Google Base Feeder Support Thread [OLD]

[fusionsp]

So Im not sure if this has happened to anyone else but Googlebase changed their site. I have it set to alert me if anything does not get completely processed when it grabs my file and this week I didnt get one. So when i went back to their site, they basically deleted my .xml file and made me create everything else again??

And now their directing ppl to use google merchant center? Is this in any way going to affect the feed file that is created? Has anyone else noticed this yet?

OK...i found my product listings and yes, they were all on the new google merchant center pages. Its nice of them to at least inform users that hey, you dont have to redo anything we just moved it.

This is what they have on their site...

Is Google Merchant Center replacing Google Base?

No, Google Merchant Center is not replacing Google Base. We're just moving the Google Base users that upload or manage Product listings to our new service, Google Merchant Center, in order to better serve them going forward. All Google Base users that upload or manage other item types can continue to use Google Base.

Where should I upload real estate, jobs and vehicles from now on? Aren't these products as well?

Please continue to upload or manage these items in Google Base, as nothing changes for you or these verticals. While some of these items might be considered products in a broader sense, because they don't follow the Products Feed Specification, they're not considered Product listings for Google.

I am an existing Google Base user, where should I upload my items from now on?

If you upload or manage Product listings, please visit Google Merchant Center. If you upload or manage other types of items, please visit Google Base. If you have both types of items (Product listings and non-Product listings), you'll need to visit Google Merchant Center to manage your Product listings and Google Base to manage the rest.

[DivaVocals]

Thanks Dave..

This was a HUGE help for me..

This fixed double quotation (") marks in my client's product descriptions, but not the product titles. (ie: 12-14" Widget) I also needed to add a fix for ampersands (&) used instead of the word "and" in product descriptions. So I modified your change slightly as follows:

In \includes\classes\google_base.php around line 202 find this:

$str = str_replace(array("&lt;", "&gt;"), array("<", ">"), $str); 

Replace that line with:

//      $str = str_replace(array("&lt;", "&gt;"), array("<", ">"), $str);
//        10-01-2009 Updated to correct quotation marks and ampersands in product titles and descriptions
        $str = str_replace(array("lt;", "gt;", "quot;", "&quot;", "amp;"), array("&lt;", " &qt; ", "&quot;", "\"", "&"), $str); 

When I make these kinds of changes I like to comment out the original code versus simply replacing it and I always include comments so I know WHY I made the change.. (in case I have a senior moment!) so if I need to roll back my change I can easily do this.

Like Dave said.. Nothing wrong with the code.. just with how my clients product titles and descriptions are managed needed a little massaging to make Google happy..

I format my descriptions and titles using HTML tags. I also use some tags to keep from having errors in MySQL server such as commas and quotation marks. I'm using the RSS 2.0 format for my Google feed which has problems with some HTML tags within xml. On top of it all, Google has it's own formatting you need to consider if you want your feed to display at all. Thus the need for sanitizing it.

Unfortunately, theirs not an easy one fix for all users solution, lest for my limited coding ability. All my quotations are tag as " and for some reason, the & is removed during sanitizing leaving me with quot; which errors in Google. My fix was with this line in \includes\classes\google_base.php Look for the function 'google_base_xml_sanitizer'

$str = str_replace(array("&lt;", "&gt;"), array("<", ">"), $str);

with this one

$str = str_replace(array("lt;", "gt;", "quot;"), array("<", " &qt; ", """), $str);

My quotation now shows up in titles and description.

Theirs nothing wrong with the code, just with how my titles and description are coded and my refusal to modify 3000 products just to please google.

[conspicuouschick]

I have zencart 1.3.8a that was recently hacked. I had the hack repaired and while I was there, updated the google base feeder mod because of google's changed requirements. Now the mod won't even create a feed (yes, everything was working just fine before). I checked the admin-> configuration and the user name and password had been erased. I re-added those but it still won't 'create' a feed. Simply says "no" with no additional error message.

Now, google has changed everything to that blasted merchant center. I jump through their hoops there and realize under 'ftp' that my user name and password is gone (that did exist under the 'old' google base page, so wtf?). I re-add them, but no it's telling me that MY user name is already in use (yes, by me!) I took the path of least resistence and changed the user name, doing the same on zencart's admin-> config but the mod is still not 'creating' a feed.

Any thoughts at all?

[bhunted]

Since the new change to the Merchant interface, has anyone noticed not all their items are being posted? Example, I have 184 products and only 100 are showing on the summary page. Yet, there are no errors reported by google. Any thoughts? It's frustrating.

