Adding a supplier on the shared feed
The shared feed is the quick starting lane. Where a supplier publishes them and the gateway has them wired, it gives Scout catalogue information — product data, images, list pricing and configuration, and inventory — without your own supplier credentials. Nothing to type, read-only.
Before you start: you must be the workspace Owner or an Admin, and you should ask Scout to confirm your workspace is approved for real connection before expecting scheduled reads. A preview marked as an example is showing you examples, not your supplier's data.
Step 1 — open Add supplier
- Open Connections → PromoStandards.
- Choose Add supplier. On an empty page the same button sits under "Connect your first supplier."
The flow has three steps, shown across the top: Pick supplier, Connect, Check services.
Screenshot: Add supplier, step one.
Step 2 — find the supplier
- Type into Search PromoStandards suppliers.
- Look at the group headed SEEN IN YOUR PURCHASE ORDERS · NOT CONNECTED YET first. Those are suppliers Scout already recognises from your own work, ranked ahead of the rest.
- Choose the supplier you work with.
The directory follows the gateway's registry and the services it has actually wired — not a fixed list, and not a promise that all eight services exist for every supplier. During the current period the roster comes from a dated registry export rather than a live refresh.
Step 3 — read what they publish
The Connect step opens with a summary: the supplier's name, how many of its services are published, and whether a shared feed is already available or it needs your login.
Under WHAT THEY PUBLISH there is one small tile per service. Hover, focus or tap a tile to read the service's name and its publication state:
- PUBLISHED — the supplier offers it and the gateway has it wired.
- LISTED, NOT WIRED — PromoStandards lists it for this supplier, but the gateway has not wired a usable version yet. Scout labels this "Listed by PromoStandards · not on PSRESTful yet". There is no password that fixes this; ask Scout to look into coverage rather than retrying.
- NOT PUBLISHED — the supplier does not offer that service. There is no fix for an absent service.
Step 4 — choose the shared feed
Under TWO WAYS TO CONNECT there are two choices, and Scout notes that you can switch later:
- Start on the shared feed — badged READ-ONLY, with the subtitle "Nothing to type · check availability first". If the supplier has no shared feed this choice is unavailable and reads Shared feed not available.
- Use your [supplier] account — badged RECOMMENDED, with the subtitle "The login they issued you".
Each choice lists the Watches its answering services could support, so you can see what the shared feed gets you and what it does not. On the own-account choice, the extra ones are marked and counted — "+3 over shared".
- Choose Start on the shared feed.
- Choose Turn on shared feed.
Step 5 — watch the checks
Scout moves to Checking [supplier] with the subtitle "Asking the shared feed", and asks only the available supported services. The footer states the cost of doing it: one metered read per available service, no automatic retry.
The check may be deferred if work is already running for this workspace or its call budget for the day is unavailable. That is a wait, not a failure.
Each service then settles on one result:
| Result | What it means |
|---|---|
| Queued | Scheduled to be asked; nothing has happened yet. |
| Asking… | The request is in flight. |
| Answered | The service replied under this connection. |
| Not published | The supplier does not offer it. |
| Listed, not available yet | Listed by PromoStandards, not wired by the gateway. |
| Needs your login | This service needs your own supplier account. It stays separate from the shared feed. |
| No known product to check yet | Inventory and pricing are asked per part or product. Scout has nothing of yours to ask about yet. |
| Service details need checking | Scout needs one more look at what the supplier publishes. |
| Not refreshed today · waiting for quota | The day's permitted calls are spent. The last known result stays in context. |
| Another import or check is in progress | Check again after it finishes. |
| [Service] didn't answer. You can try again. | A provider-side problem, not a credential problem. |
If a check stops part-way, Scout offers Resume check, which retrieves the same check without repeating a provider call that already completed. Going back instead starts a fresh check.
Step 6 — read the result
The last step says either "[Supplier] is connected." or "[Supplier] needs attention.", with a count — "4 of 8 services answered on your shared feed" — and a SHARED FEED · SERVICE COVERAGE panel listing every service with its result. A note points at Watch settings for tuning how the Watches behind them work.
A connected shared feed identifies its catalogue services as Shared feed · read-only on Overview. Services that need your account stay separate — do not expect private orders to appear from this step.
Step 7 — confirm on Overview
- Return to Overview and check the supplier and its lane are what you expect.
- If a first import is queued, go to History and wait for its actual recorded outcome. Queued does not mean running, and it does not mean finished.
Good to know
- Shared catalogue pricing is list price, not your negotiated cost. On Overview the pricing row on this lane is labelled accordingly.
- Shared data does not establish that a customer order exists or has shipped.
- If the feed is unavailable you do not need to keep trying. Use your own supplier account when you have the right credentials, or start a credential request.
- A supplier can keep shared catalogue access alongside its own-account services. Shared rows still never mean negotiated or transactional data.
- Checks spend your workspace's permitted calls and cannot bypass the daily ceiling. Do not sit on Check now.