KatanaPIM Best Practices for Magento 2

Command line tools for the KatanaPIM Connect extension. These commands are useful for manual synchronization, automation scripts, and troubleshooting.

Available Commands

katana:import:full

Performs a complete synchronization of all entities from KatanaPIM.

# Sync everything (attributes, categories, products, assets)
bin/magento katana:import:full

# Sync only attributes
bin/magento katana:import:full --attributes

# Sync only categories
bin/magento katana:import:full --categories

# Sync only products
bin/magento katana:import:full --products

# Sync only assets
bin/magento katana:import:full --assets

Options:

When no options are provided, all entity types are synchronized in the correct order.

Force Update: (available from v3.7.0)

Use the --force flag when you need to re-sync products regardless of whether the data has changed:

# Force re-sync all products (ignore hash comparison)
bin/magento katana:import:full --products --force

# Short version
bin/magento katana:import:full --products -f

This is useful when:

• Magento data was modified outside of the sync process
• Hash comparison isn't detecting changes correctly
• You need to overwrite local changes with PIM data

How sync works:

The synchronization operates in two phases:

1. Data Retrieval — Fetches current data from the KatanaPIM API
2. Magento Updates — Creates or updates entities based on your configuration

Whether new entities are automatically created depends on your settings at Stores → Configuration → KatanaPIM → Automation:

• Auto create new categories
• Auto create new products

Output: Shows progress and results for each entity type.

Use this when:

• Initial setup and first import
• After major PIM changes
• Weekly/daily maintenance
• Troubleshooting sync issues

katana:import:incremental

Performs a delta synchronization, importing only items that have changed since the last sync.

bin/magento katana:import:incremental

Output: Shows progress and number of items updated.

Use this when:

• Regular scheduled updates
• Keeping Magento in sync throughout the day
• After individual product changes in PIM

Examples

Initial Setup

# First time setup - import everything
bin/magento katana:import:full

Daily Maintenance

# Full sync during maintenance window
bin/magento cache:flush
bin/magento katana:import:full
bin/magento indexer:reindex

Incremental Updates

# Quick sync of recent changes
bin/magento katana:import:incremental

Step-by-Step Import

# Step 1: Import and map attributes first
bin/magento katana:import:full --attributes

# Step 2: Configure attribute mapping in admin
# (manual step - use Attributes grid)

# Step 3: Import categories
bin/magento katana:import:full --categories

# Step 4: Import products
bin/magento katana:import:full --products

# Step 5: Import images and videos
bin/magento katana:import:full --assets

Troubleshooting

# Run with verbose output
bin/magento katana:import:full -v

# Check what would be synced without making changes
bin/magento katana:import:full --attributes

Indexer Recommendations

For large catalogs, set your indexers to "Update on Schedule" mode before running imports:

# Check current indexer modes
bin/magento indexer:show-mode

# Set all indexers to schedule mode
bin/magento indexer:set-mode schedule

Why "Update on Schedule"?

With "Update on Save" mode, Magento triggers reindexing after every single entity import — extremely slow for substantial datasets. Schedule mode queues index updates and processes them in batches, significantly improving import performance.

Need More Help?

Documentation:

• All Help Articles - Complete documentation overview

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