Issue with Google Product Category

[Sail and Ski]

Hi

Was wondering if anyone can help with this. I have been trying to amend the Google Data feed XML to be in line with Google’s latest requirements. One of these is to insert a “google_product_catagory” for each product.

Below is the variable I have inserted as part of the Layout for the XML feed

<actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22brand%22%20%2f%3e%20%21%3d%20%22%22"><g:brand><actinic:variable name="brand" /></g:brand></actinic:block>
<actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22Gender%22%20%2f%3e%20%21%3d%20%22%22" ><g:gender><actinic:variable name="Gender" /></g:gender></actinic:block>
<actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22Colour%22%20%2f%3e%20%21%3d%20%22%22" ><g:colour><actinic:variable name="Colour" /></g:colour></actinic:block>
<actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22mpn%22%20%2f%3e%20%21%3d%20%22%22" ><g:mpn><actinic:variable name="mpn" /></g:mpn></actinic:block>
<actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22product%5ftype%22%20%2f%3e%20%21%3d%20%20%22%22" ><groduct_type><actinic:variable name="product_type" /></groduct_type></actinic:block>
<actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22google%5fproduct%5fcategory%22%20%2f%3e%20%21%3d%20%20%22%22" ><g:google_product_category><actinic:variable name="google_product_category" /></g:google_product_category></actinic:block>


When I upload the site like this the live version of the XML page on our website I get an error as follows

This page contains the following errors:

error on line 1 at column 977:
xmlParseEntityRef: no name
Below is a rendering of the page up to the first
error.


***
Google product catagory and the line above it for Product type are created the
same way and then coded in the way but the Product type works fine and the
Product Catagory fails – can anyone help?

[NormanRouxel]

You have <actinic:variable name="google_product_category" /> but there is no such variable as google_product_category in the Library.

Have you created (and populated for each relevant product) such a variable?

[Sail and Ski]

Hi Norman

Yes we have had a variable called that for a while now and it worked fine on the old way of processing the file via manual CSV

Thanks

Phil

[Mantra]

Hi Phil

Did you get this sorted?

I had the <actinic:variable name="google_product_category" /> also so I think this will have been carried over after a version update to v16.

It has not been a particular problem for our site except I noticed on Google Merchant Diagnostics that the Google product category for the products on our site were being categorised by Google and not according to the <actinic:variable name="google_product_category" />.

On checking (now v18.2) I found that the active variable is now <actinic:variable name="GoogleProductCategory" /> so I copied the value list of choices over from "google_product_category" to the "GoogleProductCategory" variable and reset my Sections/Products categories to default/specific categories as applicable.

I then changed the code line in the "Google Product Feed" layout from

<actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22isbn%22%20%2f%3e%20%21%3d%20%22%22"><g:google_product_category><actinic:variable name="google_product_category" /></g:google_product_category></actinic:block>

to

<actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22GoogleProductCategory%22%20%2f%3e%20%21%3d%20%20%22%22" ><g:google_product_category><actinic:variable name="GoogleProductCategory" /></g:google_product_category></actinic:block>

However, this made no difference to the google-products.xml file generated as no additional values for Google product category were incorporated.

As far as I am aware [google_product_category] is the correct term used for this attribute but this may have been changed by Google at some point!

Has anyone any ideas on how to get this Google attribute to be incorporated on the google-products.xml file?

Martin
Mantra Audio