Google Merchant Center Feeder for ZC v1.5.x [Support Thread]

[dharrison]

Hi

I use Google merchant Feeder and so far so good. But every now and then (every other month), Google disapprove our products off their Merchant feed. What they seem to be tripping over is that the add the currency and language as a suffix on the end of every URL. so:

http://ourwebsite.com/our-categpry/o...n&currency=GBP

Which is enough to sway them. I appreciate that the feed should be checked on a regular basis in case of errors, but is there a way we can fix something so trivial?

What's annoying is that I have declared these already.

I have recently added Ultiate URLs, but this problem existed even when the URLs were in their natural form.

I worship any help.

[dharrison]

Look at the feed, every URL has ths added. I can only assume it is because of the settings declared under Configuration> Google merchant feeder configuration

I have turned this off and will go from there.

[chattymatt53]

Hi my site was upgraded to v1.5.4 with google feeder module zc-v.15. Google Merchant is giving me these errors. How do we fix this module or has an fix been created? My webmaster has not been able to correct so this is why I am asking for help please... Thanks

Here are the errors from Google Merchant.

Item Errors = 576

Insufficient product indentifiers: missing two out of three (GTIN, Brand, MPN) 192 errors

Missing tax information 192 errors

Missing Shipping information 192 errors

Item Warnings Missing recommended attribute: google product category 192 warnings.

[charmedbytina2]

chattymatt53 ~ I just logged on to post your errors - you beat me to it.

[bottyz]

Hi all,

I have the latest version working on a v1.5.5a cart for a UK GBP feed. I modified a few files for my specific purpose, but it shouldn't be something you all need to do.

My advice would be to get it to generate your xml feed and then open it in a text editor and check for the missing tags. Google needs to see at least two of the mentioned three tags in the feed for each product. I have mpn and brand, as we don't have GTINs.

I was missing the g:brand tag from mine, but to fix this I just went into admin > catalog > manufacturers and added the brands. Then added the brands to each of the products in my shop. Luckily mine are all one brand, so I used phpmyadmin navigated to the 'products' table and used an SQL statement to update the manufacturer_id to the id of the brand I wanted to apply to all the products (in my case it was number 1).

UPDATE `products` SET `manufacturers_id`=1 WHERE `manufacturers_id`=0

I always find the product type to be incorrectly generated. So I normally comment out / add a few lines into googlefroogle.php and google_base.php. What I do to make my feed work is as follows:

OBVIOUSLY THESE SPECIFICS WON'T APPLY TO EVERYONE - BUT MAY GIVE YOU A LITTLE HELP TO CORRECT YOUR FEEDS

add into googlefroogle.php - around line 44

  @define('NL', "<br />\n");
  @define('BRAND', "Whatever Brand I Want");
  @define('GOOGLE_PRODUCT_TYPE_CATEGORY', "Office Supplies &gt; General Supplies");
  @define('PRODUCT_TYPE_CATEGORY_1', "A Category &gt; Sub Category");
  @define('PRODUCT_TYPE_CATEGORY_2', "A Category &gt; Sub Category &gt; Further Subcategory");

also in googlefroogle.php - around line 399

$item->appendChild($variantsTitle);

$item->appendChild($dom->createElement('g:brand', BRAND));
$item->appendChild($dom->createElement('g:google_product_category', GOOGLE_PRODUCT_TYPE_CATEGORY));
$item->appendChild($dom->createElement('g:product_type', PRODUCT_TYPE_CATEGORY_1));
$item->appendChild($dom->createElement('g:product_type', PRODUCT_TYPE_CATEGORY_2));
$item->appendChild($dom->createElement('g:identifier_exists', 'false'));

comment out in google_base.php - somewhere around line 372

// Removed as provides a product type tag in xml file that isn't what we require	  
//      if ($product_type) {
//        $item->appendChild($dom->createElement('g:product_type', $product_type));
//      }

add into google_base.php - somewhere around line 388

	
// only include if less then 30 days as 30 is the max and leaving blank will default to the max
if (GOOGLE_PRODUCTS_EXPIRATION_DAYS <= 29) {
$item->appendChild($dom->createElement('g:expiration_date', $this->google_base_expiration_date($products->fields['base_date'])));
$item->appendChild($dom->createElement('g:google_product_category', GOOGLE_PRODUCT_TYPE_CATEGORY));
$item->appendChild($dom->createElement('g:product_type', PRODUCT_TYPE_CATEGORY_1));
$item->appendChild($dom->createElement('g:product_type', PRODUCT_TYPE_CATEGORY_2));

One further problem for my UK feed is the need to have the tax show, so I go into admin > configuration > googlemerchant center feeder configuration and change the 'tax country' to GB, the 'tax rate' to 20 and the 'tax on shipping' to y. then in both of the above mentioned files change the tax lines as follows:

googlefroogle.php - somewhere around line 385

                        $item->appendChild($dom->createElement('g:price', number_format($variants_price, 2, '.', '')));
                        if (GOOGLE_PRODUCTS_TAX_DISPLAY == 'true' && GOOGLE_PRODUCTS_TAX_COUNTRY == 'GB' && $tax_rate != '') {
                          $tax = $dom->createElement('g:tax');

google_base.php - somewhere around line 303

      $item->appendChild($dom->createElement('g:price', number_format($price, 2, '.', '')));
      if (GOOGLE_PRODUCTS_TAX_DISPLAY == 'true' && GOOGLE_PRODUCTS_TAX_COUNTRY == 'GB' && $tax_rate != '') {
        $tax = $dom->createElement('g:tax');

Changed bits highlighted in red.


