Getting noticed in Google Product Search
There has been huge demand for a module to allow upload of the products in Prestashop installations to Google Base. In an attempt to satisfy this, until such time as I can have a look at implementing it using the Google Base API, I threw together some code that will hopefully work. Only minimal testing has been performed, so I recommend that you use with caution.
Special thanks to Icarus for debugging the latest versions, and for the new feature suggestions for the 0.6.x series and beyond….
Update: The latest version can be found at Prestashop Google Product Search
Changes
Version 0.6.3
- File IO modified again to reduce risk of timeouts
- Added g:weight attribute when weight is non-zero for product
- Added g:product_type attribute based on product categories
- Changed description input to textarea
- Added config entry for output filename on server
- Added advanced settings to allow a feed to be generated for another site
- Added compatibility with 1.2beta (provisional)
- Improved error checking for permissions issues
Version 0.5
- File IO reduced
- Custom entry for Feed Description
Known Issues
- In version 1.2 the price is output to 6 decimal places instead of 2
- Need to be able to select between short (current) and long description field from database
Downloads
Updated version (15 September 2008):
Googlebase v0.4
Updated version (13 July 2009):
Googlebase v0.5
Updated version (16 July 2009):
Googlebase v0.6.3 (for v1.1 and v1.2)
Maintenance Release (06 January 2010):
– Minor modification to feed writing to attempt to fix blank screen errors in some stores.
Comments
109 responses to “Exporting products to Googlebase”
Hello
Thanks for the share.
I receive error like:
Your XML data feed isn’t in one of our supported formats. Please be sure your root element has been declared correctly.
I mean i get the xml file but it raises error as i upload it to google merchants.
I haven’t seen that before. Have you tried the latest version, as there are quite few changes in the data requirements now?
Are you going to release a version for 1.4 Prestashop?
It’s currently in the works. The next release is a major one and will be compatible with Prestashop up to version 1.5 🙂
I decided to do a BETA pre-release. See Prestashop Google Product Search
Paul
Hi, google shopping data feed for prestashop v1.4? thanks
Google updated its requirements. I was wondering if there is going to be an update? I received this email from them:
Starting May 3rd, 2011, we’ll require your product listings to include at least two of the three unique identifiers (Brand, MPN, GTIN). In order to provide as much information as possible to our users, we need your help in matching your products to our “product pages”, where users are able to view useful data such as product specifications or reviews. While these attributes will not be required for your data feed to process correctly, they may prevent your items from appearing in Product Search results if not included. For more details, including what specific identifiers you should include for each category of item, please see our Help Center at http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?answer=160161
Starting June 6th, 2011, we’ll also require your product listings to include tax and shipping information to provide buyers with important price information. This information will be required at either the account or item level (in the “tax” or “shipping” attribute) in order for your items to process and appear in Google Product Search results. For instructions on how to include tax and shipping information, please visit http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=160162
Not working with 1.3.17 google return that where is no products.
any chance your plans include an update to the google base module so it works with Prestshop 1.4 right now all I get is a fatal error.
Thanks so much
Not working on my website !! many troubles.
You are the master of all prestashop
i have presta v1.3.6.0 and none of the google base modules work its basically saying Cannot view XML input using XSL style sheet. Please correct the error and then click the Refresh button, or try again later.
Tried uploading to google base and only 1000 of my 2515 products will upload
any suggestions
can you please post instruction how Install this Module
thx
ASAP
Hello,
I am new to prestashop (from zen cart). I really like your googlebase feed and was wondering if you have considered creating separate product lines for multi-lingual feeds.
thanks,
Doug
The joys of the internet and people’s generosity. Many thanks for this, it has saved me time and works great!
Installed but generated file only shows first 7 items in the store?
Just wanted to let you folks know that I have been feverishly making modifications to this module. The modifications I have made are as follows:
1. Allow different export formats. XML or text (with different delimiters)
2. Allow FTP, either by button press or auto-ftp after feed is generated.
3. Allow override of condition. You can now enter a value to override ‘new’ as the condition.
4. Allow selection of the Primary Product Type directly from Google Base’s taxomnomy. If the taxonomy file is older than 30 days it will download it from Google’s server again.
