Google Base Feeder Support Thread [OLD]

[mydanilo]

I suspect they were there before. Do a db backup and restore an older one and see if it was there. You can restore the newest backup after this test. Do I have to say it? Maybe, DO AT YOUR OWN RISK!

[jmcdog]

numinix, did you ever find the solution to this? I have bullets all through my descriptions and str_replace doesn't work (as you noted). I tried applying the function html_translate to see if one of these would strip it out:
$value = preg_replace("/¿/", "À", $value);
and I tried to find a hexidecimal entity(like 0xD7FF ??) for the bullet without success.

Just two different functions written to make the descriptions look better. Yes you can run sanita on the title as well.

However, I've created an XML version which is complete. I'm currently waiting for Google to process my file before releasing publicly as there is an issue with bullets in the description. If the bullets were created using wingdings, they are very difficult to remove. If anyone has experience with sanitizing symbols such as a bullet (not created using <ul><li>...</li></ul>, but actual symbols cut and paste), please post your sanitization function. A simply $str = str_replace("•", "", $str); doesn't work and actually returns an error.

I even tried making the description only display letters, numbers, and spaces. The bullets still remained!

[jmcdog]

My problem was related to google failing most of my products due to bullets in the descriptions. I ended up reverted to the previous version as mentioned here

It strips all the html from the description. Google strips it anyway so it shouldn't matter. We'll see -- I just resubmitted the feed and am awaiting confirmation.

numinix, did you ever find the solution to this? I have bullets all through my descriptions and str_replace doesn't work (as you noted). I tried applying the function html_translate to see if one of these would strip it out:
$value = preg_replace("/¿/", "À", $value);
and I tried to find a hexidecimal entity(like 0xD7FF ??) for the bullet without success.

[jmcdog]

Google did accept all of my products after I reverted to the prev. version. It's not as pretty as before but good enough for today. I just wanted to replace bullets with an asterisk. It also strips out the ampersand html entity (and probably others).

[tcustomgolf]

Had the same character issue with 1.7.1a which I upgraded from 1.6.2, using zen 1.3.8.

I downloaded a new version on Numinix' site (1.7.3a) and all products upload without error.

Looks like this version has not been posted on the Zen download section, but it is here:

v1.7.3a

Numinix, thanks for the quick fix... and great mod!

[blakdeth77]

Hi, I'm trying to list my products on Google Base, and they seem to be approved each time once the file is uploaded to Base.

But, I would really like to include the Products Model information from each product. Is there some adjustment I can make to any of the files included with the feeder program so that it will extract that information too?

I have searched for "model" in this thread and haven't had much luck. If someone can point me in the right direction I'd really appreciate it. Or if Numinix can lend a hand that'd be splendid also!

Matt
tuningspeedonline.com

[blakdeth77]

Actually to clarify about my s/w. I have never installed the Base Feeder before so it's a new install. I am using ZC v1.3.8a, and installed google base feeder 1.7.1 . I found on the first post in this thread that MPN was added, but I cannot find that in my Base Feeder Configuration.

[numinix]

Actually to clarify about my s/w. I have never installed the Base Feeder before so it's a new install. I am using ZC v1.3.8a, and installed google base feeder 1.7.1 . I found on the first post in this thread that MPN was added, but I cannot find that in my Base Feeder Configuration.

MPN isn't an option, it is automatically included in the feed as it is a requirement by Google Base. Remember, viewing the feed in a browser is different than viewing the feed in an xml editor as in a browser only elements that are defined will show up. g:mpn is not a standard element, therefore the browser ignored this element.

See line 271 to 273 of v1.7.3a:

                  if ($products->fields['products_model'] != '') {
                    $content["mpn"] = '<g:mpn>' . $google_base->google_base_sanita($products->fields['products_model'], true) . '</g:mpn>';
                  } 

[blakdeth77]

Oh crummy. Thank you for clearing that up. I checked the specifics of my items online after your post, and figured out I'm the "bug" in the system. I was wanting to be able to have customers search by the mfr product number and I've been entering product models with the manufacturer name included in that cell. So when I look at the mfr model number on Base, it says "AEM21-XXX" instead of just "21-XXX". In my site there's a space between the mfr name and product model number that I entered in to the cell. And the space is displayed on my product listing. But google scrunches them together when it gets the data feed file.

Well I certainly appreciate you pointing out the issue for me, thank you and have a great day!

[smoke133]

My images are not showing in google base.
I have external images on my site. The image location shows as www.mysite.com/www.externalsite.com in the google feed
Is there a place to remove edit image location?

thanks

How did you get your website to show external images?