Create your Remote Catalog

Define your product catalog and upload it to the Remote Catalog service.

Read time 8 minutes

Last updated 21 days ago

Configure your product catalog and upload it to the Remote Catalog service so your users can access the latest products for your application, without having to install a new version.

If you upload your product catalog to the Remote Catalog, the Unity IAP SDK can retrieve the product catalog from the

RemoteCatalogProvider

class and display the products to your users. This has the following benefits:

You ensure real-time distribution of your products and pricing without the need for your users to update their applications.
You don't have to configure product information across multiple payment providers.

Products and catalog listings

Unity IAP represents your catalog with two related concepts:

A product is what you grant to the user. Each product has a SKU, also called the
```
productId
```
.
A catalog listing is a purchasable version of a product, identified by a
```
catalogListingId
```
. A product can have several catalog listings, so you can sell the same product in more than one way.

To buy a product, a user purchases one of its catalog listings. When you start a purchase or target a specific listing, use the

catalogListingId

rather than the

productId

. If you don't define more than one listing for a product, Unity IAP creates a single catalog listing where the

catalogListingId

matches the SKU. Existing single-listing catalogs continue to work without any changes.

Note

Before you can deploy your product catalog, you need to install the Deployment package.

Warning

For Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) payment providers, don't use the IAP Catalog window to create products. You have to create products as an IAP Catalog Item. Similarly, don't use the Codeless IAP path because the Auto-initialize option in the Catalog Editor doesn't work with D2C payment providers.

Define your product catalog

You can use the following methods to define information about your products in a remote product catalog:

In the Unity Editor (recommended)
In a CSV file
Import an existing catalog from the App Store or Google Play
Use the API
Use a custom integration

You can also author your catalog directly on the Unity Cloud Dashboard, under In-App Purchases > Catalog.

If you use the Unity Editor to add products, Unity In-App Purchasing (IAP) automatically handles some of the backend logic required for the purchase fulfillment process. This is helpful especially if you choose to fulfill purchases through the backend API.

Note

To create your product catalog in the Unity Editor UI, you must use Unity Editor version 6.0 or later. If you're using an earlier version, you can create the product catalog using the API instead.

Create a product catalog in the Unity Editor

If you define products in the Unity Editor, the Editor stores your product configurations in files so you can use config-as-code workflows to manage them.

To create a product in the Unity Editor, follow these steps:

To create a catalog item, right-click in a directory and select Create > Services > IAP Catalog item.
Give your catalog item a name. This creates a Catalog Item asset, and opens the asset in the Inspector window.
Enter the details for your catalog item. For more information, refer to the Catalog Item asset Inspector reference.
Select Apply.

Repeat these steps to create catalog items for all your products.

A screenshot of the Catalog Item Asset open in the Inspector window of the Unity Editor. The image shows the fields for Catalog Listing Id, Sku, Product Type, Product Details, Pricing Details, Image URL, and Store ID Overrides.

After you have added your products, select View in Deployment window to open your product catalog in the Deployment window and upload them to the Remote Catalog.

You can also edit the product details directly in the file instead of in the Unity Editor. The properties in the file map to the properties listed in the Catalog Item asset Inspector reference.

Catalog Item Asset Inspector reference

Refer to the following properties to define your IAP catalog items:

Property	Description
Script	Filled by default.
Catalog Listing Id	Filled by default (uses the file path). The identifier you use to target this listing when you start a purchase.
SKU	Filled by default (uses the file name).
Product Type	Select the type of IAP product.
Product Details	Enter information about the product, including: Title Description Language Subtitle Badge (Text and Image URL)
Pricing Details	Enter the product price information, including: Currency code Amount
Image URL	Enter an image URL to specify which image to display for the product.
Store ID Overrides	Optional. Map your listing to the App Store and Google Play, which have different naming requirements. Only use these fields if your SKU doesn't meet a store's requirements: Apple Override Google Override

Catalog item validation rules

When you deploy a catalog item, Unity IAP validates its fields and reports any errors in the Deployment window. You can't deploy a catalog item until you fix its validation errors. The following rules apply whether you edit the item in the Inspector or directly in the