5. Fixes problem with the can_write function where it was trying to write a directory if you did not add the filename to the Output Location.
I’ve been trying to get a hold of Paul so he can roll these changes into his release but I don’t think he hasn’t looked at his Support Ticket system in quite some time.
So, Paul, if you want to contact me about this, please do.
Hi, I was having problems with google base feed upload. The feed was uploaded up until a point and it wouldn’t upload any further. I have created a little manual to sort out this problem.
Can be found here:
http://www.solutioning.eu/2010/09/22/google-base-feed-partly-uploads-prestashop/
It’s not working with cyrillic
Hi there, thank you for this Mod, however i too am experiancing some issues, i have run the feed several times and keep getting a white screen?
The path is : http://www.car-vision.co.uk/en_googlebase.xml and no products seem to list on the file, in fact removes everything, so the file is stripped clean…. Any ideas as to the nature of this problem?
Thank you in advance.
John
i try on my PS 1.3’shop and got this alert :
The output location is invalid.
Any idea ?
Is there a way to make the feed designate my items as ‘used’ or ‘vintage’ instead of ‘new’? None of the items I sell are ‘new’.
Hi,
This seems to be the only GoogleBase module for PS – many thanks for making it available 🙂
Any possibility of adding a button (and some fields for username, password, feed file naming) to it to allow uploading of the generated feed file to Google’s FTP server?
This would be allow feeds to be uploaded a lot more quickly and easily than CRON or logging into GoogleBase admin each time.
There’s a function to do the uploading in the Zen cart GoogleBase mod that might be adaptable by someone who knows their way around the module system of PS.
Many thanks again 🙂
update to my post I ment to say version v0.5 works but the issue is it is missing all the extra needed items for the feed, but when i try to 0.6.3.X it fails with the hack error.. I am using store version Version 1.2.5.0 – 0.050s
I seem to have the same issue with anytime i used the googlebase feed i get the hack error. If i used the OLD 0.4 version it will work ok, but google rejects it as it is missing a lot.. but i can’t get the 0.6 version to work at all 🙁 would really like some help with it.
I have everything working except the images.
The whole feed uploads to google but the product images do not display.
Any ideas what this could be?
Darren
Checked everything. Same error.
admin, I’ve tried 0.6.3 and 0.6.3.1. I keep getting hack attempt error when trying to generate the feed file. Do you know what might be causing this error?
I suspect it has something to do with currencies. Currently it “guesses” the currency using the admin account’s cookie settings. This is the next area that needs improvement, since some people may wish to generate feeds for more than one country/currency supported.
For now you can check that the store/admin default currency and language are a match for something Google expects (US, UK or DE).
Thanks for the update to v0.6.3.1 – works great for me and fixes prices being displayed ex VAT – Google require inclusive prices.
It may be in the core i have tried everything i can think of including the new release you did 0.6.3.1 but still the same blank screen, i had a close look at the double url and its not duplicating the url exact on the seccond url it is miss the semi colon “:” after the http not sure if this will help – but i just seen a Tesco advert on tv so every little helps!
http://xnitrorc.co.ukhttp//xnitrorc.co.uk/14-rc-pirate-ship.html
I have posted a couple of posts on the prestashop forum as i think the proble with the “double url” comes from the htaccess fie when you enable seo links. I have the double url problem on another module (send – question) the back button in that does the same double url as the google base module.
I will post info if i get a answer back.
It would be good if that’s the case, but I suspect it’s a bit of dodgy code in the Prestashop core. The url rewriting isn’t done well in my opinion, and what url it actually produces for a “page” depends on multiple factors. I’m going to have another delve into it and see if there’s any way of forcing it to product a consistent result.
Also google are disapproving the feed every time.
Hi admin, unfortuantly still not working for me! on a new site 0.6.3.1 didnt work at all, tried 063 and turned off canonical url module and worked but only on about 9 out of 25 products. And noticed there are no pictures.
