List Field Mapping | Yext Hitchhikers Platform
Overview
List-type fields and subfields have some particular ways of ingesting data. Choose the appropriate method based on your desired format for how the data should appear on an entity.
There are two main considerations when mapping to list fields:
Whether to overwrite any existing list items, or append items to the existing list.
Whether to map data as an entire list of items, or as individual list items.
Overwriting and Appending
If Overwrite is selected, the connector will clear any existing items in the list and assume that the list items present in the connector run are a comprehensive list.
If Append is selected, the list items present in the connector run will be added to the items that already exist in the list field.
If any item in the list is considered invalid, the entire entity update will fail.
Mapping as an Entire List or Individual Items
Additionally, there are two ways a connector can consider the data to map to a list field:
- As an entire list (with a specified delimiter)
- As an individual item within the list with a specified index, which is relative only to items present in the current connector run.
Mapping as Individual List Items
When mapping data to a list as individual items, any commas within the list value will not be interpreted as a separator. The entire value will be considered as a single list item.
Even when appending items to an existing list, your first index should be 0 if items are exploded.
For example, using the data below to map as individual list items:
| Entity ID | Education > Year [0] | Education > Type [0] | Education > Institution [0] | Education > Year [1] | Education > Type [1] | Education > Institution [1] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2024 | Fellowship | Harvard | 2020 | Intern | Yale |
| 2 | 2022 | Fellowship | Brown | 2010 | Intern | Duke |
The field mappings would appear as follows in Yext:
From these mappings, entities would be created with two Education list objects. For example, the Education list object on Entity ID 1 would appear as below:
Categories and Google Attributes are not eligible for special list field behavior settings. Items provided must always be as an entire list, which will overwrite existing items.