Product images and documents

The three ways images get into TrueSpec, how replacement works on re-upload, and attaching spec sheets, warranties, and install guides as PDFs.

Product content is more than rows and columns. TrueSpec hosts your product photography on a CDN for every consumer to use, and attaches the PDFs — spec sheets, warranties, installation guides — that the trade actually asks for.

Three ways in for images

1. A URL column in your import. Add an image-URL column to your spreadsheet (or image_url on API rows). TrueSpec downloads each image, processes it into web-ready sizes, and serves it from its CDN. URLs must be public web addresses — file paths from your computer (C:\… or \\server\…) can't be fetched; leave those columns unmapped and use the bulk uploader instead.
2. The bulk image uploader (portal: Products → Bulk image upload). Zip your image files and upload — no spreadsheet needed. Files match to products by filename: ABC-123.jpg becomes the primary image for SKU ABC-123, and ABC-123-2.jpg, ABC-123-3.jpg… become its gallery images. Name the files by SKU before zipping and the whole batch lands in one pass; anything that doesn't match a SKU is reported, not guessed at.
3. The image API (POST /v1/publish/images) for automated pipelines — URL batches targeted by SKU. See the write API guide.

Every image, whichever door it came through, is re-hosted on TrueSpec's CDN — consumers never hotlink your servers, and your images stay up even when your website is down.

Replacement rules (worth 30 seconds)

• Images that came from an import's URL column are managed as a set by that column: your next upload's URLs replace the previous upload's images. That's how a refreshed catalog refreshes its photos — but it also means a mapped-but-empty image column clears what the previous file added.
• Images added by hand in the portal, the bulk uploader, or the image API are permanent until you remove them — spreadsheet re-imports never touch them.
• Each product has one primary image (what consumers show in lists) plus a gallery. A pushed gallery image never displaces the primary your team chose.

Practical upshot: if your images are curated by hand or uploaded in bulk, don't also map an image column on imports — pick one owner, same as any other field.

Documents: spec sheets, warranties, install guides

Every product page in the portal has a Documents section: upload a PDF, or paste a link to one, and it's attached to the product and served to your consumers alongside the specs. Typical set: spec sheet, warranty, installation guide, brochure. A shared document (one warranty covering a whole line) is fine to attach to each product in the line.

On the write API, dedicated URL fields exist for spec sheets, safety data sheets, and installation guides; any other document link rides along as a product attribute.

Alt text and image quality

Wherever you can supply alt text (a column in imports, a field in the API), do — your consumers' storefronts inherit it, which is good for their accessibility and their search ranking, which sells your product. Send the largest clean image you have; TrueSpec generates the smaller renditions.

Questions this guide didn't answer? Get in touch — or browse the interactive API reference.