Now all I need to do is to figure out why this latest version isn't specifying all my large images? When the cart was v1.5.1 the large images worked, but now they don't. Google are soon updating their requirements in some countries to have images that are a minimum of 100px x 100px, with a recommended size of 800px x 800px. Unfortunately, my small images are only 80px x 80px!

[enzo-ita]

I know nobody will believe this, but I have this problem that came out suddenly and without changes.
A product have an image assigned in the db. The feed is created with the correct image. I change the image in the db (using the admin) and the name of the image is changed in the db obviously. I create the feed and the image of the product remains the same. The name of the image file is not in the db!!!! anywere! Getting crazy.
Please help.
ciao from Italy

[enzo-ita]

I know nobody will believe this, but I have this problem that came out suddenly and without changes.
A product have an image assigned in the db. The feed is created with the correct image. I change the image in the db (using the admin) and the name of the image is changed in the db obviously. I create the feed and the image of the product remains the same. The name of the image file is not in the db!!!! anywere! Getting crazy.
Please help.
ciao from Italy

OK. Sorry. Got it! Is the damn cache. Is there any way to set up a browser to be used only for development that will NOT USE THE CACHE? Thanks.
enzo

[bottyz]

OK. Sorry. Got it! Is the damn cache. Is there any way to set up a browser to be used only for development that will NOT USE THE CACHE? Thanks.
enzo

Haha! The good old cache eh? I've had this happen many times. Best to hit ctrl + f5 on your keyboard after any changes. You can disable cache in browsers, but the instructions on how to do this vary by browser. Google is your friend!

[bottyz]

Hi again all,

I've managed to fix the _LRG & _MED image links in the feed (not that i'm sure anyone else has even noticed this issue).

In includes/classes/google_base.php find the function: google_base_image_url around line 505:

   // creates the url for the products_image
    function google_base_image_url($products_image) {
      if($products_image == "") return "";
      if (defined('GOOGLE_PRODUCTS_ALTERNATE_IMAGE_URL') && GOOGLE_PRODUCTS_ALTERNATE_IMAGE_URL != '') {
        if (strpos(GOOGLE_PRODUCTS_ALTERNATE_IMAGE_URL, HTTP_SERVER . '/' . DIR_WS_IMAGES) !== false) {
          $products_image = substr(GOOGLE_PRODUCTS_ALTERNATE_IMAGE_URL, strlen(HTTP_SERVER . '/' . DIR_WS_IMAGES)) . $products_image;
        } else {
          return GOOGLE_PRODUCTS_ALTERNATE_IMAGE_URL . rawurlencode($products_image);
        } 
      }
      $products_image_extention = "/".substr($products_image, strrpos($products_image, '.'))."/";
      $products_image_base = preg_replace($products_image_extention, '', $products_image);
      $products_image_medium = $products_image_base . IMAGE_SUFFIX_MEDIUM . $products_image_extention;
      $products_image_large = $products_image_base . IMAGE_SUFFIX_LARGE . $products_image_extention;
      
      // check for a large image else use medium else use small
      if (!file_exists(DIR_WS_IMAGES . 'large/' . $products_image_large)) {
        if (!file_exists(DIR_WS_IMAGES . 'medium/' . $products_image_medium)) {
          $products_image_large = DIR_WS_IMAGES . $products_image;
        } else {
          $products_image_large = DIR_WS_IMAGES . 'medium/' . $products_image_medium;
        }
      } else {
        $products_image_large = DIR_WS_IMAGES . 'large/' . $products_image_large;
      }
      if ((function_exists('handle_image')) && (GOOGLE_PRODUCTS_IMAGE_HANDLER == 'true')) {
        $image_ih = handle_image($products_image_large, '', LARGE_IMAGE_MAX_WIDTH, LARGE_IMAGE_MAX_HEIGHT, '');
        $retval = (HTTP_SERVER . DIR_WS_CATALOG . $image_ih[0]);
      } else {
        $retval = (HTTP_SERVER . DIR_WS_CATALOG . rawurlencode($products_image_large));
      }   
      return str_replace('%2F', '/', $retval);
    }

I've changed this to:

