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Resolved Issues with Google Merchant Export

  1. atrus
    atrus
  2. RO CSVI
  3. Thursday, 16 July 2015
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Hi Roland,

See attached exported xml file and log from a Google Export as well as pics from the template setup; noticed a few issues as follows:

1. Products are exported multiple times, depending on the number of categories they belong to. e.g. a product belonging to 3 categories will be exported 2x3=6 times, a product belonging to 8 categories will be exported 2x8=16 times etc...
2. basepricewithtax is always 0 (shopper group is set correctly)
3. salesprice doesn't take into account target currency (ECB rates retrieved ok), discount or tax rules. Actual product_currency is correct (GBP, i checked this later), but the price value is not converted.

You may verify actual product prices/pics from the exported SEF url. Shop's base currency is EUR.

just an example:

http://www.quality-tuning.co.uk/universal-stainless-steel-exhaust-tip-round-slant-vw-r32-style-l240-in58.html

In the xml you can see:

<g:price>
<![CDATA[ 0.00 ]]>
</g:price>
<g:sale_price>
<![CDATA[ 42.00 ]]>
</g:sale_price>

See attached image bl202-eu-retail.jpg for the actual setup of the prices.

Noted also that a Custom field title filter exists. Would it be possible to have an additional filter on the value of the custom field?

Rgrds,
Chris
0
Responses (12)
rolandd
rolandd
Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
Hello Chris,

I am going to look into this somewhat further. Can you backup your template via the Maintenance menu and post it here?

  1. The record grouping should take care of that but you have that set already. I will have a closer look.
  2. Will have to check if something changed in the price calculation by VirtueMart
  3. Not a clue :) I will have to check/test it.


Noted also that a Custom field title filter exists. Would it be possible to have an additional filter on the value of the custom field?
Could you give some more information as to how this would be useful?
Kind regards,

RolandD

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  1. more than a month ago
  2. RO CSVI
  3. # 1
atrus
atrus
Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
Hi Roland,

Pls see attached the template.

Could you give some more information as to how this would be useful?


Well, in our case we use VM categories to represent Car Models and string custom field to represent Product Categories.

So at the moment we can filter our export per Car Model, but we cannot filter it per Product Category. All above is for the purposes of our feed exports in Google, Facebook, Amazon etc. But i just checked again with Facebook (and i think Google is ok), and we can create product subsets later, after we upload our catalog there, so i think we can skip this for now.

So, instead maybe it would be more useful to have an option in export template to export ALL categories of a product with category_name/category_path fields. In our case that would be useful because we can then play around with filtering at the uploaded feed level. Would that be possible?

Rgrds,
Chris
Attachments (1)
csvi_templates_20150717.zip
  1. more than a month ago
  2. RO CSVI
  3. # 2
atrus
atrus
Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
Hi Roland,

Did some more testing on items 2 and 3 above and it seems that when i set the shopper group of the admin user to other than VM's -default- it worked ok; need to do some more testing though.

However the currency conversion issue still occurs, i.e. the price exported is always the shop's default one, Euro, regardless of the template Target Currency setting.

Issue 1 (multiple duplicates export) still occurs also.

Rgrds,
Chris
  1. more than a month ago
  2. RO CSVI
  3. # 3
rolandd
rolandd
Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
Hello Chris,

Well, this has been an interesting ride, I have reworked the grouping and sorting of fields. The option Record grouping has been removed and replaced by 2 new options on the Fields tab. You can add which fields you want to group on where possible. This way you have full control of what gets grouped.

In addition the sorting has been added as well, so you can sort on the fields you like where possible.

Currency conversion for salesprice is fixed as well.

As for the basepricewithtax, this is always a price for my exports. I wonder if there is something in particular going on. Please check if it is still 0 with the attached patchfile. If so, we can take it from there.

Well, in our case we use VM categories to represent Car Models and string custom field to represent Product Categories.
CSVI can't filter on custom field values because they are stored encoded. What you would get is that the complete export set needs to be loaded into memory and then filtered for a selected value. That is pretty troublesome in terms of memory limits.
Attachments (1)
patch_groupby_20150720.zip
Kind regards,

RolandD

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  1. more than a month ago
  2. RO CSVI
  3. # 4
atrus
atrus
Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
Hi Roland,

Some great job you did there with the new additions and fixes! :cheer:

Everything works great now, will continue the testing and revert.

