Product Feed System

[TD Nick]

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Good afternoon,

Unfortunately due to some unforseen difficulties we will be delaying the public launch of the product feed system for one week. So barring any disasters we will launch the system on Tuesday the 21st October.

We now have 61,302 categorised products, increasing every day.

TradeDoubler are very sorry to dissapoint you with the delay.

Best Regards,

The TradeDoubler Development Team

[loquax]

Just so we can prepare/decide in advance to use the system...

does it use javascript or php or how does it work/function?

Thanks

Jason

[drivetowin]

Originally posted by TradeDoubler
Good afternoon,

Unfortunately due to some unforseen difficulties we will be delaying the public launch of the product feed system for one week. So barring any disasters we will launch the system on Tuesday the 21st October.

We now have 61,302 categorised products, increasing every day.

TradeDoubler are very sorry to dissapoint you with the delay.

Best Regards,

The TradeDoubler Development Team

Gosh I feel like a soothsayer - though somehow beware the ides of October does not have quite the same ring as beware the ides of March!

I know it's important to test everything thoroughly but the above statement from TD does not exactly fill me with confidence that the feeds will be here next week and in all fairness 61,302 products is diddly squat, some of the AW feeds have that sort of number for one merchant.

Please TD give us a bit more information so we can prepare - how will it work and which merchants have you got datafeeds from so far - and are there any merchants which we don't already have access to - i.e. I hope the above no of products is not made up from DABS, Figleaves and ASOS.

[getvisible]

Loquax - u've hit the nail on the head!

I'm busy preparing something that can use it and hope it allows JS - otherwise I'm beggered!

[Qui Gon Jinn]

An information sheet was handed out at their meeting last week.

@61000 products is a good start, the largest obstacle is getting the merchants to be forthcoming with their product catalogue.

Once they, meaning merchants, see affiliates using the feeds, generating mega sales, the rest will want a piece of the action follow suit and jump on the band wagon. It's the best way to give them the proverbial kick up the backside and get with the program.

If TD sat around waiting for all the merchants to be forthcoming, after constant reminders, I am sure we would be waiting an eternity.

With anything there are bound to be teething problems, but we are brimming with ideas as a result and looking forward to it.



P.S. Jason, whack me your fax number, I will get a copy over to you.

[TD Nick]

Hi Jason,

I will have a good look through the product feed system and run through some typical scenarios as soon as I can.

Regarding the php/js that will depend on how you intend to implement and manipulate the xml feeds.

The data feed system will provide a very simple solution:

(1) search for products, generate the code, paste into your HTML - the script will be run everytime the page is loaded and will fetch and return the latest data on that product search with your tracking link code already inserted.

There are also 4 style sheets available for you to apply to your feed, and of course you are able to design your own.

I hope that answers some of the more teasing questions.

Thanks,

Nick

[loquax]

"generate the code, paste into your HTML"

will this generated code be a javacript code or iframe from your end though?

Jason

[TD Nick]

Hi Jason,

the generated code will be in JavaScript.

Thanks,

Nick

[loquax]

Any chance it can be offered as php?

(see what Smartengine do for the phones for example)

Jason

[getvisible]

I'm much happier now - can build the templates now, add the code next week.

[ianm]

Nick,

Can you confirm that in addition to the simple solution you will be providing raw data (either XML or CSV) for those of us with the programming skills to parse it ourselves.

Ian

[TD Nick]

Hi,


Ian

CSV/Excel/XML will be available to the publishers that are approved by each advertiser. I understand that applications will be sent to the advertiser for reviewal.


Jason

Im not sure what the benefit would be to offer the generated code implementation in php. The JS we offer will be the same size, and at heart, the same format as a standard banners JS code.

If this is to process data server side and spit the results into your HTML then you will need to do what Ian is planning.

If you have something else in mind, please drop me an email with the details, nick.roveta@tradedoubler.com.


Thanks,

Nick

[loquax]

"not sure what the benefit would be to offer the generated code implementation in php"

The benefit is that the coding appears as part of the page html (and not just a line of javascript) - which is better (i believe) for SEO.

Jason

[ianm]

Originally posted by loquax
"not sure what the benefit would be to offer the generated code implementation in php"

The benefit is that the coding appears as part of the page html (and not just a line of javascript) - which is better (i believe) for SEO.

Jason

It is better for SEO - as you benefit from having the content on your site rather than just a line of javascript.

You could of course use PHP to grab the JS and display it - not sure what TDs view on that would be, but it shouldn't be a problem - there's no extra overhead to them.

The result that the visitor sees is the same, except your page has the content rather than a line of JS.

[loquax]

"You could of course use PHP to grab the JS and display it"

Yep, probably what we'll end up doing - hopefully it'll be quick and painless to do.

Jason