The Catalog, Customers, Inventory and Access Roles site export files are created consistently, exported in sorted order so that a diff of XML feeds is guaranteed to reveal data changes and differences. Developers work in a collaborative environment, working with and changing a common site import definition. Thus, exports provide the only way to compare the content of two instances.
| Element | Sort order |
|---|---|
| Categories | Depth-first recursive ordering. Sibling categories are ordered by position. Unsorted categories appear at end of list ordered by name. Example: Root, JA, JB, JC, K, KA, KB, |
| Category refinement definitions | Sorted by position |
| Category refinement bucket definitions | Sorted by position |
| Category product attribute groups | Sorted by position |
| Category product attributes | Sorted by position |
| Category links | Sorted by position |
| Products | Sorted by SKU |
| Product bundled products | Sorted by position |
| Product retail set products | Sorted by position |
| Product product set products | Sorted by position |
| Product options | Sorted by position |
| Product links | Sorted by position |
| Product variation attributes | Sorted by position |
| Product variations | Sorted by position |
| Shared product options | Sorted by ID |
| Shared product option values | Sorted by position |
| Shared variation attributes | Sorted by ID |
| Shared variation attribute values | Sorted by position |
| Category assignments | Ordered by category name, then position (unsorted products at end), then product SKU |
| Recommendations | Ordered by sourcetype, sourceid, targettype, typecode, position |
| For all business objects: Custom attributes | Sorted alphabetically by ID across all attribute groups |