings data takes precedence over a value for the attribute in the item catalog loaded from the seller feed data.

A metadata-driven supplemental feed processing system comprising:

• one or more application servers;
• a metadata service providing feed metadata comprising a first set of semantics describing a transformation of seller feed data to customer facing data for inclusion in an item catalog;
• a template generator module executing on the one or more application servers, operatively connected to the metadata service, and configured to
• receive a selection of a feature of the item catalog, and
• generate a supplemental feed template file from a second set of semantics in the feed metadata, the second set of semantics describing a transformation of an attribute related to the selected feature of the item catalog;
• and
• a supplemental feed processing module executing on the one or more application servers, operatively connected to the metadata service, and configured to
• receive supplemental feed data from a seller comprising a value for the attribute related to the selected feature for of an item listing in the item catalog, wherein the supplemental feed data is created from the supplemental feed template file,
• validate the value for the attribute in the supplemental feed data based on the second set of semantics in the feed metadata,
• transform the supplemental feed data to supplemental listings data for the item for inclusion in the item catalog based on the second set of semantics in the feed metadata;
• and
• merge the value for the attribute in the supplemental listings data with listings data containing values for customer-facing attributes for the item periodically loaded from seller feed data based on the first set of semantics.