Google Base - Suddenly throwing errors

Hi Experts,

I have been running google base without any problems since a long now.

Suddenly, all the products around 1000 on google base have been disapproved. Result : Sales Slumped by over 80%

I had a peek at the google base dashboard and it says :

"On Sept. 22, we started gradually enforcing the new Google products feed spec requirements."

Starting 1st October, all the products are deavtivated.

When I upload the product feed using the Zencart admin, there is no issue and the upload shows OK and the product feed is also created without any error. The error comes when it goes to google base for validation now.

The errors shown are :

Item Errors - 878 items with errors 878 items affected
878
Missing required attribute: availability (878 errors, only affecting Product Search, Search API for Shopping)

Please make sure you include all required attributes in your data feed.
Examples: Examples:
Item ID Line Nr.
1232 49 Show Item
1324 217 Show Item
1238 469 Show Item
1310 1,288 Show Item
1298 1,456 Show Item

Item Warnings - 1756 items with warnings 1756 items affected
878
Expiration date is too far in the future (878 warnings)

Please make sure the value doesn't exceed the default expiration date for your item type.
Learn more.
Examples: Examples:
Item ID Line Nr. Value
1260 75 2011-11-02T06:57:36 Show Item
1323 138 2011-11-02T06:57:36 Show Item
1321 180 2011-11-02T06:57:36 Show Item
1335 348 2011-11-02T06:57:36 Show Item
980 516 2011-11-02T06:57:36 Show Item
878

Missing recommended attribute: google product category (878 warnings)

While items missing recommended attributes will process successfully, we recommend including relevant attributes if they are available

I tried looking for a similar issue faced by someone in the forum but couldnt get something on which I can act upon.

Please let me know how do I proceed with solving these errors through the admin in Zencart .

I would be very glad for the help.

Regards,
Chetan

It's likely your feeder version doesn't include google product category.

This is the thread you need to see

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=67850&page=317

google feed specifications

http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?answer=188494&expand=US#US

Hi,

I looked into the forum you said and also explored merchant center.
I had a look at my google base account also.

I see that there is just one problem with the feed which is causing problems.

The XML feed generated from Zencart does not contain the below attribute which is shown in RED by google base error.

<g:availability>in stock</g:availability>

Now, if there can be a way to include this attribute in the product feed, the error will go off.

Can you please suggest some modifications so that this can happen.

Regards,
Chetan

I could resolve he second warning of the expiration date too far in future by setting the configuration to 29 days.

However, the error for required attribute availability still remains along with the warning for Missing recommended attribute: google product category.

Hope i get some help for these two points. I guess I will have to update some files and some sql injection.

Request help at the earliest.

Chetan

in your merchant center feeder configuration is your "show quantity" set to true?

Hi,

Yes its set to show qty is set to true.

Now what i did is, installed a new merchant feeder module by numinix which documentations says that it has included the availaibility atribute in it.

I installed it and created a feed. The feed did get successfully created. Out of all the products, however the feed got generated for only 127 items and they got inserted.

Now, there is a altogether new error which crops up.

**XML formatting error - Error
Our system encountered an error when processing your data feed.
Learn more.
Examples: Examples:

Line Nr. Column Nr.
3,166 83 **

When I click on learn more,it says,

Error parsing/validating XML feed Our system encountered an error when processing your XML data feed. Please see the following Help Center topics for more information:

XML tag mismatch

Invalid RSS/Atom document format

Now, I wonder that how do i get all items to get uploaded.

Atleast I could get some breakthrough here. I guess there is a problem with the feed itself getting generated improperly or maybe somethin somewhere is truncating.

Please let me know your thoughts if anyone can help.

Regards,
Chetan

mr.chetanladdha:

Hi,

Yes its set to show qty is set to true.

Now what i did is, installed a new merchant feeder module by numinix which documentations says that it has included the availaibility atribute in it.

I installed it and created a feed. The feed did get successfully created. Out of all the products, however the feed got generated for only 127 items and they got inserted.

Now, there is a altogether new error which crops up.

**XML formatting error - Error
Our system encountered an error when processing your data feed.
Learn more.
Examples: Examples:

Line Nr. Column Nr.
3,166 83 **

When I click on learn more,it says,

Error parsing/validating XML feed Our system encountered an error when processing your XML data feed. Please see the following Help Center topics for more information:

XML tag mismatch

Invalid RSS/Atom document format

Now, I wonder that how do i get all items to get uploaded.

Atleast I could get some breakthrough here. I guess there is a problem with the feed itself getting generated improperly or maybe somethin somewhere is truncating.

Please let me know your thoughts if anyone can help.

