Automatically send data feed to Froogle

[FlyingMonkey]

i just check my feed, and it shows no signs of duplicates from linking.

[Guest]

dont worry about the other guys, that is their problem. they have so many mods in their thing and majority of the time things dont work . . .

[Guest]

dont worry about the other guys, that is their problem. they have so many mods in their thing and majority of the time things dont work . . .

who are you talking about anyways? I have a serious interest in this contribution. I use it regularly and even helped the author with some testing in the past.

 

:angry:

[FlyingMonkey]

any ideas to solve the "stores may not have any product models number's or duplicate product model numbers" issue for osC? since it affects even people without mods? The only thing, i can think of is create a key based on the title + the product_id (This should be sufficent).

 

the logistics include... creating a key that is unique enough (not a problem), creating one that is short enough (but unique), and to create a key for each product fast enough in real time.

Edited August 14, 2004 by FlyingMonkey

[CatDadRick]

Great contrib,

 

I do have a problem though. My httpd logs are showing two errors for every row of data that froogle.php exports...

 

PHP Notice: Undefined variable: strip_replace in /pathto/froogle.php on line 192

PHP Notice: Undefined variable: strip_replace in /pathto/froogle.php on line 193

 

The next line of the log shows a successful ftp port command and the feed file looks OK.

 

Also, I'm running on Linux and had some problems with the ftp_connect function. I have PHP-4.3.4 which apparently has ftp support off by default, so I had to rebuild PHP with "--enable-ftp".

 

Thanks for a great contrib,

Rick Knight

[CatDadRick]

FlyingMonkey,

 

please let me know who wants to try it, no master products support (yet)

 

I'd love to try it out. I do have lot's of mods, but not masterproducts.

 

Thanks,

Rick Knight

[FlyingMonkey]

hmm... it's cause it's defined as blank:

 

$_strip_replace = array(

'',

'');

 

and is used twice... shouldn't be a problem though. i believe it's used to replace the tags with '' (blank). sent pm about the beta.

Edited August 14, 2004 by FlyingMonkey

[CatDadRick]

FlyingMonkey,

 

I thought the blank was the problem, and it does look like things are working otherwise. If so, I'll probably just remove it so that my logs don't get too big.

 

Thanks again,

Rick Knight

[FlyingMonkey]

lemme know if it still works when you remove it and the changes you made. thanks.

[FlyingMonkey]

Announcement:

ok, i've decided to make the offer_id to be the product_model + the product_id. this should be unique enough to avoid problems in the future. if someone encounters problems in the future, they would just need to add an additional prefix to their offer_id. for example: "PEPSIBOTTLE1SDC88" were "PEPSIBOTTLE1SDC" is the model number and "88" is the product id. then they would just need to append anything to the front, so that it becomes "APEPSIBOTTLE1SDC88" where "A" was appended, and if they encounter problems again they can change the prefix to "B". This should happen fairly fairly, unless someone deletes all of their products and starts over (then the model number and product number should be different anyways)

 

This method, should satisfy carrerarod's need and mibble's idea. Users with 'No' product_model may encounter issues in the future more frequently than others. This can be avoided by never deleting your products and just changing the status.

 

Any ideas why Froogle is doing this? is so they don't need to update the title, description, etc... as often? and just the price?

Edited August 14, 2004 by FlyingMonkey

[FlyingMonkey]

If it becomes a problem, i can append the YYMMDD to the offer_id (so that the products are always new and unique, which keeps froogle from doing what their trying to do with the offer_id). Yes, i know the date isn't perfect, incases if you update in the same day. But this should be fairly rare.

[Guest]

Good Idea. ;)

[Guest]

you always want to update everything each time, from my understanding if something changes from the last one, and something is left out, that item then goes down the list, or may even get deleted

[talon177]

I noticed "offer_id" in the Froogle API as a required field... currently our feeds don't contain that information, but everything runs smoothly. Should this be added?

 

"[offer_id is] an unique alphanumeric identifier for each product - e.g., your internal ID code/SKU.

IMPORTANT: Once you submit a product with a unique offer_id, this number must not change when you send in a new feed. You must use exactly the same offer_id for each product you submit again in a subsequent feed. "

I think adding offer id is fine, especially since I bet most of you guys are using Easypopulate, which requires all products to have an unique id anyways. For those of us using master products and EP, our masters id number can be copied over, but as in your previous froogle, i believe you got rid of all duplicate products. Also people wouldn't usually change product id numbers as it'll create a double item with two different product id's in osc.

