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Pipelines

This page shows how to set up a pipeline and take products through it, from finding images to delivering them.

A pipeline pairs what Katalane makes (a recipe) with where the images go (a destination). For example, On-model shots · Download. Products stay in your catalog. Putting a product into a pipeline doesn't move it, and taking it out doesn't lose anything. One product can be in several pipelines.

Inside a pipeline, products are grouped under three headings:

• Gather is what each product still needs before a photograph can be made: its images, and what it is.
• Produce is what it still needs before there's an image to send: a photograph made from what it already has, and someone to choose it.
• Deliver is what it still needs to reach the destination: someone marking it ready, and the send itself.

Create a pipeline

1. Go to Pipelines and press New pipeline. On your first pipeline you can press Use this under Start with a ready-made pipeline to fill in the answers.
2. Under What it makes, choose a recipe. A recipe that makes new photographs shows its price per photograph. See Recipes.
3. Under Where it goes, choose a destination, or press New destination → to make one. You can create a pipeline with no destination and add one later.
4. Give it a Name and press Create pipeline. This starts no work and costs nothing.

Put products in

1. In Catalog, select products (filter by brand, category or season first if that helps) and choose Add to pipeline.
2. Or, inside the pipeline, press Add products. This opens the catalog so you can pick from there.

Get images

1. Select products in the pipeline and press Look for images.
2. Choose where the images come from:

• From Katalane Drive: a folder you've already uploaded. Images are matched where they sit.
• From Google Drive: browse or search your connected Google account. Matching images are copied in, and nothing in your Drive is moved.
• Upload from this device: drop a folder or pick files. The folder names help match each image to its product.
• From the brand's website: opens Look on the brands' sites, which searches the brand's own site for the selected products.

1. Check the confirm screen and start. For a match, Read what it matches is ticked by default. For the brand's site, the total is shown as You pay for what it finds.

When images come from your own files, they're matched. When they come from the brand's site, they're sourced. Katalane only keeps a picture from the brand's site if its page names this product's code and color. A page naming a different color is refused. Every image address is checked before it's kept.

Read products

Select products and press Read them. Katalane labels each image with the shot it shows, and works out the category and gender from the photographs. Without this step, Produce can't tell which shots a product already has.

Under More you'll also find Set gender… (a value you set overrides one read from the photographs), Read text (description, composition and care from the page Katalane already found, at no charge), Export shoot list… and Remove.

Make new photographs

1. Select products and press Photograph…. A panel opens titled Photograph N products.
2. Check Recipe, Who is in them (the model) and Backdrop and size.
3. Products that can't be photographed yet are counted and listed, for example ones that still need a gender.
4. Press the button that carries the price to start. Images made by Katalane are generated, and are always kept separate from the brand's own images.

Choose what ships

1. In the Produce group, press Curate these →. The header reads Choosing what goes to followed by the pipeline's destination.
2. Pick the images to ship, in order. The first chosen image is the hero. The line under the images reads Shipping N of M.
3. Use Set aside to put an image aside. Put back undoes it.
4. Press Mark to deliver →. The product now reads Marked ready.
5. If nothing is good enough, press Get more images instead.

Deliver

1. In the Deliver group, select products and press Send. The confirm reads Send N products to followed by the destination.
2. If any were sent before, the confirm says so. Sending again replaces what's there.
3. For a download destination, press Download the files when the delivery is ready. For a Google Drive folder, the files are written into that folder.

Set up a destination

1. Go to Destinations and press New destination.
2. Choose the Type, either Download a zip or Google Drive folder. A Drive folder needs a Google account connected under Settings → Google account → Connect a Google account.
3. Under What each file is called, build the file name from Brand, Style, Design, ColorCode, Color, EAN and Position. The default is {EAN}_{Position}, for example 8056643925509_01.jpg.
4. Choose a format (Keep the original format, Convert to JPG or Convert to PNG), and whether to Put files in a folder per category.
5. Press Save destination. Check confirms Katalane can reach a Drive folder before you deliver to it.

Good to know

• Every action stays available as a product moves forward. A product in Produce can still get more images.
• Matching a folder replaces the selected products' images with what the folder matches. Images you set aside by hand stay as they are. Looking on the brand's site only adds images.
• The pipeline's ⋯ menu has Rename, Change where it goes (nothing is sent by this) and Retire. Retiring stops new work and keeps everything made. You can bring a pipeline back from Pipelines · Retired.
• Work runs in the background, so you can leave the screen. Progress appears in Runs.
• Prices are on Credits.