Invalid URL in Google Base Feed (Google Merchant)

[thehigheredcio]

WP 3.4.1

eStore 6.5.4

EStore Extra Shortcodes 4.3.8

Google Base Product Feed 1.0

Feed URL: http://thehigheredcio.com/?estore_google_xml_feed=1

I just installed the Google Base Product Feed Add-On and have two types of Invalid URL Errors for the Link Attribute.

Type 1: Products that have no product page (Product Page URL field in estore is blank) result in an empty Link Attribute for the product URL.

This is the xml excerpt from one example: <link> href=””</link>

Type 2:For products that do have a Product Page the eStore Product Page URL is showing in the xml but is flagged as invalid.

Example xml excerpt: <link> href=”http://thehigheredcio.com/products/it-project-portfolio-planning-toolkit/”</link&gt;

I don’t see any of the causes Google list in their Help page (http://support.google.com/merchants/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=160038) spaces, backslashes or relative URLs since Type 1 are empty. Type 2 do appear to have a space between the <link> and href=….

Any suggestions would be great. I don’t have a lot of products so I can make pages as a work around if needed.

[thehigheredcio]

After fixing other errors and resubmitting the Base Feed I am left with only URL Errors as noted above other than the warnings for the attributes not supported in the eStore product attributes.

In looking over the URL Errors again, it appears they all have a space between the <link> operator and the href=…. even the Type 1 products. By comparison, the Image Link Attribute does not have the space in it.

Hope that helps

[admin]

Looking into it.. will you give you an update soon.

[admin]

We updated the Google base feed addon. Can you please download a new build now and test it out?

[thehigheredcio]

Upgraded to v1.1

Invalid URL Errors corrected! Thanks for the quick fix.

Type 2 Products with Product Page URL defined in eStore loaded in Google Merchant without error.

Type 1 Products that do not have a Product Page URL (no page exists) fail to load with a “Missing Attribute Error” for the product Link attribute. Here isthe feed xmlfor one example:

<item>

<title><![CDATA[Business Impact Analysis (BIA) Questionnaire]]></title>

<g:id>The Higher Ed CIO-10</g:id>

<description><![CDATA[Business Impact Analysis (BIA) Questionnaire]]></description>

<g:image_link>http://thehigheredcio.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Business-Impact-Analysis-BIA.png</g:image_link&gt; <g:condition>new</g:condition> <g:availability>in stock</g:availability>

<g:price>0.99 </g:price>

<g:brand>The Higher Ed CIO</g:brand>

I can create pages for these products but that could become problematic and not very elegant.

[Peter]

Hi,

Yes I can see the problem and thanks for the feedback.

The thing is that Google stated in one of their feed specification pages that if an attribute has no value that one should not display it.

However after reading another page of the specs Google says that the “link” attribute is “Required for all items”.

I noticed that the same applies for the “image_link” attribute. This is because these are mandatory.

Currently our code checks the product DB if there are values for “product url” and product image and if these are empty the plugin will not display the above attributes.

I think that maybe a better way to do it is to perform the same checks as I mentioned but if the DB returns an empty value then we should insert a default value.

eg,

default value for “link” attribute could be your site’s home or store page or some other default page. (but be careful because Google might have requirements about the value you submit)

For the “image_link” attribute Google says that “If you have no image for your item, you cannot submit the item”

See the merchant centre help page here for more:

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

[thehigheredcio]

I think the store page as a default would be a problem.

For other reasons I have often wondered if I could generate a link to a single product listing without having to create a product page. This might be a a dynamic page that is built on the fly invoking a product number much like the use of shortcodes but for external links and only for the single product.

For now I guess I need a couple of new pages unless you might have an idea.

[thehigheredcio]

I should also note that for some future enhancements I can see how other Google recommended attribute might be nice to have in the eStore anyway such as Brand and Category (UPC or other). For now the Add-on is perfect for me since I have only one category and brand.

[Peter]

Hi,

Regarding the link parameter –

One option would be to create a page on your website which lists all of your products.

There are shortcodes which can list all of your products or certain categories.

See the shortcodes documentation:

http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/ecommerce/wp-estore-shortcodes-and-functions-reference-460

Then you can copy the URL of this page and enter it in the “Product Page URL” for all of your eStore products.

Obviously this sounds like a lot of work if you are going to edit hundreds of products but you could use PHPMyAdmin to export the table’s data to a csv file which you can edit in excel and add the URL very quickly. Then all you’d need to do is import the file back to your DB.

See this for how to use PHPMyAdmin to change bulk data in the DB:

http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/how-to-easily-import-or-export-any-of-your-wordpress-database-content-using-phpmyadmin-3415

Another option is to create a product landing page for all of your products and enter the URL of each landing page in each product’s “Product Page URL” field.

Either way you are going to have to include a value for the “link” tag for all of your products.

[thehigheredcio]

I already have a single Products page that displays all products using the [wp_eStore_all_products_stylish:end] shortcode.

It seems that since the Merchant feed already has the Product page URL, adding it in eStore as the product URL would cause customers to loop back if they clicked on it.

It seems that for a customer experience a landing page may be best.

[Author]

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