Regards,
Chetan

Turn on debug to see what messages you are give when generating a feed.

Hi,
You are lucky I had the same problem. It does seem that you have installed the add on correctly. However, when you are creating the feed it does not complete because there is an error with one of your products within the feed. This could be for example if you have uploaded one of your images with an '&' symbol (which was the problem in my case). To find out exactly which product(s) are causing the problem you need to open up the feed file in internet explorer (you can also open in firefox to find the problem but you need an addon which will find the error in the source code). You should receive an error page instead of the xml feed. If you click on the link at the bottom of the error page it will tell you exactly which product is causing the issue. You can then correct it. Then reupdate the feed and repeat until all errors are resolved. On the final time you open in internet explorer you should see the xml feed instead of the error page. I am not sure if this process will work with earlier vesions of internet explorer. Once you have done this you will resolve the XML mismatch error because your feed is complete.

@ buildingblocks : Debug is ON. When i create a feed, it doesnt show any error. It is when it uploads, the error comes.

@ honeypot : You seem to be bang on target. Exactly, I do have images with & in them !!!

Let me try if what you say works !

Is your problem resolved now ?

Regards,
Chetan

Hi,

@ Honeypot : I have done as you said. Opened the feed file in IE and checked. The error i have attached as a screesnhot. You may please review. Here the product image seems that the & MAY be causing the error.

Would this necessarily mean that I have to change the image names of all images with the " & " in it ???

How did you go about this ?

Thanks,
Chetan

Would this necessarily mean that I have to change the image names of all images with the " & " in it ???

Yes, that's what it means. Are you using an image handler add-on that is creating images with the & in the file name?

Hi,

The removal of & seems to work wonders !!!
Thanks a lot everyone.Almost 60% of the products are now uploaded.

Now, when I check the xml again, i do not get an & error, but a different error which I cannot understand.

XML Parsing Error: no element found
Location: file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Jyoti%20Ladhe/Desktop/domain_products_en2.xml
Line Number 16899, Column 8:</item>
-------^

This is the last line of the feed file generated latest.

Is there some closing tag which is missing ?

Regards,
Chetan

Hi,
Yes you need to remove all the & from image links. The thumbnail was quite difficult to see but I think you also have spaces for the image links. You should definately not use any spaces within links. If you can access your images folder either through your ftp progam or webhost then you should be able to scroll down and correct all the mistakes. However, you also need to update the link from your product page to show the new link. The best way to do this is to back up the image causing the problem. Delete the image of your server. Rename the backup to an acceptable desc using letters and numbers with no spaces (use _ instead of space). Then upload the image again from your products page. It looks to me from your thumbnail that your internet explorer is showing the source code of the xml feed. If you just look at the xml feed on its own you get an error page with a link that says learn more. If you click on the learn more link then it will show you the exact product which is causing the problem within the source code. If you correct that issue and then follow the whole process again to show the next error until all the links are working.

Hi,
You need to look at what is on **Line Number 16899 **of your xml source code to see what the error is. It would be difficult to know the exact issue without this info.

Hi honeypot,

Thanks a lot for your help.
All the & products have been settled.

Now, this new error has to be rectified.
Were all your problems solved after you fixed the & images products or there were some other changes also that you needed to make ?

I had some products that did not have a model number. So, they did not get uploaded. I fixed them and they are also up now.

Some products had FREE SHIPPING written in the description. So, that was the problem.

Now for the others, I am unable to guess. As the error says its related to some XML parsing error .

The line number Line Number 16899, Column 8 has nothing but :</item> written on it and its the last line of the feed file.

So, now I am stuck here. I am still ssearchig and checking if I can get anything. If you all can help in the meanwhile would be great.

Thanks,
Chetan

Try to eliminate special characters from your descriptions, titles and even model numbers. There are many more characters than just & that will choke your feed.

Yeah.. I am in a process of checking those out..
I will post the results soon.

Thanks a lot buildingblocks !

All the help is very much appreciated.

Thanks,
Chetan

Hi,
I did not have any other errors apart from the & in the image links. The end of the feed should be as follows:

</item>
</channel>
</rss>

Does yours end the same way. It could be a case of when you have removed all the errors then it may resolve itself. Just one thing I noticed there should not be a : before the </item>. It is possible that when you were installing the mod you may have put in an extra : by mistake.

I am getting Missing required attribute: availability

I have had this running for over a year no issues... until now

new2u:

I am getting Missing required attribute: availability

I have had this running for over a year no issues... until now

If you've been running it for over a year, you're using a version of the mod that does not produce the availability attribute. This is one of the new requirements that Google put in to place effective 09.22.11. You need to update the module.