New buy.at feed downloader

[SimonQuick]

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Hi everyone,

We have launched a new release of our feed downloader which is available in your management area from 10th February 2009.

Previously you were able to filter the data you downloaded from a feed by one category e.g. all instances of “CD” in the “Level1” category. This means that the feed you download only contains items that have “CD” in the Level1 category, saving vast amounts of download time and processing requirements.

With our new release, you can now filter by multiple categories which will further save time on downloads if you only use certain data from a feed.

The new downloader uses a brand new URL. To understand how this will affect things, please use the following example: Filtering by products that only contain Classical in the Level2 category. from the HMV feed

The old URL is:

https://users.buy.at/ma/index.php/affiliateCreative/feedDownload?OEMAIL=username@domain.com&PX=9898f3ab53adfb808d5 98f53c50783b4&DISPLAYFORMAT=XMLGZIP&REVERSEMAPXML= yes&CONNECTION=&PRODUCTDB_ID=289&MAPPED_CAT_ID=392 &LEVEL2=Classical

From the 10th, the URL will change from:

https://users.buy.at/ma/index.php/affiliateCreative/feedDownload

To

https://feeds.perfb.com/index.php/download/feed?

Giving

https://feeds.perfb.com/index.php/download/feed?OEMAIL=username@domain.com&PX=9898f3ab53adfb808d5 98f53c50783b4&DISPLAYFORMAT=XMLGZIP&REVERSEMAPXML= yes&CONNECTION=&PRODUCTDB_ID=289&MAPPED_CAT_ID=392 &LEVEL2=Classical

To add the Level 2/Classical filter, you simply add the following to the end of your URL:

&LEVEL2=Classical

Please note the following:

A space must be represented by %20
An ampersand (&) must be represented by %26

So if you wanted to add multiple parameters then you would use the following:

&LEVEL2=Classical&LEVEL1=CD


You can also filter by multiple categories, please see the attached file for a list of these and details on those parameters. Please note that if you wish to use either the START or PERPAGE parameters, then you must use these together.

All downloads made from the management area from the 10th will come from https://feeds.perfb.com/index.php/download/feed

If you run an automated process to download the feeds then you will need to amend your file location. Please note that the existing download URL will remain in operation for 3 months.

After listening to your comments, we’re pleased to announce that the new feed downloader now supports both HTTP and HTTPS protocols. You can select which one you use from the management area (next to the drop down box where you select which feed format you use).

If you have any queries on this please contact me by email, phone or private message.

Regards
Simon

[SimonQuick]

After listening to your comments, we’re pleased to announce that the new feed downloader now supports both HTTP and HTTPS protocols. You can select which one you use from the management area (next to the drop down box where you select which feed format you use).


Just to add to this, if you are using an automation to download the feed, you simply need to change the https section of your URL to http to use http to download your feed.

[SimonQuick]

Hi All,

You are now able to filter by multiple categories.

To do this, append your URL as follows (using Level2's of Portable and Headphones as an example).

&LEVEL2[]=Portable&LEVEL2[]=Headphones

Please note that the double square brackets are essential if you wish to filter by multiple levels.

If you need to go through that further then feel free to contact me direct.

Regards
Simon

[SimonQuick]

Hi All,

As a further enhancement to the feed downloader, we have added a new feature which will allow you to filter by partial search terms using a wild card.

So for example,

If you want to download all items that have the word "Phone" in the Level1 categories, you add the following parameter to your download URL:

&LEVEL1[]=%Phone%

This will return all items where "phone" appears anywhere in the Level1, for example

Mobile Phone
Phones
Home Phones
Phone
Contract Phones

The % character represents the wild card. This can either appear before the word, after the word or both, depending on what you want to filter by.

I hope that helps, feel free to contact me with any queries on that.

Regards
Simon

[RavRav]

Hi !

I just have one question : Is there a way to know all the values of LEVELX available besides parsing all the XML ?

[SimonQuick]

Hi !

I just have one question : Is there a way to know all the values of LEVELX available besides parsing all the XML ?

Hi RavRav,

You would need to download the feed first before you can know what the Levels are as the Levels vary between each feed.

Thanks
Simon

[RavRav]

Okay, thank you

[PJlarambla]

Hi,

Is there a way to some how break these feeds up, at the moment I have not be able to open one, my readers just keep crashing, the feed from my affiliate at buy is 403MB, so I am unable see it to decide what I want from it.

Tried to open it in FireFox also Explorer both crashed.
Can you help please.

Peter

[SimonQuick]

Hi Peter,

I wrote a reply to this last night but for some reason it hasnt appeared.

You can add parameters to the feed download URL which will download only certain categories of product (e.g. XBOX 360) - this should dramatically decrease the size of the feed.

If you download this guide and head to section 7, there is information on how to do this there.

http://files.perfiliate.com/solution...FeedsGuide.pdf

If you need to view big files then editors such as Notepad++ and SciTE should be able to handle them.

You can also view a sample of the feed by adding the following parameter:

&PERPAGE=10

this will only download 10 items (obviously change 10 to whatever number you require)

Hope this helps (and answer the questions in your email)

Thanks
Simon

[PJlarambla]

Hi Simon,

Read the guide but will read again also try this way to get a read of the feed, will get back later when I have tried a few things.

Peter