CSVI can't filter on custom field values because they are stored encoded. What you would get is that the complete export set needs to be loaded into memory and then filtered for a selected value. That is pretty troublesome in terms of memory limits.


Noted and agree. So i edited my post earlier for an alternative:

So, instead maybe it would be more useful to have an option in export template to export ALL categories of a product with category_name/category_path fields. In our case that would be useful because we can then play around with filtering at the uploaded feed level. Would that be possible?


For example,we have a product which belongs to 10 categories (i.e. 10 car models for us). But we can only export 1 category at a time; if we could export more (or all), we could do some nice filtering afterwards in Google, Facebook etc...

Rgrds,
Chris
  1. more than a month ago
  2. RO CSVI
  3. # 5
rolandd
rolandd
Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
Hello Chris,

I have taken another look at the product export and I think the category_name field was incorrect by always exporting the first category. This I have now changed to export the actual category ID processed for that particular record. This will result in the category_name to be unique. This will give you 10 records if the product is in 10 categories.

Give the attached patch file a go and let me know.
Attachments (1)
patch_categoryname_20150720.zip
Kind regards,

RolandD

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  1. more than a month ago
  2. RO CSVI
  3. # 6
atrus
atrus
Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
Thanks Roland, this will be useful indeed :) This is because, as per Google for example (https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/160081?hl=en), while for the ‘google product category’ you must strictly use 1 category, for the ‘product type’ attribute you may use up to 10. But the format should be smth like:

<product_type>Apparel > Suits</product_type>
<product_type>Apparel > Dress</product_type>
...

So, before i try the patch, can you pls advise if the format is per above or CSVI creates a whole new set of record of fields for the product per each category name / path? Suggesting also a setting for max number of categories to be exported, just like the additional images option you have implemented, because for example Google only supports 10, so no need to export more in such cases, but in other case you might them all.

Rgrds
Chris
  1. more than a month ago
  2. RO CSVI
  3. # 7
rolandd
rolandd
Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
Hey Chris,

CSVI creates a whole new set of record of fields for the product per each category name / path?
CSVI will create a whole new record as there are 10 separete entries in the export file. It is not that the category_name contains 10 values for each product.

With all these exceptions for Google, it might be a better way forward to create a Google specific export. Any exceptions will then just be bundled in one export.
Kind regards,

RolandD

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  1. more than a month ago
  2. RO CSVI
  3. # 8
atrus
atrus
Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
Hi Roland,

CSVI will create a whole new record as there are 10 separete entries in the export file. It is not that the category_name contains 10 values for each product.


Noted; however from my experience with advertising platforms, they are all based on the unique identifier concept, i.e. they will ignore or reject duplicate sku records, even if some of the fields are different. So at least, an option to disable multiple categories export in this case is advisable otherwise the imports will be rejected.

With all these exceptions for Google, it might be a better way forward to create a Google specific export. Any exceptions will then just be bundled in one export.


Well, yes, this is a way to go as Google Merchant format is quite popular (even Facebook is using the exact same format); on the other hand, we are using CSVI and Google Merchant for years, and CSVI is doing great anyway; we are able to use let's say abt 90% of Google Merchant capabilities, so maybe a Google Specific export is not even necessary. Some tweaking/options in the template settings and a good tutorial will do the job ;)

Rgrds,
Chris
  1. more than a month ago
  2. RO CSVI
  3. # 9
rolandd
rolandd
Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
Hey Chris,

So at least, an option to disable multiple categories export in this case is advisable otherwise the imports will be rejected.
That is where the option Group By fields is for. This way you can group on that field and cause it to leave only 1 value.

so maybe a Google Specific export is not even necessary.
Sure, you can go a long way. However I have had this idea for quite some time and was thinking it would be nice to have a Google aware export. This way we can go to 100% usage of the capabilities.
Kind regards,

RolandD

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  1. more than a month ago
  2. RO CSVI
  3. # 10
atrus
atrus
Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
Hi Roland,

That is where the option Group By fields is for. This way you can group on that field and cause it to leave only 1 value.


Ok good, will check it.

This way we can go to 100% usage of the capabilities.


Great then, you already have your first beta tester ;)

Rgrds,
Chris
  1. more than a month ago
  2. RO CSVI
  3. # 11
rolandd
rolandd
Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
Hello Chris,

At the moment getting CSVI 6 stable ready, after that I will start on the Google export.
Kind regards,

RolandD

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  1. more than a month ago
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  3. # 12
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