Automatically send data feed to Froogle

[Jack_mcs]

For google base schedule they are asking for a url of file. Their example is (http://www.example.com/upload.txt)

I know I have to place my domain in where it says example? but would upload.txt stay the same?

 

Also how do I set up a cron job?

It doesn't help to use their scheduled uploader because the feed on your site will always be the same. You can either update that feed by manually running the script or creating a cron job to do it. The latter is preferred since it takes work away from you. And if a cron job is used, then the script will upload the file for you.

 

Setting up cron jobs vary with the host so I can't talk you through it. The syntax will be something link php /home/your username/public_html/admin/googlefeeder.php. You should be able to give that line to your host and ask them to set it up for you. Many hosts will do that for a member. If yours won't, then you are on your own in figuring out how to set it up. There are many, many sites on the web though that describe how to do it.

[Mort-lemur]

Hi,

 

I love this contribution - works great and my products are now on Google Base.

 

One question though, and apologies if I have missed the subject in the 100 or so pages I have just scanned through....

 

Most of my items are subject to Tax (VAT) but a few are not. I have changed the tax rate to 15% in the googlefeeder.php file and it seems to be adding the VAT to everything - even the non taxable items.

 

Is there a way to add the tax to only the items declared as taxable?

 

Thanks

[Jack_mcs]

The code applies the tax to all products when the tax rate is set so it can't do what you need as it is currently written.

[Mort-lemur]

Hi,

 

Thanks Jack, Guess you are not planning on changing the code :-(

 

Can anyone think of a work-around without having to chenge the txt file manually ?

 

Thanks

[Jack_mcs]

I don't recall anyone mentioning it before so I never thought to add the option. It's not a quick change though so I will put it on the list for a future update.

[Mort-lemur]

Thanks Jack,

 

I'll Keep my eyes open for the update.

 

Thank you

[Guest]

Hi Jack

 

I installed the latest complete package and upon going to

 

http://your_domain_name.com/admin/googlefeeder.php

 

I receive this error:

 

Warning: require_once(../includes/configure.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /usr/home/tfs/public_html/admin/googlefeeder.php on line 52

 

Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required '../includes/configure.php' (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /usr/home/tfs/public_html/admin/googlefeeder.php on line 52

 

Any advice?

Thanks!

[Jack_mcs]

The code assumes the admin directory is located within the shop directory. I can't tell how yours is set up since you didn't include the url but if your admin is somewhere else, that error will occur.

[nafri]

hi

 

Thanks for developing this script.

 

Does anybody know how to output just the parent category.At the moment the script outputs " parent, sub, sub " category.What change do i need to make to output only the top category.

 

kind regards

 

Nafri

[Guest]

The code assumes the admin directory is located within the shop directory. I can't tell how yours is set up since you didn't include the url but if your admin is somewhere else, that error will occur.

 

 

It is within the shop directory :(

[nafri]

hi

 

Thanks for developing this script.

 

Does anybody know how to output just the parent category.At the moment the script outputs " parent, sub, sub " category.What change do i need to make to output only the top category.

 

kind regards

 

Nafri

 

 

not having much luck. tried different things but still no joy.. if any body got any info please do help..

 

kind regards

 

nafri

[Jack_mcs]

not having much luck. tried different things but still no joy.. if any body got any info please do help..

The location has to be accurate or google will reject it so doing what you are asking won't help.

[galey1981]

Hi guys, i can install the contribution fine but my products are failing at getting added to Google. I get the explanation:

 

Expiry date is too far in the future.

Please make sure that the value doesn't exceed the default expiration date for your item type.

 

Any ideas on what settings I can tweak to overcome this?

[Jack_mcs]

Look at the feed to see which products have the future dates and edit those products (not the feed) to have correct dates.

[Iwant2Lrn]

Jack,

Looks like you have a small error in the optional instructions for revising the tool.php file. The following code:

 

'<a href="' . tep_href_link('feeders.php') . 'class="menuBoxContentLink">' . BOX_FEEDERS_GOOGLE . '</a><br>' .

 

should be

 

'<a href="' . tep_href_link('feeders.php') . '" class="menuBoxContentLink">' . BOX_FEEDERS_GOOGLE . '</a><br>' .

 

Just missing a quotation mark before the class.

 

Great mod and does wonders for me.

[Jack_mcs]

Yes, you are correct. Someone else mentioned via PM and I added the change to the next version, which hasn't been uploaded, and meant to post it here but forgot. So thanks for posting it in case someone else runs into it.

[Kuma]

Jack, Seriously thank you for this update on the Google feeder. It works far better than it ever has for me.

 

One question. Right now I am getting extremely long processing times on Google and it never seems to upload anything (this is going on two days now). In the past I could get the file to manual upload, but I had to go in and do it myself every month (with many thanks to you, I can now get it to actually work and send data directly to Google!). I am wondering if this long processing time has something to do with my settings on Google.