0.6.3.1 Uploaded and a link provided in the post. Would appreciate some testing as without debugging this on a server that’s experiencing the problem it is hard to be 100% sure of the problem. I suspect that the more aggressive file IO changes introduced in 0.6.3 were causing it to break.
ok thanks, that will be really appreciated.
Admin, do you have a quick temporary fix for either the double url in the earlier base modules, or the blank screen in 0.6.3. I would of thought the double url problem is an easier problem to fix, any code edits?? need this mod desperetly.
I’ll get a release of some sort out at some point today if possible!
I have had a few problems with them over the Christmas period its mostly the spare parts that are the problem but i have started to buy them direct and use (the supplier) for the models. Ill send you an email as we are going off topic on here.
hmm, Richard those rc models look very familiar ;). I know its off topic here but do you get many returns from customers, i used to use the same supplier last year but probably had to return 50% of what i sold, good margins though! I was thinking of getting another account with them.
Hi Admin,
I too are having the same problem as jon, o.6.3 gives me a blank file and the other versions double up the product url.
I am not sure if its something to do with having seo enabled or not.
Im using prestashop v1.2.5, i have another website (also presta 1.2.5) using the base module and it works fine.
I am having the same problem as michael, the v.0.6.3 google base just creates a blank xml doc and ive tried the previous versions which DO create the file fine but the links have double urls in them. A solution to either of these problems would be very very nice.
Hmm. I’ll have a look at what it’s doing and see if I can track down what the problem is. Are you also using 1.2.0.8? The whole url rewriting code has gone through a fairly significant overhaul since then.
Me again, I should also add that the xml file created is also not formed correctly: the rss and channel tags are not closed. So, I’m thinking that the creation of the xml file was interrupted somehow.
I have seen issues with the script timeout on some servers causing the script to get killed before it completes. Do you have a particularly large product inventory?
Hi there,
I hope you can help. I’m using PS ver 1.2.0.8. I have two issues which I can’t find already solutions for:
1. After downloading, installing and configuring ver 0.6.3 of this Googlebase module and then pressing the “Update feed file” button, I get a partially blank screen in the Admin panel – just the top row of tabs remain and the breadcrumb trail. If I click on the modules tab and go to the Googlebase configuration page, I can see that the feed file is updated. Is the blank admin panel screen supposed to be there?
2. I can see that the XML file is created but it contains no product data but the description that I entered from the configuration page was there. Can you advise if there is anything else I need to check/set? The xml feed file is in the root folder: http://www.perfectpromo.co.uk/en_googlebase.xml
I don’t know if these two issues are related or not. Also, I’ve checked the file permissions on the xml file and they were originally set to 604. I manually changed them to 777 and re-ran the update and the permissions were changed back to 604 again!!?
Here’s hoping you can help so I don’t have to create an xml feed from scratch!
Thanks & regards
Michael
If your getting an encoding error in google like i did.
Change your feed encoding from autodetect to UTF-8
Fixed!
Hello,
Thanks for your guys work,
but there is a problem with the new prestashop 1.2
Every shop i have has a problem with the googlebase feed,
it inserts this character  and makes it seems like it german or something.
Can you guys upload a fixed version of this module.
IT WOULD HELP SO MANY PEOPLE
Where does the module pull the condition from? All of my items are showing up as new instead of used, is there a way to change this? Thanks
Thank you so much for this module! Have just installed it and as soon as I start getting conversions on my site I will come back and donate! That’s a promise!
Just had another thought about appending Google Analytics tags to URLs in the feed, posted on the forum here: http://www.prestashop.com/forums/viewthread/22259/P15/modules___development/google_base_feed_products_v0_dot_4/
Hi guys, great module, nice and simple, but I have an issue:
Product_type field is obviously required, but Google has been using a new taxonomy for some time, so using the site’s own catalogue structure is unlikely to fit with Google’s requirements. I guess we need an admin element to allow each product to set the taxonomy according to Google Base, as well as the in-site taxonomy/catalogue structure. See here: http://base.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=66818&hl=en
Hi there
Can anyone help me fix this?
http://www.thriftybeatnik.co.uk/en_googlebase.xml
Links are doubled up / images arent appearing
Cheers
This module is very useful and got us started on Google Base very quickly. Thank you!