.ucat

file:

Field	Rule
SKU	Optional. Defaults to the file name. When set, use 1 to 141 characters, and only letters, digits, periods ( `.` ), underscores ( `_` ), and hyphens ( `-` ).
Product Type	Required. One of `Consumable` , `NonConsumable` , or `Subscription` . `Subscription` is not supported for D2C payment providers.
Product Details	Include at least one entry.
Title	Required for each product details entry. 1 to 50 characters.
Description	Optional. Maximum 250 characters.
Subtitle	Optional. Maximum 50 characters.
Badge	Optional. Unity IAP treats the badge as unset if its text is empty.
Pricing Details	Include at least one entry, and include an entry with the `USD` currency code.
Amount	Required for each pricing entry. Greater than 0.
Store ID Overrides	Optional. Each override needs a store ( `apple` or `google` ) and the platform-specific product ID as its value. Unity IAP ignores any override that has an empty value.

The Catalog Listing Id (the

.ucat

file name without the extension) must follow the same character rules as the SKU: 1 to 141 characters, and only letters, digits, periods, underscores, and hyphens.

Author catalog items in a CSV file

Instead of creating a separate

.ucat

file for each product, you can define multiple catalog items together in a single

.catalog.csv

file. This is useful when you manage a large catalog or export product data from a spreadsheet.

Each row defines one product for one language and currency. To add more languages or currencies to the same product, repeat the row and reuse the

CatalogItemId

value. Unity IAP groups rows that share a

CatalogItemId

into a single catalog item.

Use the following columns to define your catalog items:

Column	Description	Required
`CatalogListingId`	The catalog listing ID. If empty, Unity IAP uses the `Sku` value.	No
`Sku`	The product SKU. If empty, the listing is skipped with a warning and won't deploy.	Yes
`Title`	The product title for the row's language.	Yes
`Description`	The product description.	No
`Subtitle`	The product subtitle.	No
`BadgeText`	The badge text. Leave empty for no badge.	No
`BadgeImageUrl`	The badge image URL.	No
`Language`	The language code for the title, description, subtitle, and badge. Defaults to `en-US` .	No
`ProductType`	The product type. Defaults to `Consumable` .	No
`CurrencyCode`	The currency code for the row's price. Unity IAP skips the price if this column is missing.	No
`Amount`	The price amount. Unity IAP skips the price if this column is missing.	No
`WebshopPrice`	The price to display on your webshop. Use standard decimal currency format (for example, 9.99 converts to $9.99 in USD).	No
`ImageUrl`	The product image URL.	No

The same validation rules apply to catalog items that you define in a CSV file. Unity IAP reports a warning on the CSV item in the Deployment window for any row that uses an unknown product type or language, is missing a

Sku

value, or duplicates a language or currency for the same product. When a product has duplicate rows for the same language or currency, Unity IAP uses the first row.

To upload your CSV catalog, deploy the

.catalog.csv

file from the Deployment window in the same way as a

.ucat

file.

Import an existing catalog

If you already have a catalog configured in the App Store or Google Play, you can import it into the Unity Editor instead of recreating your products.

In the Unity Editor, select Services > In-App Purchasing > Import Catalog.
Select the App Store or Google Play Store tab for the store you want to import from.
Under Step 1: Fetch Catalog Data, enter your store credentials, then select Fetch Catalog:
- Secret Key
- Secret Scope
Under Step 2: Import or Export, set the Import New destination path for the generated catalog items, then select Apply.

Note

Any modified SKU only updates the existing

.ucat

file, whereas any new SKU creates a new

.ucat

file at the import destination.

After you import your catalog, upload it to the Remote Catalog service.

Use the API to create a product catalog

Use this method if you prefer to manage your product catalog through an Editor script instead of using the Unity Editor UI.

