[PAID] Google Merchant Static Feed

[Martin]

Version 1.4.0 beta (1) has now been released via the Snailsolutions store...

This is very much beta code although I've tested it on two sites and against US and GB feeds..

Installation is a case of copying the files as found in the zip file... The Google Product Type requires you to go to the AdminCP Marketing > Shopping Comparison Sites and then enabling the Google Merchant GB (and or US) module... This will then import the taxonomy... (although be warned it may also time-out if your memory is low on your server).

You can then select your google product type in the category editor as you would a product comparison option...

The rest of it is pretty much handled automatically with the bulk of the changes in the code...

IMPORTANT: This was written on a long day, while I was a bit tired so it may not be 100% bug proof... Any problems, PM or email me via support @ [octoink] .co (dot) uk and I'll take your bug reports and see what requires fixing...



First point... Due to the sheer number of requirements relating to tax, GTIN, and the taxonomy requirement I'm forced to concede that earlier versions of ISC need to be upgraded. Anything else would require a completely rewrite of the code and is just too much to ask of an add-on module. Sorry folks but Interspire are the villain here and GM just showed how poor the earlier offering was, along with how poor support has been in getting out updates.

Sorry for those folks who don't have 6.x but I've reached the point where Interspires lack of development means I can't keep patching their functionality to keep earlier versions afloat... Their responsibility, and not something I can accept blame for...

• Availability:
  • Now shows regardless of the quantity setting
  • in stock when quantity shows in stock or if inventory tracking not enabled for product
  • available for order if pre-order is on and date for availability is 2 days or less (2 days less than GM requires for safety!
  • pre-order if date is later or not indicated
  • out of stock for all other scenarios
• UPC/GTIN/EAN, etc...
  • Trims the value of any leading/trailing spaces
  • Checks for a comma separated value (eg: '123,789,12000') and uses the first value
  • Rejects any values greater than the absolute max of 13 characters (ie: EAN, JAN, ISBN) and logs a warning.
  • It will not validate the numeric for you...
• Shipping
  • Shipping quotes now provided for each product based on the cheapest shipping option available for that product to target country
• Tax
  • Tax information now generated correctly for US feeds
  • All other countries generate tax inclusive pricing (This assumes you have tax zones setup correctly!)
• Product Types
  • Identified Bug in Category hierarchy generation system that stopped some products being given Product Types FIXED
  • Google Product Type uses the productcomparison module code to set taxonomy data on categories with one module for each feed
  • Google Product Type relies on settings at category level not individual products.

[Martin]

Found a bug once I re-enabled the Australian feed...

1.4.0 beta has been updated which should only affect the one person who grabbed it already... FAO: That person... get new copy and replace the class.froogle.php file in includes/classes/

The bug duplicated the child categories in one of the functions... No idea why it only does it for AUS but hey..

[Martin]

And another one... Turns out it explains the problem with the Australian feed too... There was a new bug in the 1.4.0 beta1 code that essentially hid categories if they didn't have a google product type associated with them... If you had Australian feed enabled and all categories had been associated with one of the GB/US types you'd have gotten a big fat zero out of it... Doh!

1.4.0.beta2 is now available... Still only the class.froogle.php file has changed...

This should now solve the problems I've located... and I'm running for home now (after 10 solid hours of coding!) so I can get some food and sleep!...

[jobloggs]

Hi Martin,

Just downloaded the beta am going to test it out.

As a sidenote, I think all the feed generation system for the comparison sites are also broken for sites with a lot of products. Maybe you can consider making a mod which would handle the feed creation for the comparison sites with a temporary file like the this addon does.

Thought id post it before i fogot again lol.

[jobloggs]

When I saw the following your comment on the release, i thought great!

Identified Bug in Category hierarchy generation system that stopped some products being given Product Types FIXED

Unfortunately it hasnt fixed the probelm I was having.

I have 11,000 products to output, of which 3246 do not have the product type attribut set in the output feed. They seem like products from normal categories, but are randomly left out.

the UPC problem seems to have been fixed (yes we store variations seperated by commas which we split into an array for processing usually)

Availability has been fixed.

Just started to map the categories. Seems like I have to do it one by one.. so much for ISCs "bulk" feature.

