Google Base Feeder Support Thread [OLD]

[numinix]

I have a curious question. I do the html side and my wife does the product side. I have been pretty busy lately, but my wife still has been updating products...changing in-stock/out of stock items. I dont always have time to log on and update my feed.

Is there a way to set it up to autorun that file to create it?? Maybe through a cron job?

Yes, an example is provided in the documentation as well as on the tools page in your ZC admin.

[rickiesdiscount]

I keep having problems with the newest version of this...everytime i enable free shipping the feed does not work and yes i have free shipping enabled...if i turn shipping off to none it still says disapproved by google...

Please help me fix this i have tried everything and cannot get google to accept my feed now, i have been having problems ever since i upgraded to version 1.7.4

thanks.

[rickiesdiscount]

Google keeps saying this
Prohibited work in attribute
Please check our Program Policies and make sure that you are not submitting any prohibited items.
Learn more.
Examples:
Examples:
Item Nr. Line Nr.
15,349 306,982


but when i go to that line its nothing but a price

what is going on?

[jonasrullo]

Using Google Base Feeder v.1.7.0 09.019.2008

Too few items are added to my final xml feed file. When I run the query generated by google base feeder directly through MySQL, I get 338 items found. When I update my feed through the admin>tools>google base feeder menu, I get 197 items found. What limits the feed items with this feeder?
I looked at two items in my inventory where one appears in the xml feed and the other does not. All attributes, prices, check boxes, etc are identical. What should I look at to determine why one item is added to the xml feed and one item is not. The two items in my example are identical except for color and description. Title is identical except for color name. The category is identical, etc.

I cannot see why one item is included and one is not.

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

[jonasrullo]

Found two problems with my items. One) the feed selection was limited to products with quantity greater than zero. I updated the config to include items with zero quantity. Two) I found some products with no description. That would be bad for Google I suspect.

I hope this helps the next person to look more closely at the google base config.

[rickiesdiscount]

Google keeps saying this
Prohibited work in attribute
Please check our Program Policies and make sure that you are not submitting any prohibited items.
Learn more.
Examples:
Examples:
Item Nr. Line Nr.
15,349 306,982


but when i go to that line its nothing but a price

what is going on?

Now i have this error gone and there is nothing but the usual errors of some product descriptions are to short or to long and it still says disapproved...This is getting frustrating. I just deleted the feed in google base and made a new one and if this doesnt fix it i do not know what to do

Any Ideas?

[rickiesdiscount]

Now i have this error gone and there is nothing but the usual errors of some product descriptions are to short or to long and it still says disapproved...This is getting frustrating. I just deleted the feed in google base and made a new one and if this doesnt fix it i do not know what to do

Any Ideas?

That seemed to of fixed it google makes no sense i have had to do this multiple times to fix this problem before i just forgot about it

[cOOter]

A current issue with the script which was a prominent concern from the previous thread is that if your store has a lot of products (i.e. 1000+), the script times out when pulling values from the database. A simple fix has been to lengthen the max execution time in your php.ini (if your host allows access), .htaccess, and also your zen cart admin configuration.

Here are the lines to add to php.ini and .htaccess:

Ore you could just add "set_timeout_limit(0)" at the top of the script googlefroogle.php

It worked for us. We have over 14,000 products active on our site. It takes the script along time to run (5 mins or so) but it is working great! Thanks for a great contribution!

[ShoesBuyOnline]

Hi, numinix

Thank you for your nice add-on but I have always gotten "Disapproved" from Google base when I submit my feed.
I have noticed some other sites just in my same niche which also use zen-cart scripts to build their sites are listed on Google Base.
Below is my settings:
Google Base FTP Username xxx
Google Base FTP Password xxx
Google Base Server uploads.google.com
Google Base PASV true
Debug false
Store Address http://www.shoesbuyonline.com
Store Description Buy New, Retro & Custom Nike Air Force Ones, Air Jordan Shoes, Air Force Jordan Fusion, Kids Nike, Big Size Jordan Shoes Online.
Auction Site Attributes false
Enable Map Pricing false
Expiration Date Base product
Expiration Date Adjust 31
Show Default Currency true
Default Currency USD
Show Offer ID id
Show Quantity false
Include Zero Quantity false
Default Quantity 0
Shipping Options Free Shipping & Free Return Shipping
Condition new
Show Feed Lanugage false
Feed Language English
Magic SEO URLs false
Output File Name shoesbuyonline
Compress Feed File false
Output Directory feed/
Use cPath in url false
Uploaded date 2009/12/09 07:59:48
Tax Region Tax Free
Display Tax false
Max products 0
Starting Point 0
Pickup false
Included Categories Info
Excluded Categories Info
Show Weight false
Weight Units pounds
Product Type top
Payments Accepted Visa,MasterCard,AmericanExpress,Discover,WireTransfer
Payment Notes Other payment methods include Moneybookers, Paypal, Western Union and MoneyGram
Image Handler false
Use Meta Title true
Select Shipping Method free shipping
Table Zone ID Info
Shipping Country Info
Shipping Region Info
Shipping Service EMS - Air Express International

Would you please help me in finding what is wrong with my settings or other reasons might lead to disapproved?

Thanks for your time,

[gregger]

Hi,

Does anyone else have problems with illegal characters in the descriptions or URL?

I have a file that contains 23,000 products, around 1800 products are rejected by Google because the contain illegal characters.

When I look in the XML it appears to be down to ' and ¦ within the URL or description. They get replaced with Â

There is a replace function within google_base.php that should strip ' and I have added ¦ to the list, but the XML still contains  characters?

Thanks