For EcomBot to advise your customers effectively, it needs to know the exact state of your catalog (price, stock, new arrivals). EcomBot doesn't rely on time-consuming manual CSV imports, but on a universal synchronization architecture called Hybrid Sync.
1. Eager Sync (Initial Synchronization)
When you connect your store for the first time (e.g., via our WooCommerce plugin), EcomBot launches an Eager Sync process.
- This is a massive, paginated extraction of your catalog via a secure API.
- The goal is to ingest all your products without saturating your server's memory (no Timeouts).
- A "Cleanup" procedure runs at the end to delete products from EcomBot that no longer exist on your store.
2. Asynchronous Webhooks (Real-Time)
Once the initial synchronization is complete, EcomBot switches to Real-Time listening.
- Every time an order is placed (stock change), a price is modified, or a product is added, your CMS sends a JSON payload to EcomBot via a Webhook.
- Zero Latency for the visitor: These webhooks are asynchronous (non-blocking). They will never slow down your page load times or your customers' checkout process.
3. Vector Optimization (Content Hash)
EcomBot transforms your product listings into "vectors" (Embeddings) to allow the AI to perform semantic searches (understanding that "fridge" means "refrigerator"). However, calling the vectorization API is expensive and time-consuming.
To be ultra-performant, EcomBot calculates a content_hash (SHA-256 fingerprint) on the name, categories, and description of your product.
- If you simply modify the price or stock of a product, EcomBot updates its database instantly without recalculating the vectors.
- The heavy Artificial Intelligence operation is only triggered if the descriptive text of the product has actually changed.
4. Catalog Visibility Rules (WooCommerce)
EcomBot fully respects the visibility settings you define in your e-commerce backend:
- Automatic exclusion of hidden products: If a product is configured as "Hidden" (hidden from both the catalog and search results) in WooCommerce, it is automatically filtered during sync.
- Real-time update and deletion: If you modify the visibility of an existing product in WooCommerce to "Hidden", EcomBot immediately intercepts the webhook and deletes it from its vector database. This ensures your customers never see unwanted recommendations.
5. Scheduling and Automation (Daily Sync)
To prevent any sync gaps caused by micro-network outages or stock mismatches, EcomBot automatically schedules a daily sync for every project:
- Midnight Sync: Every night at midnight, EcomBot triggers a global check of your catalog.
- Automatic Cleanup: Outdated, deleted, or hidden products are automatically purged from the EcomBot database at the end of the sync run.