    // creates the url for the products_image
    function google_base_image_url($products_image) {
      if($products_image == "") return "";
      if (defined('GOOGLE_PRODUCTS_ALTERNATE_IMAGE_URL') && GOOGLE_PRODUCTS_ALTERNATE_IMAGE_URL != '') {
        if (strpos(GOOGLE_PRODUCTS_ALTERNATE_IMAGE_URL, HTTP_SERVER . '/' . DIR_WS_IMAGES) !== false) {
          $products_image = substr(GOOGLE_PRODUCTS_ALTERNATE_IMAGE_URL, strlen(HTTP_SERVER . '/' . DIR_WS_IMAGES)) . $products_image;
        } else {
          return GOOGLE_PRODUCTS_ALTERNATE_IMAGE_URL . rawurlencode($products_image);
        } 
      }
      $products_image_extention = substr($products_image, strrpos($products_image, '.'));
      $products_image_base = preg_replace("/" . $products_image_extention . "/", '', $products_image);
      $products_image_medium = $products_image_base . IMAGE_SUFFIX_MEDIUM . $products_image_extention;
      $products_image_large = $products_image_base . IMAGE_SUFFIX_LARGE . $products_image_extention;

      // check for a large image else use medium else use small
      if (!file_exists(DIR_WS_IMAGES . 'large/' . $products_image_large)) {
        if (!file_exists(DIR_WS_IMAGES . 'medium/' . $products_image_medium)) {
          $products_image_large = DIR_WS_IMAGES . $products_image;
        } else {
          $products_image_large = DIR_WS_IMAGES . 'medium/' . $products_image_medium;
        }
      } else {
        $products_image_large = DIR_WS_IMAGES . 'large/' . $products_image_large;
      }
      if ((function_exists('handle_image')) && (GOOGLE_PRODUCTS_IMAGE_HANDLER == 'true')) {
        $image_ih = handle_image($products_image_large, '', LARGE_IMAGE_MAX_WIDTH, LARGE_IMAGE_MAX_HEIGHT, '');
        $retval = (HTTPS_SERVER . DIR_WS_CATALOG . $image_ih[0]);
      } else {
        $retval = (HTTPS_SERVER . DIR_WS_CATALOG . rawurlencode($products_image_large));
      } 
	  $retval = str_replace('%2F', '/', $retval);
	  $retval = str_replace('%28', '(', $retval);
	  return str_replace('%29', ')', $retval);
    }

With regards to the first change, I noticed it was added slashes before and after the file extension, which was being reused later on and then when used with file_exists, always returned false.
The second change is an optional one. I have some image names which contain brackets (), these were being converted to %28 and %29, which caused an issue with the file in my browser, so I've just reverted these back to brackets.

Oh and if you want to have the images link to https:// rather than http:// (like I do as my store is fully SSL enabled using HSTS), then you should amend ADMIN/includes/boxes/extra_boxes/googfroogle_tools_dhtml.php from

$za_contents[] = array('text' => BOX_GOOGLEFROOGLE, 'link' => zen_href_link(FILENAME_GOOGLEFROOGLE, '', 'NONSSL'));

to

$za_contents[] = array('text' => BOX_GOOGLEFROOGLE, 'link' => zen_href_link(FILENAME_GOOGLEFROOGLE, '', 'SSL'));

One extra thing I noticed was that the Tools >Google Merchant Center Feeder admin page layout was screwed up with the description on the right hand side and off the screen. I fixed this by altering the css and position of the divs:

ADMIN/googlefroogle.php lines 141 -> 144 remove the lines in red

  #contentwrapper{float:left;width:100%;}
  #columnLeft{margin-right:250px;}
  .container{margin:0 10px 10px;}
  #columnRight{float:left;margin-left:-250px;width:250px;}

lines 154 -> 158 add the lines in green

  <div id="columnLeft">
    <div class="container">
      <h1><?php echo HEADING_TITLE; ?></h1>
	  <br>
	  <div><img src="images/googlebase.gif" width="230" height="30"></div>
	  <div class="smallText"><?php echo TEXT_GOOGLE_PRODUCTS_LOGIN_HEAD; ?></div>
	  <div class="smallText"><?php echo TEXT_GOOGLE_PRODUCTS_LOGIN; ?></div>
	  <br><br>
      <form method="get" action="<?php echo HTTP_SERVER . DIR_WS_CATALOG . FILENAME_GOOGLEFROOGLE . ".php"; ?>" name="google" target="googlefeed" onsubmit="window.open('', 'googlefeed', 'resizable=1, statusbar=5, width=600, height=400, top=0, left=50, scrollbars=yes');setTimeout('location.reload(true);', 5000);">
        <label for="feed">Feed Type:</label>

And finally lines 208 -> 216 remove the lines in red:

</div>
<div id="columnRight">
  <div class="container">
    <div><img src="images/googlebase.gif" width="230" height="30"></div>
    <div class="smallText"><?php echo TEXT_GOOGLE_PRODUCTS_LOGIN_HEAD; ?></div>
    <div class="smallText"><?php echo TEXT_GOOGLE_PRODUCTS_LOGIN; ?></div>
  </div>
</div>
<!-- body_eof //-->

I hope this helps some of you!!

[sw1138lr]

We have zencart V1.5.5a test site installed. Trying to get the google feeder to work. When we hit the confirm button to start creating the product it pop-up a window that bring up the test site of zencart main page. It should bring up the list of products it is generating in the XML. What would be causing this? thanks