 

Usually I can figure things out just by digging around on Google or the boards, but I cannot seem to find the right set of keywords to find what I need this time. Forgive me as I am sure this has been asked somewhere before.

 

What should my settings under my Google Merchant Account look like? These are the options:

 

Feed Format

--> Googlebase

--> Shopping.com

--> Shopzilla

 

File Format

--> Autodetect

--> XML

--> Text

 

Encoding

--> Autodetect

--> ASCII

--> Latin-1

--> UTF-16 BE

--> UTF-16 LE

--> UTF-8

--> Windows-1252

 

Delimiter

--> Tab (/t)

--> Pipe(|)

--> Tilde (~)

 

Use Quoted Fields

--> Yes

--> No

 

Again thanks for the update Jack. And thanks to anyone who can help me on this.

[Mort-lemur]

Hi,

 

I seem to be having the same problem, worked fine last week when my cron job ran.

 

But my latest cron ran over 24 hours ago and google is still processing (usually only takes 1 - 2 hours).......maybe its a google problem ?

 

Or could it be to do with renaming the admin folder?

 

Thanks

[Jack_mcs]

Kuma and Mort-lemur:

 

First look at your feed file in the feeds directory to make sure it is formatted correctly. Then login to your google account, navigate to the Data feeds section and do a manual upload of the file. If it still takes too long, then the problem is on google and you should contact them to ask what the problem is. If it works fine, change the ftp setting to 0 and run the cron job. If it runs normally, then there is something on the server preventing the connection to google. Otherwise, there is something in your products that is causing the delay.

[Mort-lemur]

Kuma and Mort-lemur:

 

First look at your feed file in the feeds directory to make sure it is formatted correctly. Then login to your google account, navigate to the Data feeds section and do a manual upload of the file. If it still takes too long, then the problem is on google and you should contact them to ask what the problem is. If it works fine, change the ftp setting to 0 and run the cron job. If it runs normally, then there is something on the server preventing the connection to google. Otherwise, there is something in your products that is causing the delay.

 

Hi,

 

Had a look at the Google Base Announcements page where this was posted :

We're currently experiencing data feed processing delays. While our engineers are working to resolve this issue, we appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience.

 

That answers it I guess...........

[Kuma]

Jack and Mort-lemur,

 

Thank you for the answers. I did check my feed file as you suggested Jack and all is well there. Google finally took it and my items are appearing now. I think you were right Mort and I hope your feed is working now as well.

 

Just out of curiosity, on the Google settings question I posted last is there an optimum choice of settings? For instance my encoding is currently set to Latin-1. Is that correct for this contirbution or should I set to something like autodetect? Or is this one of those situations where it all depends on the server you are hosted on and there is no specific answer that applies to everyone?

 

Again, thanks for the assistance.

[Jack_mcs]

I would use autodetect in that case. No matter the setting, if your feed is accepted and the products show up on google as you want, then it is fine.

[bazzeray]

Hi,

 

Juat wondering if somebody could help me on this one... I installed the GoogleBaseFeeder which is a great programme in itself so thank you Jack_MCS!!!

 

The only problem I have is that when I go into Google Merchant Center to look at my products the link comes up in google like this:

 

http://www.cjstoybox.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=25

 

which doesn't work as the actual link direct from the stores homepage is this:

 

http://www.cjstoybox.co.uk/shop/product_info.php?cPath=5&products_id=25

 

I'm a bit confused why it does this and I am equally confused on how to solve it...

 

Thank you in advance for any help or support you can give me :)

Baz

[bazzeray]

Hi,

 

Juat wondering if somebody could help me on this one... I installed the GoogleBaseFeeder which is a great programme in itself so thank you Jack_MCS!!!

 

The only problem I have is that when I go into Google Merchant Center to look at my products the link comes up in google like this:

 

http://www.cjstoybox.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=25

 

which doesn't work as the actual link direct from the stores homepage is this:

 

http://www.cjstoybox.co.uk/shop/product_info.php?cPath=5&products_id=25

 

I'm a bit confused why it does this and I am equally confused on how to solve it...

 

Thank you in advance for any help or support you can give me :)

Baz

 

Figured it out... Just for information if anybody else has the same problem. My store is located at /shop which I needed to add here:

 

define('DOMAIN_NAME', 'www.yourdomain.com/SHOP); //your correct domain name (don't include www unless it is used)

 

in the googlefeeder.php file.

 

:)

[Kuma]

I would use autodetect in that case. No matter the setting, if your feed is accepted and the products show up on google as you want, then it is fine.

 

Just wanted to say thanks for the tips and advice Jack. Much appreciated!