A mapping table is a lookup table for converting many source values into the right ones at once — classically your own category names onto the Google product taxonomy. Create one from a catalog's Data sources tab, seed its keys from your feed's real values, fill in the target for each, and a lookup reads from it.
What a mapping table is#
A mapping table is a grid of two kinds of columns. The key columns hold the source values you're mapping from — usually pulled straight from your feed, like every distinct category name in your catalog. The value columns hold what each key should map to — the correct category, code, or label. One row lines a source value up with its answer.
The table doesn't change any product data on its own. A lookup reads from it: for each product, the lookup matches a value against the table's key column and returns the mapped value column. The table header shows "used by N lookups" so you can see how many lookups depend on it. Joining a lookup to a table is covered in Joining another feed.
Create a mapping table from Data sources#
- Open the catalog and go to the Data sources tab.
- Click + Add auxiliary feed and choose Mapping table. (The same menu offers Feed URL… for joining a second live feed, Google Sheet for a published Google Sheet, and File upload for an uploaded file.)
- The grid opens. Give it a name inline in the header, then seed its keys and fill in the values as below.
Seed a mapping table's keys from your catalog's real values#
You don't type source values by hand — you pull them from your feed so the table matches what's actually there. The key column is seeded from a catalog value, and a caption under it reads "{column} seeded from {expr}" so you always know where the keys come from.
When your feed changes, click Re-seed from catalog in the header to refresh the key list to your latest import. Seeding from real values means you map exactly the categories your catalog contains — no guessing, no dead entries.
A synthetic "Products" column shows how many products in your catalog currently carry each key value, and the grid sorts by it by default. The values covering the most products sit at the top, so you can map the highest-impact ones first and leave the long tail for later.
Fill in the target values (Text or Google taxonomy)#
Each value column has a type, shown as a badge you can change: Text or Google taxonomy.
- Text cells take any free-form value — a code, a label, a corrected name.
- Google taxonomy cells open a picker for Google's product taxonomy. Search for a category by name (the default), or switch to Browse the tree to walk the hierarchy. Free text is always allowed, so you can paste or type a value the picker doesn't surface.
Use a Google taxonomy column for the classic job: mapping your own category names onto the categories Google expects.
Bulk-fill a mapping table by pasting from Excel or Sheets#
If you already have your mappings in a spreadsheet, you don't have to re-enter them. Copy two columns from Excel or Google Sheets — the source value in the first, the target in the second — and paste them anywhere in the grid. Renable merges by key: it fills the matching existing rows and adds any keys the table didn't have yet, then reports how many it filled and added. This is the fastest way to load a large mapping you've already worked out elsewhere.
Keep a mapping table current as your feed drifts#
Your feed changes, and new source values appear that the table doesn't cover yet. Renable highlights these as "new" rows — a value that showed up in your feed on the last import but that a lookup couldn't match to any key. They stay as highlighted placeholders until you give one a value, at which point it becomes a permanent row.
Three filter pills above the grid let you focus:
- All — every row.
- Unmapped — keys that still have no value.
- New — the drift rows that appeared since the last import.
Header chips count how many keys are mapped, unmapped, and new, so a glance tells you whether the table has fallen behind your catalog.
How a lookup reads from your mapping table#
A mapping table only takes effect once a lookup points at it. When you add a lookup and choose Look up from a mapping table, it matches a product value against the table's key and returns the value column you pick. From the lookup you can also jump back to Edit table… to add or correct rows. See Joining another feed for the full lookup setup.
Table edits ride the catalog draft like everything else in the workspace. Click Done to close the grid, then Publish the catalog so your lookups pick up the new mappings — nothing reprocesses until you publish. See Transforming your feed.
Mapping table limits#
A mapping table holds up to 5,000 rows and 50 columns. If you're mapping something larger, split it across more than one table or narrow the key values you seed.
Or ask Aimée#
You don't have to build the table by hand. Tell Aimée what you're mapping — "map my category names to the Google product taxonomy" — and she can create the table, seed it from your feed, fill in rows, and wire up the lookup, then publish once you approve.
Where to go next#
- Joining another feed — how a lookup reads from a mapping table or a second feed.
- Transforming your feed — the draft-and-publish model these edits live in.