[davewest]

Since the new change to the Merchant interface, has anyone noticed not all their items are being posted? Example, I have 184 products and only 100 are showing on the summary page. Yet, there are no errors reported by google. Any thoughts? It's frustrating.

[FONT=Times New Roman][FONT=Fixedsys]
[/FONT][/FONT] Check your raw feed to see if everything is as google wants. I had a problem where my feed wasn't listed and no errors showing. Turned out that my large images were being link to and not my thumbnails. I fixed the problem and all my products are listed even after the switch to the Merchant Interface.

[conspicuouschick]

I have zencart 1.3.8a that was recently hacked. I had the hack repaired and while I was there, updated the google base feeder mod because of google's changed requirements. Now the mod won't even create a feed (yes, everything was working just fine before). I checked the admin-> configuration and the user name and password had been erased. I re-added those but it still won't 'create' a feed. Simply says "no" with no additional error message.

Now, google has changed everything to that blasted merchant center. I jump through their hoops there and realize under 'ftp' that my user name and password is gone (that did exist under the 'old' google base page, so wtf?). I re-add them, but no it's telling me that MY user name is already in use (yes, by me!) I took the path of least resistence and changed the user name, doing the same on zencart's admin-> config but the mod is still not 'creating' a feed.

Any thoughts at all?

The code has been reviewed and nothing has been found. But the mod still won't produce a feed. When the site hack was fixed, the admin page had to be changed to a different name - could that be affecting the mod in some way?

[bhunted]

I did find some problems. It's not accepting the products because xml file contains a lot of illegal characters. Seems that when the xml is generated, it's creating whacky characters when it sees apostrophes, some quotes, etc. I have the latest version, but it till messes them up in the xml file. It replaces them with an uppercase A with a little mark above it. Any ideas?

[FONT=Times New Roman]
[/FONT]Check your raw feed to see if everything is as google wants. I had a problem where my feed wasn't listed and no errors showing. Turned out that my large images were being link to and not my thumbnails. I fixed the problem and all my products are listed even after the switch to the Merchant Interface.

[fmckinnon]

Hey Gang,
We've just tripled the number of products in our store and now when I attempt to create the Google Base file, the popup window comes up, and it runs for 20 seconds or so, and then the browser's status window says "done" ... but in the window, it's nowhere NEAR finished with the ID:, Price, Description - including - success ....

It never finishes, it's clear that it has thousands of products left to include ...

I read back for dozens of pages and searched - seems some folks have had to edit their php.ini file, but i couldn't find WHAT to edit, or what things to change.

Basically, I'm getting about 4000-5000 products added to the file, and it's just stopping - I need it to run and keep including-success until it's finished with ALL the products.

HELP .. thanks!

[davewest]

I did find some problems. It's not accepting the products because xml file contains a lot of illegal characters. Seems that when the xml is generated, it's creating whacky characters when it sees apostrophes, some quotes, etc. I have the latest version, but it till messes them up in the xml file. It replaces them with an uppercase A with a little mark above it. Any ideas?

Had the same problems... I had to play with the sanitizer until it worked. If possible, run it so only 20 or 200 products are entered and look at the xml to see if all looks right. Again.. there is nothing wrong with the coding... just me..

Look to includes\classes\google_base.php and look for the function google_base_xml_sanitizer. The following line is where the strange A's are coming from.

$str = eregi_replace("[^[:alnum:][:space:].,’Â!()'-_/+=?ÀÂÄßÈÉÊËÎÏÔÖÙÛÜàâäèéêëîïôöùûüÿÇç«»]", "", $str);

I worked through mine until my feed look good and ended up with this line..

$str = eregi_replace("[^[:alnum:][:space:].,!()'-_/!\+=?«»]", "", $str);

Running just a short amount of products through is just to speed things up. One day I'll spend some time in fixing my descriptions so I wont have to modify things.


@conspicuouschick
Check your write access to where the feed is created. Sounds like something is keeping it from working...

[HelpMeSell]

Hi,
I am using zencart 1.38a and I installed googlebase and I am having a weird problem

When I click Create Product Feed or Upload Product Feed it opens up the popup http://www.mydomain.com/googlefroogle.php?feed=fn_uy_tp HTTP 404 Not Found Error, but they actually work, it does indeed create the XML file and when I click upload it does upload it to the merchant center...

Any ideas how I can solve this problem??

Thanks in advance!