Items

This guide introduces you to the concept of items. 

What are items

Items are the structured, validated representations of your data after schema mapping. While records show your raw, unstructured source data, items display typed attributes that Bloomreach products can use.

Key features

• Data hub builds each item from a record in one item type. Product variant records produce separate variant items.

• Attributes are typed fields (like title, price, color_family) ready for consumption by Search, Marketing, and Conversational agent. 

• You configure the item identifier in each item type's schema. For how item IDs relate to record IDs, see Record IDs and item IDs.

Why are items important

Items are the final, structured data objects that Bloomreach products rely on. If your items look correct, your data is ready to use in the downstream systems.

View items

To view items in Data hub UI and explore their attributes, see the item collection setup guide.

If the item type has a context, the items list shows base values. To check an item for one context value, select the context value when you open the item.

FAQs

What's the difference between records and items?

Records are your raw source data before any transformation occurs. Items are built from records based on your schema configuration. Records contain flexible fields that don't yet have meaning to Bloomreach, while items are structured data with validated attributes that Bloomreach can use.

Do items update automatically when I change records?

Depends on your data update method. When you update records via imports, the system automatically regenerates items based on your current schema. The update happens through an asynchronous job that you can monitor in the jobs interface.

When you update records via API, by default, it only updates records and not items. You can specify an on-success trigger to update related items.

Can I view who updated an item?

Each item maintains a created at and last updated at timestamp along with the associated job ID that created or modified it. Use this job ID to trace the change back to the specific user or API key that made it. 

Next steps

Now that you understand items:

• Learn about schema configuration to control how records become items.

• Review records to understand the source data that the items use.

• Monitor jobs to track item transformation.

• Set up destinations to send items to Bloomreach products.