Google Base Feeder Support Thread [OLD]

Hello,

Thanks for the wonderful module. I have a question... I have been searching and cannot find the answer.

Is it possible to append my URLs with tracking code so that I can see specific product traffic in Analytics? For example, I would like to add "&source=googleproducts"

Thank you very much!

The manual execution in Admin > Tools > Google Merchant Center Feeder works ok and the xml feed is created.

But I am having a mongrel time with the cron job of this mod (and I am not a newbie with cron tabs ...)

Currently the tab looks like this:

wget http://mydomain.com/googlefroogle.php?feed=fy_un_tp  
```(plus the necessary time and date params...)

It executes ok but does not save the xml file to the appropriate location

http://mydomain.com/feed/file_name_products.xml

feed directory is set to chmod 777

Also tried this variant

wget http://mydomain.com/googlefroogle.php?feed=fy_un_tp > /home/myaccount/public_html/feed/file_name_products.xml

to no avail

Does anyone have an idea how to get on top of this please?

TIA / Frank

I'm no expert and each server is different but I only need the first part of that wget http://mydomain.com/googlefroogle.php?feed=fy_un_tp. I wasn't able to check to see if that first part is correct but looks like it at first glance.

If you've never run a cron job on your hosting before, check with your tech support about how to set it up in case it's different.

delia:

....If you've never run a cron job on your hosting before, check with your tech support about how to set it up in case it's different.

Thanks delia. As I mentioned in my previous post I am certainly not a newbie with cron - currently running 6 jobs on one site including daily DB dumps.

May have to get in touch with my techies....

frank18:

The manual execution in Admin > Tools > Google Merchant Center Feeder works ok and the xml feed is created.

But I am having a mongrel time with the cron job of this mod (and I am not a newbie with cron tabs ...)

Currently the tab looks like this:

wget http://mydomain.com/googlefroogle.php?feed=fy_un_tp

> 
> It executes ok but does not save the xml file to the appropriate location
> 
> ```
http://mydomain.com/feed/file_name_products.xml

feed directory is set to chmod 777

Also tried this variant

wget http://mydomain.com/googlefroogle.php?feed=fy_un_tp > /home/myaccount/public_html/feed/file_name_products.xml

> 
> to no avail
> 
> Does anyone have an idea how to get on top of this please?
> 
> TIA / Frank

In admin, configuration > Google Merchant Center Feeder Configuration

what is the output directory set to?

idle:

Thanks for your quick reply Howard, I am guessing the .xml file i am using is from my main directory/feeds/ folder? Which in my case is domain_products.xml

Hi i'm looking for help with this as well and I do not see this directory or XML file. I have a 'feeds' folder but it is in the module folder and has no XML file contained in it. Can anyone help me out. I have installed the module and have set it up on both google and my admin but I am at the part where I must upload my products and i'm not sure how to do so. any help would be great. im using latest version of both zencart and the Google Merchant Center Feeder Configuration. thanks

in the older version(s), the xml file was located in feed/.
with the new version of google merchant center, the xml file is in feed/google/.

hey thanks for the reply pagypsy.. but i dont see any file in that folder..

my "feed" folder is not located in the "modules" folder. it is here: /public_html/feed.
maybe that is part of your problem.

buildingblocks:

In admin, configuration > Google Merchant Center Feeder Configuration

what is the output directory set to?

setting is feed/

Fixed it :P

implemented this cron

curl https://mydomain.com/googlefroogle.php?feed=fy_un_tp

but had to comment out line 54 of mydomain.com/googlefroogle.php from

 if ($key != GOOGLE_BASE_KEY) exit('<p>Incorrect key supplied!</p>');

to

// if ($key != GOOGLE_BASE_KEY) exit('<p>Incorrect key supplied!</p>');  // commented out for testing of cron job - frank18

as the script stopped at this point (the feed is set to be fetched by the relevant services and no key is required)

works a treat now :clap: and returns this in the cron email:

% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- 0:00:01 --:--:-- 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- 0:00:02 --:--:-- 0
100 269 0 269 0 0 112 0 --:--:-- 0:00:02 --:--:-- 231
100 269 0 269 0 0 112 0 --:--:-- 0:00:02 --:--:-- 230
Google Merchant Center Feeder v1.9.0 started 2011/06/03 19:32:02<br />