I have 1 feature suggestion/request. It would be ideal if the feed was created using the preferred “cover” images selected from within in Prestashop – right now it seems to just use the first image uploaded for a product….
Hi,
for simple decimal fix see: http://www.homepage-community.de/prestashop_google_base-t564.0.html;msg1662#msg1662
Regards
it is the price. Sorry for spamming.
Hmm. The development team keep changing what the core API functions return, and it looks like this is another case where we’ve moved to returning 6 decimal places for prices instead of two as was previously the case. I guess I should have forced it to that anyway….
I’ll add it to the (growing) list of changes that need fixes for in my modules! Thanks for the heads-up.
Ups, the CMS deletes the code
“44.899999”
Am I the only one with this?
44.899999
Using PS 1.2
Cheers guys: look forward to the next release 🙂
Hi guys
Thanks for attempting this moodule. Its seems a little glitchy but can someone point me to an FAQ please x
No FAQ I’m afraid – it’ll either work or it won’t, but then it’s free!
There have been a few problems in stores that were ugraded from 1.1 to 1.2 (the assumptions about the character set seem to have changed, so PrestaShop would now create a table using UTF8, but previously they were likely set up to be whatever the default was on the hosting plan).
Always welcome bug report etc. though and will endeavour to get it working on as many different configurations as possible.
There were some character-set errors in just 2 products. So of the 19, 17 were eventually active. But a majority of the 74 products in the full catalog are still mysteriously missing.
Could this maybe have to do with categories?
One mysterious problem though – I have 75 products in our catalog, but the Google Base account shows that only 19 have been uploaded.
Would anyone know why?
Hmm. Is it giving any error reports when you’re uploading, or is it just not recognising the products at all?
This module works great for me! Thanks for the good work:)
Please make sure to fill out some text in the Back Office in the “Feed Description: ” area.
Create the en_googlebase.xml file and chmod it to 777. Then the module should be able to write to this file without a problem.
For those of you wanting to automate the upload, you can setup a “Schedule” in your Google Base account. That will automatically take a new file periodically from your server.
There is currently no way to generate the .xml file though.
ok the code didnt show up its & nbsp ;
That’s weird. I stopped encoding the entities because of issues like that, so now it uses <![CDATA[]]>
Are you sure there isn’t anything wrong with the code in the database? It’s also possible that Prestashop is doing something different, of course.
Paul,
I have started getting alot of encoding errors with the most recent feed.
It seems to be a piece of code that is causing it I think, thats the only thing i can see that is in each of the rejected product description.
There are some other fields you could add to the feed, that could be maintained from the BO (these are not actually part of a product).
Payments accepted and other payment options.
Yes I think that would be a good idea. You can also specify the shipping costs and options, which again would seem like a good idea – I need to get the target country sorted first I think — US, UK and DE. Once that’s done then the payments (currency dependent) and shipping (country dependent) should fall into place.
Has this been updated for googles recent changes to the feed format?
the version I had installed no longer works since the emails from google about what fields should be in the feed.
It should implement all the mandatory fields. It does use the short description field, so you need to make sure that those have content in them! There is an issue with submission to the DE service which I’m working on with a German store owner. If you have a specific error (rather than a warning or recommendation) then post it here, and we’ll look at making sure your feed validates. There’s more to come in the near future too, with enhancements planned to improve your Google Base rankings even further!
Thank you for this great module! It’s a must for any e-commerce site. BTW, is it possible to do a cron job wih this module so it can refresh the file automaticaly?
Regards,
Eric
It’s not currently possible to “automate” the building of the feed no, but that is something that will be appearing shortly. I’ve been thinking for a while now how best to achieve it, for this and other modules.
One thing I’ve tried hard to avoid is a need for users to have any “specialist” knowledge to use them. I know that cron scares the heck out of some fairly experienced site owners, so I’m leaning towards a simpler system. Watch this space!
Hey Paul,
Just saw your comments here… 🙂 🙂
Too many communication channels these days….
