EZ Merchant Solutions has now extended our popular XML Data Feeds addon for Google Merchant (formerly Google Base) and Yahoo Shopping with some great new features.
We have fixed a few bugs and have added the following new features:
You can now choose to use the meta-description in addition to the short or full description for the description fields in both styles of XML.
You can now generate XML files in multiple languages and currencies (one file for each language/currency combination). Filenames are structured to include the language and currency so you can submit to different countries.
The new Google Product Categories is now supported and you can install the current list of Google Product Categories into the product feature named “Google Category” by loading a specific page. This will load ALL defined Google categories so it can get fairly large.
We are maintaining our current pricing on this addon and simply adding more value for your dollar.
To get the new features, existing clients will have to uninstall and re-install the addon after it automatically updates. Maybe someday cs-cart will fix the addon area so that changes to addon.xml will be reflected without having to uninstall/install the addon!
New clients will get the new functionality automatically when you load the addon.
We believe this version supports all Google Merchant requirements as of today. Note: there may be some optional attributes that are not supported (but I can't think of what they are).
Feel free to ask questions here in this thread or send an email to supportXX@ez-msXX.com (remove X's).
Existing clients should receive updates over the next day or two depending on your update settings.
Is this addon likely to rate our products higher in base search results, alot of our competitors are on the first page for the same products and we are nowhere to be seen. I have a feeling the export products built in to cs-cart is not the best.
Is this addon likely to rate our products higher in base search results, alot of our competitors are on the first page for the same products and we are nowhere to be seen. I have a feeling the export products built in to cs-cart is not the best.
Thanks
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I doubt it. From my experience it seems like the stores that have been around the longest are at the top.
Really? I'm not saying that you aren't somewhat correct, but the guy was only saying that this addon would help his search results. How is that not true?
Sure, it might not make him #1, but if he is no where to be seen on the results now, where else does he have to go but up?
Brandon, I am not trying to be “such a kill joy”. He simply asked if the add on would improve his ranking in the Google shopping results. I, in return, simply gave my opinion.
A feed is a feed. If he is already in the search results, there isn't much else he can do to improve the actual ranking.
I don't think it will change your site's rankings for key word searches. But it will get your products added to the Goggle Merchant list of products (I.e. those ads that have several links under one picture). This is a Google Merchant (formerly Google Base) interface. It is not a search-engine tool. For that, a good sitemap.xml is the best approach since it's very fast for the search engines to index, so they prefer it.
Interesting to think that those with longer standing appear at the top. That does make sense as the ones that pick us to the top are well established shops! Would be nice to get a mention for the stock we carry on the first page atleast of Base. We just simply upload the datafeed .csv file once a week.
So how does this addon benefit us all, im guessing we cant use it in the UK for yahoo or bing as these are US merchants only? Sorry me being naive.
This addon is a “shopping aggregator data generator”. That being said, it tries to create an export of your products that can be used at the major shopping aggregators. Many of the smaller ones (Shopping.com, etc.) can use these data formats too.
Most people use this for generating a feed to Google Merchant (you can Google it to find out what it can do for you).
Given that Google Merchant is expanding to other countries than the US, it is handy to be able to generate data files that can be used in other countries (like maybe Australia or UK). Since both countries use English (albeit odd at times) as the language, they (and the US) have different currencies. Hence you can now generate 3 versions of the data feeds in English, but for GBP, AUS and USD currencies and prices.
Google and Yahoo used to be the top two shopping sites (Yanoo was bought by Bing). Hence we provide data feeds that work with Yahoo and Google and those formats are sometimes able to be used by other shopping aggregators.
Hopefully that explains it. This is NOT a way to get higher rankings by search engines (use a sitemap.xml file for that). How Google or Yahoo rate their shopping merchants as it relates to search priority is unknown to me. But I would guess that if I have products listed with Google Merchant and someone searches for that product that I probably get a bump over those that are relying on crawling only to have their products indexed.
I entered the license key, clicked Save, the admin page turns blank.
I check by clicking the back button from the browser and click edit. I see the key saved
Then I click on the Content tap. I see the link Create XML Data Feeds. I click on it. It shows Fatal error: Call to undefined function addon_get_config() in /home/spasalon/public_html/addons/obj_feed/func.php on line 158
Sounds as if you have a permissions problem on your server. When the settings are saved, it should go off and get an additional piece which will be listed as EZ Common Tools. If that module is not loaded, please load the one attached to this message. You will need to install it and even though there is an entry for the license key, none is required.
You might want to have your host verify the ownerships of the files in your store. I most commonly see this when the FTP user is different than the user that PHP runs as…
Sounds as if you have a permissions problem on your server. When the settings are saved, it should go off and get an additional piece which will be listed as EZ Common Tools. If that module is not loaded, please load the one attached to this message. You will need to install it and even though there is an entry for the license key, none is required.
You might want to have your host verify the ownerships of the files in your store. I most commonly see this when the FTP user is different than the user that PHP runs as…
Sorry I am not the smartest guy to be able to install your add on. I don't know what your clear answers are to solve the problem. And I am sure your good and clear answers would be very helpfull for other clients like me who might encounter the issue one day.
Have to say amazing addon, absolutely stunning! I am now being seen on the first page of Google Merchant and I am now also being seen in the first 3 products listed on search shopping results on Googles standard search page. I also had a few troubles like you chuckv and it looks like it might be permissions on our server. The EZ Common Tools were added which helped get the addon working! Now pressing save take me to Addons page etc etc
Your permissions issues (guessing) will not inhibit the addon from running. However, you will not be able to successfully upgrade if a new version of the addon or the tools becomes available until they are resolved. Apparently your permissions prevented the EZ Common Tools from loading and that's why you were getting the problem.
You can download the EZ Common Tools addon via the link provided. You can then simply ftp it to the root of your store and extract the archive. Just like you did with the XML Data Feeds Addon. All I was saying is that for the tools, the license is ignored.
Sorry you are having difficulty and it is NOT a simple addon to configure correctly mostly due to the flexibility that it offers. If you have questions, you can post them here. I'm not really available right now (other than sitting here in the Dubai airport waiting to connect to another flight). But I'm certain that others who use the addon would be more than willing to help you with any configuration questions you might have.
This addon works on products, regardless of what supplier. Not clear to me why a supplier would matter.
There are 2 parts to each mapping field. The first is the source of the information. I.e. a field within the cscart_products table, a product feature, a literal value, etc.
After the “source” is defined, you need to tell it “which” of that “type” to use. I.e. “Manufacturer” for a product feature or “product_code” for a cscart_products field.