Feed file - /home/myaccount/public_html/feed/my_name_products.xml<br />
Processing: Feed - Yes, Upload - No<br />

Google Merchant Center File Complete In 2.043967 Seconds 399 Records<br />

You don't have to comment out those lines. I think if you add this to the end of your url it would work: &key=YOURKEYHERE

Though I've not had any problems getting it to work without the key. Maybe using curl makes the difference?

The key is listed in the config settings - the first one.

Glad you figured it out!

Is there a 400 product limit on this feed?

No, I've imported over 2000 products at a time.

delia:

You don't have to comment out those lines. ...... Maybe using curl makes the difference?....

Yes, using the curl command makes the difference. If I uncomment line 54 the script stops just there....

On the other hand the wget command ran ok but would not save the xml file.

All good now ...

Hi,

I'm using Zen 1.3.9h, I have the latest version 1.10.0 of the google merchant feeder installed. I just installed this mod recently, having a tough time working out the issues. I've search this thread and this forum, without finding a clear answer to this, so if I've missed this answer somewhere, sorry in advance.

I'm getting the dreaded

**description length: 0 - skipped, price below zero, description length less than 15 chars, or title less than 3 chars - failed **

error on probably about 2/3 of my products out of several hundred. From reviewing this thread, I gather the most probable cause is illegal characters in the title or description, but here is what is bugging me.

When I try to troubleshoot, I can delete a product description and replace with just a few lines of text, the product makes it through the feed. Then I can add more of the description back to the product, and it still makes it. Then, I can add my original description back and it makes it through again, even though it didn't make it through before. A few times later, it may puke back out when I run the feed, so what I'm having trouble doing is troubleshooting this error down to a root case. So, my question to the community is:

1. Specifically, on the published addon with no mods, exactly which characters in the **description **are illegal?

2. Specifically, which characters in the **title **are illegal?

3. Is there any way around that to make everything legal?

4. Is there anything else that would cause that error? Some of my product descriptions are really long, but some of the really long ones have no issues getting through. If that's an issue, is there a way to address that?

If anyone can help, thanks in advance.

advplans:

Hi,

I'm using Zen 1.3.9h, I have the latest version 1.10.0 of the google merchant feeder installed. I just installed this mod recently, having a tough time working out the issues. I've search this thread and this forum, without finding a clear answer to this, so if I've missed this answer somewhere, sorry in advance.

I'm getting the dreaded

**description length: 0 - skipped, price below zero, description length less than 15 chars, or title less than 3 chars - failed **

error on probably about 2/3 of my products out of several hundred. From reviewing this thread, I gather the most probable cause is illegal characters in the title or description, but here is what is bugging me.

When I try to troubleshoot, I can delete a product description and replace with just a few lines of text, the product makes it through the feed. Then I can add more of the description back to the product, and it still makes it. Then, I can add my original description back and it makes it through again, even though it didn't make it through before. A few times later, it may puke back out when I run the feed, so what I'm having trouble doing is troubleshooting this error down to a root case. So, my question to the community is:

1. Specifically, on the published addon with no mods, exactly which characters in the **description **are illegal?

2. Specifically, which characters in the **title **are illegal?

3. Is there any way around that to make everything legal?

4. Is there anything else that would cause that error? Some of my product descriptions are really long, but some of the really long ones have no issues getting through. If that's an issue, is there a way to address that?

If anyone can help, thanks in advance.

ok, I've stumbled across a fix, so let me post so I can share. I viewed my cache file in my cache directory where my store is located. It kept pointing to an error on line 277 of the google_base.php file in the includes/classes folder, which is fixed by the following post.

