Froogle Merchant Center merged into GoogleBase

[BlessIsaacola]

I don't think that the php.ini file is the issue, besides unless you have a semi-dedicated server I don't think your host company will allow you to access this file do to security issues(I know I wouldn't) I ran easy populate advanced and it generated a file containing almost 50,000 products in no time flat. the issue has something to do with the froogle google base mod. Since I am not a coder, I don't know where to start.

The issue have absolutely nothing to do with the php.ini file. There is definitely a problem with the googlefroogle script. Part of the problem relates to timeout/execution issue. Based on the errors I was receiving in my errorlog file I made the changes to the php.ini file as a work around and it worked me. It doesn't mean it will work for someone else. Perhaps, looking into your errorlog and seeing what error the script is generating is a best first approach to diagnosing this problem.

Good luck!

[bekinky]

I uploaded my feed manually for the first time yesterday. It is showing as "Pending, awaiting approval" in my account. When I click "details" it says there are errors in the feed and a bad data line. I have not received any emails from froogle telling me the feed has not been approved or about any errors.

Is this normal and to do with their system while the file awaits approval or are there really errors in the feed? If there are errors how do I fix them? The file was auto-generated by googlefroogle.php

Thanks for any help

I will answer my own question because clearly nobody else knows the answer and another pool soul may be as confused as I was over the weekend. This response may help you find the solution to Googlefroogle feeds.

When you first register your upload feed it seems Google manually verify the feed file. This is supposed to take 24 hours but if you upload on a weekend it will not be looked at until Monday. During this time the "details" tab will show a message saying there are errors in the feed with a # symbol. It will stay like this until it is approved.

Here is a quick and important tip. In the settings tab for your feed, make sure the domain details match the store url (i.e. mydomain.com/store is not the same as mydomain.com). This is important because although Google says it is optional, my feed got rejected because I never put the /store after the domain name. It seems Froogle cannot qualify the url from just a domain name if the actual feed has a subdomain. It took a further 24 hours for Froogle to check it again then upload the items (and I am still waiting for them to show up in Froogle). So either leave that field empty in the Froogle settings tab for your feed (on froogle, not your shop admin), or make sure it matches the full store url (i.e. http://www.mydomain.com/store/)

Another important point - Froogle warned me about the "label" tag being usedin the feed file which apparently is no longer supported (but is still accepted).

Whew - this is my longest post on these forums and I sure hope someone finds it useful and it saves you some time

[Pablosan]

Installed. No SQL errors.

Step 1 in create/update feed is giving me the blank popup window.

Doesn't look like it's generating a file.

Froogle.txt is emtpy.

Permissions on file and folder are 777

Re-installed. Used phpmyadmin for sql just in case.

Same blank popup. Doesn't look like a timeout it just reports done in firefox and its blank.

Read through the thread. Still stumped.

Any ideas?

Using latest version.

[Pablosan]

Checked error log. Nothing in there either. It just does nothing
Doesn't even error just dont work.

[samad64]

turn error_reporting on using htaccess or the php.ini file

[bekinky]

Hmm - I have a weird problem. Googlefroogle creates the files fine. I have set a cron job to run daily at midnight to upload to the google server. Username and password are set correctly. However, if I click upload in the admin control panel it goes through all the correct motions, reports success then has a digit 0 for the number of uploads. The updated file does not show in Google base (so it is not uploading) and the cron file reads as follows (paths edited out for security):

Froogle Data Feeder v.1.3.3 07.02.2007 20:45 started 2007/03/09 00:00:02<br /> Feed file - /****/****/****/****/***/froogle.txt<br />
Processing: Feed - Yes, Upload - No<br /> Froogle File Complete In 12.947299 Seconds 3317 Records<br />

Notice the "Upload - No ". I cannot find a setting anywhere to flick it to yes so I am assuming I am missing something?

What am I missing?

[Pablosan]

turn error_reporting on using htaccess or the php.ini file

I have this file in my root error_log

and it hasn't reported anything since March 2cnd when I was installing sitemaps.

[02-Mar-2007 01:37:03] PHP Warning:  fopen(GOOGLE_SITEMAP_XML_FS_DIRECTORY/sitemapindex.xml) [<a href='function.fopen'>function.fopen</a>]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/haskellg/public_html/googlesitemap.php on line 161

I have had no errors since. Sitemaps is fixed BTW.
Like I said its not even throwing an error. Just a blank page. Someone said it's working just hung up, and to turn off seo urls and rename htaccess but it made no difference.

Strange thing is the browser says done. Not like its grinding away.

[Pixxi]

Someone said it's working just hung up, and to turn off seo urls and rename htaccess but it made no difference.

... I said it seemed that the parameters (...?feed=yes&upload=no') weren't being received by the mod, and I suggested you try installing a zen demo shop in a sub-directory on your server with just the GoogleFroogle mod to test if the SEO mod you had installed on your main site was causing the problem, even though you had disabled it in admin.

Did you do that?

I have the GoogleFoogle mod working on several sites without a problem. So I would guess it's either your server set-up, or other mods/hacks you have installed that's stopping it working.

[Pixxi]

Hmm - I have a weird problem. Googlefroogle creates the files fine. I have set a cron job to run daily at midnight to upload to the google server. Username and password are set correctly. However, if I click upload in the admin control panel it goes through all the correct motions, reports success then has a digit 0 for the number of uploads. The updated file does not show in Google base (so it is not uploading) and the cron file reads as follows (paths edited out for security):

Froogle Data Feeder v.1.3.3 07.02.2007 20:45 started 2007/03/09 00:00:02<br /> Feed file - /****/****/****/****/***/froogle.txt<br />
Processing: Feed - Yes, Upload - No<br /> Froogle File Complete In 12.947299 Seconds 3317 Records<br />

Notice the "Upload - No ". I cannot find a setting anywhere to flick it to yes so I am assuming I am missing something?

What am I missing?

There's two stages:

1. You click to create the feed - 'feed=yes upload=no'

That creates the feed file on your server.

2. Then you click to upload: 'feed=no upload=yes'

That uploads the feed file to Froogle's server.

If you 'View' the file (from the link in the mod in admin) on Froogle's server you will usually see zilch ... zero.

That doesn't mean your upload has failed - Google processes that file quite quickly. At least it disappears from their server quite quickly. Sometimes it doesn't even show no matter how quick you are to view it. Don't worry about it.

Wait a few hours (ie. next day) then look in your Froogle admin and see what has been processed.

Then work from there.

[Pablosan]

I searched and haven't found any reports of SEO interference with this mod. In fact most people say it works fine with Ultimate SEO.

Possible it's another contribution but if so deducing would be well...

Also even in this thread this same behaviour has been reported a few times.

I'll put in a demo store and see if its the server. Thanks.