After you've signed up and been accepted, make sure you know where to locate their documentation on their feed specification. You will need their explanation of what fields they accept and what they expect in each of the fields.

Once you have their feed specification, use the "Adjust Feed Mapping" button in Feed Manager and make sure that the available fields are exporting the information in your store that best matches what the shopping portal expects. Also, check to make sure you're including all of the appropriate fields for your shop. You can add or remove fields as needed.

After all of the fields are setup, submit a test feed to the shopping portal. If the feed gets rejected, the shopping portal should give you a reason. If you do not receive a reason, write an e-mail or open up a trouble ticket with the site and ask them why your feed isn't being accepted.

Once your feed is accepted, then you set up an auto url and cron job to make sure the feed is submitted regularly.]]>

mod_gzip_on Off
php_value output_handler NULL
php_flag zlib.output_compression Off


This will only disable the output compression for the feed manager.]]> ]]>
If you have checked all of the above and everything is correct, then ask google why your images are not showing up.]]>
* Your php build has the ftp extensions built in
* The ftp functions are not disabled in php.ini under disable_functions
* Your ftp directory is correct. You can check this by logging into the ftp server manually and copying the remote directory.
* Your ftp filename or ftp server are incorrect. Neither of these should have any slashes in them. If you have slashes in your ftp filename or ftp server, then put the directory portion in the ftp directory field.
* Check with your host to see if there is any reason that a process spawned by the web server could not make an outbound ftp connection. This may include security measures in place on the webserver (software firewall, mod_security), or in place on the network (hardware firewall, IDS).
* Check with the server you're trying to connect to and see if they have any record of your connection or if there's any reason they're blocking it.]]>
Feed Manager 2.0 supports variants for x-cart 4.1.X and above.

You can access the variants and product options through code. For example, if you have a book with a variant named "Cover" with the options of "Hardback" and "Paperback" you can use custom php code like this to print out the variant value:

$field_value = $data['variant_options']['Cover'];

This will print out "Hardcover" or "Paperback" in your feed.

If you have a product with multiple variant options, you can modify the code above to include several options. For example, if you have a shirt with three variants named Size, Color, and Style, you can use custom php like this to print out the combined variant value:


$tmp = array();
foreach ($data['variant_options'] as $k => $v) {
$tmp[] = sprintf('%s: %s', $k, $v);
}
$feed_value = implode(', ', $tmp);


This will print out a combination like "Color: Blue, Style: Short-sleeve, Size: Large" in your feed.]]>
To sign up for shopping portal data feeds, you must search each the site you would like to be signed up with such as froogle shopping data feed. You must then find the link to information for merchants. Each other major site should be fairly similar. Quick links to a couple of shopping portals:

Froogle: http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/products/submit.html
Yahoo: http://advertising.yahoo.com/smallbusiness/ysm
Amazon: http://www.amazonservices.com/content/sell-on-amazon.htm?ld=AZFSSOA
Google Base: http://www.google.com/base/

If you have a question about any of this, you should contact the shopping portal site where you'd like to list your products.]]>
We have done our best to make feeds that are compatible and have the most popular fields included in them. Your feed may need some tweaking, so use the Feed Mapping button to open up all of the options that are available. Make sure each option is the best match for your store. Shopping portals usually have a guideline for their feed format and fields. Make sure that the fields that are mapped best match up the information on your site with the information the shopping portal wants.]]>
* wget -O --q http://yoursite.com/customer/autofeed.php?key_goes_here
* lynx --dump http://yoursite.com/customer/autofeed.php?key_goes_here 2>&1 > /dev/null
* GET http://yoursite.com/customer/autofeed.php?key_goes_here > /dev/null

Do not use "php autofeed.php?key_goes_here". This method will not work because of a difference in the way php passes input to the program. This must be fetched over http or https.

If you do not know how to set up a cron job or scheduled task, please ask your host for more information.]]>
The autourl is only meant to trigger some action on your server. Any information produced by the action will be logged in your autourls.log file. You can view this in your Feed Manager under "manage auto urls" or by looking in your xcart/admin/fts_fc_files/autourls/autourls.log" file.]]>
To do this, go into the feed that needs VAT added, then click "Adjust mapping", find the price field, pull the field type to "php" and enter this code in the data column.

$field_value = round($data['price'] * 1.175, 2);]]>
First make sure you have set up an autofeed URL in feed manager.

Here's how to do it:

1. Bring up windows scheduler (found as "scheduled tasks" in your control panel in windows)

2. Find your iexplorer.exe using the browse button

3. Now that you've added that to your run box add the URL after the iexplorer.exe part so it looks something like this

c:/windows/internetexplorer/iexplorer.exe http://www.mysite.com/autofeed.php?skZC5vFdxaiQ

Set the schedule to run every few days at a time you're at your machine.]]>
1.) Launch Feed Manager
2.) Click on the RSS feed
3.) Click on the "Adjust Mapping" menu item
4.) Find the "[item]" field at the bottom of the page
5.) Replace the code with the code here:

http://firetanksoftware.com/rss_with_images.txt

Please note that this replacement code is compatible with the default configuration of the RSS feed.]]>
This forces Feed Manager to re-detect the installed feeds.

When you reload Feed Manager, your feeds will show up.]]>
This forces Feed Manager to re-detect the installed feeds.

When you reload Feed Manager, your feeds will show up.