[talon177]

when i read it, i interperted the offer_id to be the product_id (generated by osC). it could be the product model too, but not everyone uses unique ones or even uses them. when a product is deleted in osC, can another product be issued that previously used product id?

 

https://www.google.com/froogle/merchants/ad...structions.html

I interpret offer_id to be products_model. For those who aren't using easypopulate, they probably wouldnt use offer_id.

[FlyingMonkey]

when i read it, i interperted the offer_id to be the product_id (generated by osC).? it could be the product model too, but not everyone uses unique ones or even uses them.? when a product is deleted in osC, can another product be issued that previously used product id?

 

https://www.google.com/froogle/merchants/ad...structions.html

I interpret offer_id to be products_model. For those who aren't using easypopulate, they probably wouldnt use offer_id.

i agree, it is suppose to be the product_model. however, not all osC user systems have product_model as a unique identifier. the product_id, however is unique. the problem with the product_id is that it can be reissued, if a product is deleted.

 

The offer_id is a required field from froogle. i'll set the offer_id to product_model with the product_id appended. therefore it will be unique and the deletion problem will be less of a worry.

 

my question is what does froogle do with it?

Edited August 15, 2004 by FlyingMonkey

[FlyingMonkey]

I noticed "offer_id" in the Froogle API as a required field... currently our feeds don't contain that information, but everything runs smoothly.  Should this be added?

 

"[offer_id is] an unique alphanumeric identifier for each product - e.g., your internal ID code/SKU.

IMPORTANT: Once you submit a product with a unique offer_id, this number must not change when you send in a new feed. You must use exactly the same offer_id for each product you submit again in a subsequent feed. "

I think adding offer id is fine, especially since I bet most of you guys are using Easypopulate, which requires all products to have an unique id anyways. For those of us using master products and EP, our masters id number can be copied over, but as in your previous froogle, i believe you got rid of all duplicate products. Also people wouldn't usually change product id numbers as it'll create a double item with two different product id's in osc.

i know linked products in osC are not shown in the Froogle feed. copied products are unique products, and my guess is that they are shown in the froogle feed created. by using the product_id + the product_model, it will avoid this problem.

[FlyingMonkey]

After some testing, the product_id, once used, is never used again by osC. However, I will still leave the offer_id = to the product_id + the model_id, incase someone edits their product and changes it to something entirely different. it will act as a safeguard.

[FlyingMonkey]

I just reread some of the Advance Feed Instructions from Froogle again. The offer_id must be alpha numeric, if so [a-zA-Z0-9] meaning no hypens, semi-colons, etc. Therefore it is safer just to use the "product_id", since some users including myself have model numbers such as "ATK-518". As we know now that it is never used again by osC.

Unless someone can prove otherwise, that it is ok to use characters other than alpha numeric for Froogle for the offer_id, just the product_id will be used. A smaller update can be made if a problem arises.

 

1.43 will not include any SQL database updates. SQL database updates will be included in the 1.5 package for the advance options as they aren't necessary or very important for a majority of stores.

[FlyingMonkey]

Froogle Data Feeder v1.43

Released By: Calvin K

------------------------

 

Date: August 15, 2004

 

Description: Creates and automatically sends a data feed to Froogle, to provide product information and pictures. This Froogle Data Feeder, handles product duplicates, specials(if available), currency conversion, html descriptions, full category trees, and automatic upload. In addition, the Froogle Data Feeder supports advance feeds. With the advance feed option enabled and the "instock" field enabled, it will create a feed with all of the products. Without the advance feed option enabled, it will only submit in stock items.

 

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,2000/

[FlyingMonkey]

Froogle Data Feeder v1.5 will optimize the code and create a box to run the Froogle Feeds manually.

[Guest]

one thing to note, per the froogle/google instruction sheet on page #2:

 

offer_id: Unique alphanumeric identifier for each product - e.g., your internal ID code/SKE. IMPORTANT: Once you submit a product with a unique offer_id, this number must not change when you send in a new feed. You must use exactly the same offer_id for each product you submit again in a subsequent feed.

 

So with this in mind, I suggest you have in the code, where those who have submitted without the product id added to the product model, can turn OFF the product id addon. else it will cause all kinds of grief for people when they start submitting.

[FlyingMonkey]

i'm not sure what you mean, since it is a required field.

[Guest]

for those who have already submitted via froogle their listing with a product model, if now you add the product id to the product model to make a new offer id #, then that could cause problems.

[FlyingMonkey]

ahh, i gotcha. wouldn't froogle just think it's an entirely new product?