Before you begin
You need permission to manage integrations, eligible public products in your catalog, an HTTPS website and a backend controlled by your developer. Ask your Plastics contact for the gateway address. No public IP for your private core API is required; only the restricted search gateway receives partner requests.1
Create a connection
Enter a descriptive name, the website origin, language and region. Use an
origin such as
https://www.example.com, with no path, query or trailing
product URL. Language and region identify the connection’s search context;
they do not translate product descriptions. New connections start disabled.2
Publish approved products
Choose eligible public products and approve each title, description and
product-page URL. Links must point to your connection’s HTTPS website
origin. Optional brand and category values support exact filters. Save your
publication changes. Publishing a product here does not make private catalog
material eligible.
3
Issue a server credential
Generate the credential and place it in your backend’s secret configuration.
It is shown once. Never put it in a browser script, page source, a public
repository, analytics or a
NEXT_PUBLIC_ environment variable. Give your
developer the integration files and gateway address separately.4
Connect and verify staging
Follow the API and UI
walkthrough. Enable the connection
when ready, run the configuration test, then test your backend and website
together. Keep your existing search available until staging acceptance is
complete.
Connection fields
A publication has a product ID, title (up to 300 characters), description (up to 1,000), HTTPS URL (up to 2,048), and optional brand/category (up to 100 each). These are the public descriptions you approve, not arbitrary source-document content.
What the test verifies
The manager’s configuration test checks internal retrieval against the saved connection and approved publications. It does not verify the externally deployed gateway, the server credential, your backend adapter or the website installation. A verified test status is not a complete launch check. On staging, verify an authenticated API search, a product name, a natural-language use case, empty results, paging and any filters you use. Confirm only approved products and fields appear. Test invalid credentials and confirm the original-search fallback works. Check both keyboard and mobile use.Rotate, revoke or disable
Website connection credentials expire; the current default lifetime is 90 days. These are distinct from platform model/service credentials, whose lifecycle Plastics manages separately. Your website does not receive those platform credentials. Rotation immediately invalidates the previous credential. Coordinate rotation with your developer and update the backend secret promptly, then repeat an authenticated search. There is no overlapping two-key grace period. Revocation invalidates the credential and disables the connection. Disabling a connection also stops search while preserving its saved publications. Remove a publication to remove that product from this connection’s allowed results. These controls affect the integration; they do not delete the underlying catalog product.Troubleshooting
Current trial defaults allow 30 searches per minute and 500 per day per connection, with organization limits of 60 per minute and 2,000 per day. Confirm deployment limits with your Plastics contact before a production launch. Semantic matching depends on the deployment’s model and index configuration; a connection alone does not enable it.