This problem can happen when you upgrade or re-install Feed Manager or when your home or office computer has a different timezone than your web server]]>
1.) Make sure "Collect product options" is set to "Yes, collect product options"

2.) Set your "title" field to "php code" and use the following code:

Code variant 1 - this code will change your product title from "Men's shirt" to "Men's shirt Color: Red, Size: Medium"



$field_value = $data['product'];

if (!empty($data['variant_options'])) {

$tmp = array();

foreach ($data['variant_options'] as $k => $v) {

$tmp[] = sprintf('%s: %s', $k, $v);

}

$field_value = $data['product'] . ' ' . implode(', ', $tmp);

}



Code variant 2 - this code will change your product title from "Men's shirt" to "Men's shirt Red Medium"



$field_value = $data['product'];

if (!empty($data['variant_options'])) {

$field_value = $data['product'] . ' ' . implode(' ', array_values($data['variant_options']));

}

]]>
This page contains info on the specification of Google's product feed:
http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?answer=188494#US]]>
It's a 3 step process:

1.) Add an extra product field named "google product category" (or similar)
2.) Add a field to your Google Shopping feed named "google_product_category" and map it to the extra field above
3.) Fill out the information for the extra field for each of your products (this isn't as daunting as it sounds, check out x-cart's search and modify feature to bulk-edit your products)

When you're done, resubmit your feed.

This page has more information about Google Shopping's feed format:
http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?answer=188494#US

This page has a list of Google's product taxonomy
http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?answer=160081]]>
To change your set up to accomodate these changes please go into Feed Manager, open the Google Base feed, then click the Adjust Mapping button, here you will see all fields being exported by Feed Manager.

If you have any of the following fields in your feed, please make sure they're correct:

* mpn - This needs to be a valid manufacturer's part number
* upc - This needs to be a valid universal product code
* isbn - This needs to be a valid international standard book number
* ean - This needs to be a valid European article number

Find MPN:
http://partnumber.org/

Find UPC or EAN:
http://www.upcdatabase.com/

Find ISBN:
http://isbndb.com/

More information about product identifiers for Google Base can be found here:
http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=160161

More information about required, recommended, and option fields for Google Base can be found here:
http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=160083]]>
Feed Manager 2.0 is compatible with x-cart 4.1.x through x-cart 4.3.x.

The biggest difference between Feed Manager 1 and 2 is variant support.

]]>
Things that won't affect Feed Manager:

* Customized skin
* Third party mods from BCSE, WebsiteCM, Firetank Software
* URL rewriting schemes (CDSEO, XCSEO, XCSEO Pro, DSEFU, DSEFU Pro, Clean URL's are all supported)
* Any standard Qualiteam x-cart module / skin
* Websitem CM's hidden categories mod


Things that may break Feed Manager functionality:

* Customized database structure (extra tables, extra fields)
* Using existing database structure in non-standard ways (non-integer product numbers, adding new product statuses)
* Image management mods (Feed Manager will export the images x-cart knows about, but not the images managed by some third party mods)
* Changes to func_realpath
* Changes func_query

If you have any questions as to whether or not your customization will cause problems, please submit a ticket so we can investigate in more detail.
]]> section that points them to the RSS feed for your site. You can use the code below, but you'll need to edit the href to point to your RSS feed and the title to match your site's.



The definition for most x-cart installations is in your skin1/customer/home.tpl file. You can use the following smarty code to assist you. You'll need to edit the href part, but the {$current_location} variable will be replaced with the full path of your shop's x-cart web directory. Place the following code in your skin1/customer/home.tpl file anywhere above the tag.


]]>
Change your price field to be php code and use this code snippet:

$field_value = sprintf('%.2f', floatval($GLOBALS['config']['General']['alter_currency_rate']) * floatval($data['price']));]]>
1. Set up your google feed as normal in feed manager.

2. Download it manually and upload it to your google base account to ensure google accepts it.

3. Set up your FTP login/password in google base (see google for help if you haven't done this before).

4. Back in feed manager you need to set the google feed to FTP mode by ticking the checkbox for FTP.

5. Enter your FTP information here as per your google FTP settings, make sure the folder used is root so enter a single slash / for the folder portion, the filename should be named exactly as per the one you set up for the test account.

6. Click "Save settings" in feed manager

7. Click the "Autourl" button in feed manager to create a new autoURL, this will give you a link to use for triggering the feed when required.

You can then set up a scheduled cron as per the instructions in our Knowledge base. The command you use can be tested in SSH to make sure it works.

Note: Depending on your server you may have to use a variation of a Cron command, in general you can use GET, WGET or LYNX

To set up a cron or windows scheduled task follow these instructions:

Server Cron (recommended)
http://firetank.helpserve.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=27&nav=0,7

If you are on Plesk you can set up a "Scheduled Task"

If you are on Cpanel you can set up a "Cron job"

Windows (relies on a PC running 24/7)
http://firetank.helpserve.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=32&nav=0,7
]]>
1. Go to your Adjust Mapping page for your google base feed.

2. Find the field called "title" (normally this is the first field).

3. Change the "type" from Standard Field to php code.

4. Input the following text into the data box beside the php code type:


$field_value = func_query_first_cell(sprintf("SELECT cdseoTitle FROM wcm_cdseo WHERE cdseoReplaceID='%d' AND cdseoType='product'", $data['productid']));


5. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Save feed mapping."
]]>
$field_value = $data['price'] . ' USD';

And change "USD" to whatever currency label you need.
]]>
You can edit your feed's link field to be php code and use the following code:

$field_value = $data['product_url'] . '?utm_source=source&utm_medium=medium&utm_term=term&utm_content=content&utm_campaign=name';

You can use Google's tool here to create tracking code for the link above:
http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?answer=55578
]]>
Use code like this:
$field_value = $data['extra_fields']['field name here'];

Make sure that "field name here" matches your extra field name, not the service name. This is case sensitive.]]>