I also noticed you are missing an image on ur release.

/modules/shoppingcomparison/googlemerchantgben/images/icon.png

[Martin]

Just downloaded the beta am going to test it out.

Let me know how you get on.

As a sidenote, I think all the feed generation system for the comparison sites are also broken for sites with a lot of products. Maybe you can consider making a mod which would handle the feed creation for the comparison sites with a temporary file like the this addon does.

Almost certainly the same problems that the Google merchant feed had... Interspires approach (up to 6.1.1 certainly) has been to load everything into memory and then start outputting the whole thing rather than batch loading/writing and the net effect is that their code breaks every time for larger stores with large product bases.

I might mod those feed creations but to be frank I'd say the product is so dead we might as well refer to it as Pete from here on in...

[Martin]

When I saw the following your comment on the release, i thought great!

Identified Bug in Category hierarchy generation system that stopped some products being given Product Types FIXED

Unfortunately it hasnt fixed the probelm I was having.

I'd need your FTP details and access to your admin back-end to debug so if you can email me at info @ (this site domain) with the details and make sure you put "joebloggs" as a reference so I know who the heck is emailing.

Probably won't happen today as I've around 30 litres of ink to bottle today and a metric ton of backorders to sort out...

I have 11,000 products to output, of which 3246 do not have the product type attribut set in the output feed. They seem like products from normal categories, but are randomly left out.

It may be that the code is timing out during the category heirachy generation/organisation phase but I suspect it's another gremlin waiting in the wings... I'll find and squish it, worry not.

the UPC problem seems to have been fixed (yes we store variations seperated by commas which we split into an array for processing usually)

Availability has been fixed.

Confirmation is always good

Just started to map the categories. Seems like I have to do it one by one.. so much for ISCs "bulk" feature.

Just as a note on this.. sub-categories inherit the association their parent category receives so if you have a category branch that all comes under a specific google product type, just set the highest parent cat' and the rest will inherit... You can always set any exceptions independently...

Beyond that though, yep, it's a manual pain in the patookis!

I also noticed you are missing an image on ur release.

/modules/shoppingcomparison/googlemerchantgben/images/icon.png

A detail to be honest... The module itself is such a pitiful hack to abuse the selection process it's embarrassing but it does what we need for now...

[brian1]

Has anybody found any fixes for ISC 5.5.4 or similar? We have too many hacks to update to the latest ISC anytime soon. Thanks.

[kurt]

If we do use this mod, what fields do we need to make sure we populate in ISC. For example do these fields need to be poopulated and with what?

Product Code/SKU (Is this the barcode or MFG MPN?)

Product UPC (Is this the barcode or MFG MPN?)

Brand Name (Do we need to fill in brand names?)

Product Availability (Does this need to be populated and with what?)

Any other fields to worry about?

Thanks

[Martin]

If we do use this mod, what fields do we need to make sure we populate in ISC.

Most of the information you need is actually in the Google Merchant policy which you can find here:
http://www.google.com/support/merchants ... =188494#GB

In terms of which ISC field relates to what GM field most are self explanatory:

- UPC = UPC/GTIN
- MPN = product custom field (Label: "mpn" - must be lowercase!)
* The module will use the SKU/Product Code if your admin setting allows display of this information (You can hack the code - see an earlier post).

- Brand = only required at present if your product doesn't have a UPC value

*Note: You need to have UPC or both Brand + MPN for US feeds or your feed will be killed off by GM

- Availability is based on the quantity of stock or it will automatically show as "in stock" if inventory control isn't being used.

For example do these fields need to be poopulated and with what?

Product Code/SKU (Is this the barcode or MFG MPN?)

Product UPC (Is this the barcode or MFG MPN?)

Brand Name (Do we need to fill in brand names?)

Product Availability (Does this need to be populated and with what?)

The "with what" is down to you to research... Your suppliers will be able to help, as will some searching... One key thing to note though is do NOT make up GTIN at all or MPN's (unless the item brand is your own) as that will becoming a hanging offence in due course.


Most of the "what else to watch out for" is covered in this thread... Sorry it's not exactly comprehensive or well documented but I'm finding it tricky enough to just keep the ruddy code up to date to be honest...