Excellent module.
No there’s no public changelog as it was meant to be released “officially” when it got to version 1.0! I’ll be adding one to here, and to the distribution as of the next release. We’re currently working on 0.6.2 which adds new features and fixes some long outstanding issues. Watch this space!
I CHMODed my web root to 777 (not a great idea) and it worked. Thanks! Is there a changelog? I love this module.
Where is it trying to write the file currently? Should we make a blank file first?
I’m working on yet another version based on some feed back on the Prestashop forum (yes you Icarus!). I’ll try and get it uploaded today, other work permitting. In this version you’ll be able to specify the exact location on the server you want the file to be generated in, so that should help those who have been experiencing these types of permissions errors. I’ve added a few other enhancements as well, and will be adding more over the coming weeks.
I installed the new version, but each time I try to use it, I get the error “cannot write”. I have no idea what it’s trying to write though, and I even tried setting everything to 777. That did not work. Please help!
Hi Paul
They seem to have changed the way product links are retrived in the new version of Presta. Any chance you might be able to take a look when you get a moment?
Cheers
wow, thanks for a great module 🙂 very useful
Hello,
I downloaded the unzipped googlebase into my module, but cannot find it at BackOffice.
can anyone please help?
Getting this error – Cannot write
(everything is 777)
hi, i am using 1.2.0.2 (alfa), insalled googlebase 0.4
I get the following msg everytime i try to generate:
Warning: fopen(/home/ohtile85/public_html/modules/googlebase/../../en_googlebase.xml) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /home/nserc5/public_html/modules/googlebase/googlebase.php on line 45
Warning: fclose(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/nserc5/public_html/modules/googlebase/googlebase.php on line 46
Hi There. I’ve installed the module, which was fine.
But when I go to insert the feed, Google processes it and fails.
I get ‘Data feed upload failed. No items are live’ and ‘The item is missing a required attribute. ‘
I have put a screen shot of the error at:-
ww.marauderstores.com/shop/www.google.co.uk-base-showfeed.tif
error:
“Cannot write” why?
modify permission for 777!
When i upload to goolge base i get an error messege.
I generated file, saved it to comp and uploaded to google base i get the following msg:
Data feed upload failed. No items are live
any help?
Hello admin, i have download the Googlebase v0.4 and have intall it, but when i export it to google base, it says Data feed upload failed. No items are live. Is there anything wrong? Please help me. Thank you.
Hi there, I have added this but when generating I get an error “cannot write”
I’ve chmod the folder to 777.
Is there somewhere else it’s trying to write to?
is there anyway to set this up to automatically upload to google daily?
It seems like a great feature but it doesnt exacty put it in googlebase products together with all the other products its puts it next to to it, when you search something and click “compare prices” you dont show up any idea why its like that?
Never mind. I figured out what i did wrong.
Admin, I uploaded the google base folder to the modules folder for my site but i do not see the google base module in my back office. Did I do something wrong?
Installation worked fine this time… how odd. My server has been playing up recently so maybe the file didnt upload properl.
Sorted now… Impressive help on this site! Kudos…
Hi there Sam,
It should be a case of simply extracting the folder in the zip file into the modules folder on your site, then clicking install from the Back Office. At what point does the installation fail?
To use it, you click the “configure” link in the Back Office and click the button to generate the feed.
This seems like a good feature, however I cannot install the module…
Why?
Ok new version works a treat all 900 items now uploaded correctly
its in the product title so cant change it to html version
It’s because there’s an & in the brand name (manufacturer field), rather than the html equivalent.
The product descriptions have been sanitised, but not the brand names…
I’ll look at the best way to handle it and post an update very shortly!
Getting an error on the xml output.
Can be viewed here http://www.purplegiraffe.co.uk/en_googlebase.xml at the end of the document.
Another update. Once again Ken has pointed out an “undocumented feature”! The previous version (0.2) was displaying inactive products. This should now be fixed in Version 0.3.
This Google Base feed for PrestaShop has been updated. Many thanks to ken in the presta forum for his additions (and correction!)