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1031040&postcount=2743

Seemed to cure my problem. No idea why, though..... would love it if someone could explain it to my feeble brain, and if there is collateral damage? Of course, I'm not at the point of uploading to google, so maybe thats my next crapola?

You may be aware that recently Google checkout has come up with a new requirement for their data feeds. The feeds are required to include at least two of three unique product identifiers (see web page):

http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?answer=160161

In my case, I decided the easiest thing to do to meet these requirements (since my wholesaler does not provide data like UPCs ISBNs, etc.) was to use a combination of a MPN, (which can be made up by the store owner), and a Brand Name.

I HAD been assigning brand names where appropriate, but I had NOT been entering model numbers, hence I was faced with adding a model number to 595 products, a pretty daunting task manually, so I decided to go the sql statement/query route and try to affect the change I needed in all 595 records (tables) at one time.

Originally, I tried to add an autoincrementing field and update that to the products_model field, but I could not find a statement that would update it sequentially, so I wound up with the number "1" in that field. I finally came up with this solution that took all of .033 seconds to accomplish my goal.

Keeping in mind that the products_id field is the auto incrementing one ( only ONE autoincrementing field is allowed in any table), as the shopping cart software assigns a new id to each product created, I decided to simply use the product_id as my new Manufacturers Part Number (MPN) to satisfy the new Google data feed requirements. SO, I ran this simple query:

UPDATE zen_products
SET zen_products.products_model = zen_products.products_id

THAT gave me a products_model field with the same values as the products_id field. Next I wanted to append a text prefix to that number so it would look "more official". To accomplish that, I used:

UPDATE zen_products
SET zen_products.products_model = concat(' MPN-',zen_products.products_id)

I hope you find this information useful.

delia:

No, I've imported over 2000 products at a time.

Is there a setting I need to change then?

I've scoured this and other threads and come to the conclusion that I don't speak geek fluently enough to grasp this concept!
I need an interpreter!!:blink:

I installed the google base feeder. After reading this thread I thought that in order to use UPC's that I would also have to install the Numinex product fields mod as well to get the additional product fields.

Well I did that yesterday and my site has completely blown up.

I'm running Zen 1.39f.

My site is https://www.wholesomehound.com

When going to a product to edit it in the Admin I get the following error:

1054 Unknown column 'p.products_condition' in 'field list'
in:
[select pd.products_name, pd.products_description, pd.products_url, p.products_id, p.products_quantity, p.products_model, p.products_image, p.products_price, p.products_virtual, p.products_weight, p.products_date_added, p.products_last_modified, date_format(p.products_date_available, '%Y-%m-%d') as products_date_available, p.products_status, p.products_tax_class_id, p.manufacturers_id, p.products_quantity_order_min, p.products_quantity_order_units, p.products_priced_by_attribute, p.product_is_free, p.product_is_call, p.products_quantity_mixed, p.product_is_always_free_shipping, p.products_qty_box_status, p.products_quantity_order_max, p.products_sort_order, p.products_discount_type, p.products_discount_type_from, p.products_price_sorter, p.master_categories_id, p.products_upc, p.products_isbn, p.products_ean, p.products_asin, p.products_condition, p.products_diameter, p.products_weight_type, p.products_dim_type, p.products_length, p.products_width, p.products_height, p.products_ready_to_ship, p.products_actual_weight from zen_products p, zen_products_description pd where p.products_id = '1358' and p.products_id = pd.products_id and pd.language_id = '1']
If you were entering information, press the BACK button in your browser and re-check the information you had entered to be sure you left no blank fields.

I've run the uninstall sql for the product fields mod from numinex. and am still getting this output. Should I just restore my backups and start over or is there something I am missing. I did not install all the possible fields, only the UPC/ISBN.

Help...