First, you have to create an

.asmdef

file to contain all the required dependencies. Refer to the following example to create your

.asmdef

file:


{
    "name": "MyIAPProject.Authoring",
    "rootNamespace": "MyIAPProject.Authoring",
    "references": [
        "Unity.Services.Core",
        "Unity.Services.Core.Editor",
        "Unity.Services.Core.Internal",
        "Unity.Services.DeploymentApi",
        "Unity.Services.Core.Environments.Editor",
        "UnityEditor.Purchasing.Authoring",
        "UnityEditor.Purchasing.Editor.Authoring.Core",
        "Unity.Purchasing.Editor.Shared",
        "Unity.Purchasing"
    ],
    "includePlatforms": [
        "Editor"
    ]
}

Then, you can use the

ILiveContentConfigClient

API to modify the Remote Catalog directly:

Obtain the relevant services through the

PurchasingAuthoringServiceProvider

```
ILiveContentConfigClient
```

IEnvironmentsApi

PurchasingAuthoringServiceProvider.GetService<ILiveContentConfigClient>()

Initialize the
```
ILiveContentConfigClient
```
interface with the required information.
Make calls to read/update the catalog (these calls are made with the current signed in user authority).

Warning

This operation is destructive, if you don't send an item, it will not be part of the catalog. This also skips the validations that the deployment process usually validates.

Refer to the following code sample:


[MenuItem("IAP/Deployment/Get and print the catalog")]
public static async void Select()
{
    var lcc = PurchasingAuthoringServiceProvider.GetService<ILiveContentConfigClient>();
    var env = PurchasingAuthoringServiceProvider.GetService<IEnvironmentsApi>();
    await lcc.Initialize(
        env.ActiveEnvironmentId.ToString(),
        CloudProjectSettings.projectId,
        CancellationToken.None);
    var items = await lcc.List(CancellationToken.None);
    Debug.Log(string.Join("\n", items.Select(i => $"{i.uSku} - {i.ProductDetails[0].Description}")));
}

Use a custom Deployment window integration to create your product catalog

You can use the Deployment window to host custom integrations, so you can create a simple custom deployment such as CSV or excel directly to the Remote Catalog.

For information on how to create a simple Deployment window, refer to the Deployment package documentation.

Upload your product catalog to the Remote Catalog service

Use the Deployment window to upload your products to the Remote Catalog:

In the Unity Editor, select Services > Deployment to open the Deployment window.
Select the products you want to add to your Remote Catalog and select Deploy Selected.

A screenshot of the Deployment window in the Unity Editor that shows a list of .ucat catalog items.

Important

At purchase time, IAP uses your Remote Catalog definitions to construct your D2C payment provider Checkout data. IAP doesn't use any products you add directly in Stripe or Coda.

Delete products from your remote catalog

There are multiple ways you can delete an item from the remote catalog in the Unity Editor:

Open the catalog item in the Inspector window and select Delete Remote.
Open the Deployment window, right-click the catalog item, and select Delete Remote.

Note

To delete a renamed catalog item from the Remote Catalog, you first recreate a temporary item using the original SKU. You can then delete that item via the Deployment window to successfully sync the removal.

Next steps

This page is part of a workflow to set up D2C payment providers with IAP. To continue this workflow, choose one of the following options:

Integrate D2C payment providers

Return to the Integrate D2C payment providers with IAP workflow page.

Initialize services to handle the startup sequence

Proceed to the next step in the workflow to set up your D2C payment provider.

Documentation

Development

User Acquisition

Monetization

Industry

Documentation

Development

User Acquisition

Monetization

Industry

In-App Purchasing

IAP Client API

IAP SDK API

Webshop Admin API

Webshop Client API

In-App Purchasing

Create your Remote Catalog

Products and catalog listings

Define your product catalog

Create a product catalog in the Unity Editor

Catalog Item Asset Inspector reference

Property

Description

Catalog item validation rules

Field

Rule

Author catalog items in a CSV file

Column

Description

Required

Import an existing catalog

Use the API to create a product catalog

Use a custom Deployment window integration to create your product catalog

Upload your product catalog to the Remote Catalog service

Delete products from your remote catalog

Next steps