Channels & feeds

A channel takes a selection of your products, formats it, and delivers it somewhere — a feed URL, a file server, or an inbox.

Formatting is one choice with two branches. Use a standard format (CSV, Excel, JSON and others) when the receiving system will take a table, and shape each field with the per-field pipeline. Use a custom template when the output has to match an exact document structure the other side specified.

Saving a channel before Publishing is complete

A channel that publishes by File transfer or Email can be saved before its Publishing step is complete. Until the step has what the channel needs to deliver, the channel is saved disabled: it does not run on its schedule, and it can be neither enabled nor run by hand.

Publishing	The channel can be enabled once it has
File transfer	a host name, and for SFTP a username
Email	a Subject, and at least one address under Recipients, one address per line. Addresses typed on one line, separated by commas, semicolons or spaces, keep the channel disabled.

Versions

Every time you save a channel, the version it replaces is kept. The Versions page lists them, shows what each save changed, and restores an earlier version when a change needs undoing — a template edit, a mapping, a schedule.

To open it, open the channel from Channels and choose Versions in the list on the left, after Dashboard and Run history. Only users with the Edit channels permission see it, because a version holds the channel’s whole configuration.

What is kept

Event	What is kept
A save	Keeps the channel as it was before the save. Only a save that changes a setting keeps a version, so choosing Save without an edit adds none.
Creating a channel	Keeps nothing: there is no earlier version yet. Versions are kept from October 2026 on, so a channel last saved before then has only its current version until its next save.
How many	Up to 500 earlier versions per channel, besides the current one. The save that would keep a 501st deletes the oldest.
Passwords	Never kept: a version holds no password, and the page never shows one. So a save that changes only a password keeps no version.
Deleting the channel	Deletes its versions with it. A deleted channel cannot be brought back from them.

The list

The list starts with the channel as it is now, marked Current, followed by the earlier versions, newest first. Each page holds 50 earlier versions.

Column	What it shows
Saved on	When the save that made this version happened, in your time zone, written as month/day/year and time — 10/20/26, 6:24 PM.
Saved by	The name of the user who made that save. Unknown where none was recorded — always so on the oldest version kept.
(actions)	Current on the first row; Restore on every other row.

See what a save changed

Select a row, and Changes below the list shows what that row’s save changed, compared with the version before it. The channel’s settings are shown as they are stored — as JSON, with the keys the channel keeps rather than the editor’s labels. A removed line is marked −, an added line +, and a long run of unchanged lines is folded behind Show ‹n› unchanged lines.

To see what restoring a version would replace, select its row and choose Current version under Compare with; Previous version goes back to what the save changed. The first row has no Compare with, because it is the current version.

Instead of a comparison, the page says:

• No earlier versions yet. A version is kept each time you save the channel. — the channel has only its current version.
• This is the oldest version kept, so there is nothing to compare it with. — the version before it is no longer kept.

Restore a version

1. Select the version’s row, and compare it with the Current version to check what restoring it replaces.
2. Choose Restore on the row.
3. Choose Restore version in the dialog.

The channel’s settings are replaced with the version’s, and the restored version becomes the current one. Restoring is a save, so the version it replaces is kept like any other: to undo a restore, restore that version. The restore goes through the same checks as Save in the channel editor, and the channel runs on the restored version’s schedule.

What happens to…	When you restore
Passwords	They stay as they are now. A restore never brings back an old password, so it cannot undo a password change.
A version with a different publishing method	If the version delivers by another publishing method than the channel does now — File transfer where the channel now uses FTP server, say — that method has no password after the restore. The dialog says so; if the method uses a password, enter it under Publishing before the channel runs.
An HTTP pull version with a different authentication method	If the version and the channel both use HTTP pull but with different authentication methods — a username and password in one, an access key in the other, or none now — the version comes back without its password or access key — an enabled version with a username and password is refused instead (next row). The dialog does not warn about this case. Enter it again under Publishing.
An enabled HTTP pull version that signs in with a username and password	If the channel has no password for it now — because it uses another publishing method or another authentication method — the restore is refused: an enabled channel is never saved without that password. The channel stays as it is; edit it by hand, and enter the password under Publishing.
A version that cannot run	It is restored as disabled — see Saving a channel before Publishing is complete. A message says what to fill in, for example Version restored as disabled. Enter a host name under Publishing to enable this channel.

If a restore fails, the channel is unchanged, and the message says why:

Message	What to do
Couldn’t restore the version. Some of its settings are no longer valid, so the channel is unchanged. Edit the channel to set them by hand.	The version no longer passes today’s checks — for example, a filter condition in it is incomplete. You can still compare it; copy the settings you need into the channel by hand.
Couldn’t restore the version. Its username for the heavendata FTP server is already in use. …	The version publishes by FTP server with a username another channel uses now. Edit the channel by hand, with another username.
Couldn’t restore the version. It no longer exists. Reload the page.	The version, or the channel, was deleted in the meantime.
Any other message starting Couldn’t restore the version.	For example, the version is enabled and signs in to HTTP pull with a username and password the channel has no password for (above). Edit the channel by hand.

If two people save the same channel at once, the last save wins, a restore included. Both earlier states are kept as versions.