Instant XML Feed Script For Merchants

[John Jupp]

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Hi

We've built a script that fits into OsCommerce sites and with a little tweeking we can get it to run on other types as well.

Basically if you are a small/medium sized merchant and you haven't got the technical support to create datafeeds, were you aware that you can instantly create a complete xml feed from your products on your site?

We have a script which you insert into the site that providing you permit ftp access to a specifically tailored location, an affiliate can generate a xml file of your entire inventory for display. Then all they have to do is download this file from you and add their affiliate links in the usual manner.

There is now no excuse for incorrectly categorised feeds as the data is extracted from your site and the xml file can contain the entire product description and correct categories/subcategories.

Merchants interested in offering direct created feeds are kindly requested to email me for further information. You don't need technical knowledge. The script handles it all by itself. All you need to do is insert the script and set up a ftp location for downloads.

This script is not advertised on our sites as being for sale yet. We developed it some months ago for individual merchants using xml feeds on a network in the US that had problems with poor category mapping and incorrected formatted feeds.

A platform for affiliates to make use of this will also be available, however to make use of the platform it requires the integration of the generating script into the merchant site.

Once again, for further information can merchants please email me and my technical designer will get back to you.

[John Jupp]

In addition we can also create .csv feeds using the same system. Also we can create a Top 10 Best Sellers, again using the same system.

I mentioned it's not advertised for sale yet.

That's because it is FREE to merchants. If a merchant would like this FREE product then there are a few T's & C's attached but only a few.

So please feel free to get in touch for more details.

[John Jupp]

OK take a look at this live demo.

We have set this so we don't even need the ftp.

www.swarris.com/demoshop is a typical OsCommerce template that hasn't been adjusted yet.

Now go to www.swarris.com/demoshop/feedmaker.php and you will see the entire product inventory of the website in an excel file ready to be saved.

This script INSTANTLY creates a feed without you the merchant doing ANYTHING AT ALL to create it. Simply insert a simple php file and the script does it for you so an affiliate can get details of every product you have and create their own feed immediately.

Ooh! 1,000 Posts!

[Itchy]

This script INSTANTLY creates a feed without you the merchant doing ANYTHING AT ALL to create it. Simply insert a simple php file and the script does it for you so an affiliate can get details of every product you have and create their own feed immediately.

Ooh! 1,000 Posts!

Im not a merchant but if i was and i didnt have a feed or i did have a feed but it was so pants no one used it (you know who you are merchants) then i'd be banging on ya door..

Nice bit o work that especially if it can be tweaked to run off any site .....


oh it was 1003 post when i looked

[Donk]

Hi Itchy.

I have just created the demo feed using the Os Commerce site. It could easily be adjusted for the zen or cube carts if there is any interest from the merchants or even networks.

One of the reasons for posting on the forum is to get a consensus from affiliates on how they could use the feeds. (bearing in mind that the main aim for this project is to get feeds for use with convertafeed).

The demo one shown gives a simple csv feed, I would prefer to use a pipe separated. Also the feed could have the html tags stripped at source just leaving at the most the br tag. Should column headers be included?

There is also a possibilty of producing an xml feed of the x latest or best selling products would that be useful for affiliates?

[Itchy]

The demo one shown gives a simple csv feed, I would prefer to use a pipe separated. Also the feed could have the html tags stripped at source just leaving at the most the br tag. Should column headers be included?

There is also a possibility of producing an xml feed of the x latest or best selling products would that be useful for affiliates?

IMOA the more info you can pack into a feed the better but don't do what some merchants do and add lots of info to one column which justs says oi you lot pick it out of that
make sure the info is consistent
no need to add repeat info in to every other column (you haven't done it but merchants love to do it )

yep add the header row as its a nightmare sometimes trying to figure out the feeds without it and especially when the merchant/network decide to move the columns around and not tell no one
yep we don't like the html in the info as it usually makes things go pete tong somewhere along the line so maybe an option like webgains have i.e a check box for those that would want it.

I supposed the top ten sales would be good to some people but i couldn't see the use of having both the feed and the top ten feed when you could add an extra column to the feed and have the top 10 info in there... i think

Could this be tweaked to fit other sites that aren't running the out of a box sites? i think if it could that'll be your best route as theres not many big merchants running those type of sites... but there are loads of big merchants who cant even produce a feed properly

[John Jupp]

What we're prepared to do if there is sufficient merchant interest is to make the generator compatible with other off the shelf carts for free. Response so far has been limited.

Everything generated is compatible with our datafeed manager system for affiliates and affiliates can choose either to use our datafeed manager or not, it doesn't matter. The affiliate simply types in a url from the merchant to get the feed, created automatically by the script, without the merchant having to create the feed in the first place.

Ther's no issue about poor categories because the categories are created from the feed itself and can be renamed in our datafeed manager anyway. There's no issue about weird looking entries a la product id because that won't get displayed in the category table.

It's a win, win for merchants and affiliates alike.

As for custom solutions. That will be different. If a merchant is using a non standard cart then we would have to charge the merchant. Too much time on freebies and not enough time on money earning projects.

We've got our content generator for affiliates to finish, whereby affiliates can generate custom content from datafeeds from multiple merchants. That has priority.

If merchants show a lack of interest in inserting 3 php files which work in the background to create a datafeed of their products on the fly for affiliates to promote them, then we won't bother developing it further. Their loss and everyone's.

[John Jupp]

Just a quickie update. We shall be adding ZenCart as well. Script adjustments being written including that horrid "specials" section on ZenCart.

[Steved]

I see you have an affiliate script too. I'm only just starting out with product feeds and have found the whole thing a bit baffling so far. How easy would it be for a non-php person to use your affiliate script to import into a CMS system like Joomla? Do we need to know beyond the basics to get it to work effectively?

[John Jupp]

Steve

In short no.

We'd have to take a decision which system it could be incorporated into. I'd personally say Wordpress. However, as the system stands it doesn't. We could incorporate this as a separate product but I'd have to justify the additional script work. We could do a custom job with a little more research but again, cost would be considerably higher. An off the shelf version is a long way away.

We spent nearly a year developing the Datafeed Manager. Eventually we may add different versions for Wordpress, but it's low on our list of priorities.

[enochfung]

What we're prepared to do if there is sufficient merchant interest is to make the generator compatible with other off the shelf carts for free. Response so far has been limited.

Everything generated is compatible with our datafeed manager system for affiliates and affiliates can choose either to use our datafeed manager or not, it doesn't matter. The affiliate simply types in a url from the merchant to get the feed, created automatically by the script, without the merchant having to create the feed in the first place.

Ther's no issue about poor categories because the categories are created from the feed itself and can be renamed in our datafeed manager anyway. There's no issue about weird looking entries a la product id because that won't get displayed in the category table.

It's a win, win for merchants and affiliates alike.

As for custom solutions. That will be different. If a merchant is using a non standard cart then we would have to charge the merchant. Too much time on freebies and not enough time on money earning projects.

We've got our content generator for affiliates to finish, whereby affiliates can generate custom content from datafeeds from multiple merchants. That has priority.

If merchants show a lack of interest in inserting 3 php files which work in the background to create a datafeed of their products on the fly for affiliates to promote them, then we won't bother developing it further. Their loss and everyone's.

I know it's an old topic but I didn't know about this until just now. Was wondering if it's still available? :cry

[John Jupp]

Hi

Sorry it's no longer available.