Froogle exports useless?

[adamis]

I've been trying to setup froogle for the past couple days but have been having problems with it. Exporting from Actinic goes fine but when I send the feed to froogle it comes back with errors, most of which are invalid URL's. I thought this was because froogle didn't like the use of underscores to seperate words in the file name so I went through and changed all of my file names to have dashes instead of underscores. I still get the same error however.

Upon reading froogle's instructions on file names they say to use %20 for spaces between names in a filename. I tried changing all of the file names in Actinic that had dashes to %20's but Actinic just changes the % into an underscore.

Froogle also has problems with file names that do not have any dashes, but are just a single word. This tells me that the froogle export from Actinic is not compatible with Froogle. I'm starting to wonder if the froogle export feature is something we pay for but is useless because Actinic isn't staying on top of how froogle wants the feeds. Or, is it something that I'm doing?

[jont]

Hi Robert,

try using Froogle Mash at http://www.actinicplugins.co.uk/index.html to get a good feed

[pinbrook]

Go to mole-end.biz and look for the Froogle mash. This will create an input for Google in the correct format.

Others have had problems with the invalid URLs I don't know if it has been resolved. I have used the Froogle mash this week and successfully uploaded

see this thread

http://community.actinic.com/showthr...t=froogle+mash

[dscontroller]

I too have tried to upload my details to Froogle, but still receiving invalid URL etc.

Froogle then shows the following - Product Name: "Jay or Magpie caller"
Product Url: "http://www.smithscountrypursuits.co.uk/acatalog/Game_Callers.html"
Price:

It also states "Obsolete configuration header" - html_escaped=YES
"Obsolete configuration header" - quoted=YES

I then purchased the Advanced Mash from Mole-End software and am still receiving the same problem.

I then saw the thread pointed out by Pinbrook and downloaded the Actinoogle which I have set up on my webspace and it all appears to be working correctly.

Cracked it!! Wrong!!! Actinoogle says that there is an error and won't allow me to upload to Froogle.

Short of carving it out of stone is there anything that can be done? I seem to be going as bald as some other frustrated Frooglers.

Any help or assistance would be most welcome!

David

[pinbrook]

I then saw the thread pointed out by Pinbrook and downloaded the Actinoogle

what is actinoogle?

the first line of my accepted feed is the field names ie product_url etc

I don't have any of the header info.

URLs are in the format http://www.domain.co.uk/acatalog/name_name.html

ie underscores are fine

[dscontroller]

Hi Jo,

Take a look at this thread - http://community.actinic.com/showthr...3092#post63092

You asked for it to be transferred to another forum!

David

[Jan]

I then purchased the Advanced Mash from Mole-End software and am still receiving the same problem.

You should receive any invalid header problems if you are using froogle mash because it doesn't put them in the file. 100+ people are using this program to upload to froogle, a lot of people have a few issues when they first upload but then are fine. Email a copy of your feed file and the error messages that you are getting to me and I will take a look at it for you. If there is a problem with the format of the feed file generated then I will fix it for you (I can't remember off hand whether spaces are encoded if they are not then I will fix it - problem sorted :-))

Regards,

[dscontroller]

Hi Jan,

Have emailed the details to you. Thank you

Just had a bad day and getting all frustrated!

Regards,

David

[Jan]

I have had a look at your feed and your URLs are fine. The only thing that you can do now is to email froogle and ask what is invalid about the URLs. I have emailed them as well with a general question on the same subject.

I think that something is wrong with the feed approval program (or person), lots of people are having problems with their URLs at the moment, this should not effect people that are already uploading their feeds.

Regards,

[TraceyHand]

apologies for posting on both of these Froogle threads but I just wanted to add something...

Jan said... have had a look at your feed and your URLs are fine. The only thing that you can do now is to email froogle and ask what is invalid about the URLs. I have emailed them as well with a general question on the same subject.

I've emailed the several times about my so-called "Invalid URLS" and so far, no response (apart from a useless automated one!)

Be interested to hear if anyone else gets any reply from them on this subject?
Cheers
Tracey

[Jan]

I have had a reply from froogle.

"Thanks for your email. When using quoted fields, please be sure to check
the "Use quoted fields" box in your feed details. You can do this by
logging into the Merchant Center, clicking on your store name, then your
feed file name. Then click "Change these settings" and make sure the "Use
quoted fields" box is checked. Save your changes, then upload your data
feed again."

So they are suggesting that the URLs are failing because the quoted field flag is not set on the feed and the feed is quoted (the feed needs to be quoted by the way because Actinic descriptions can contain linefeeds, tabs and other invalid characters, without the quotes froogle would reject feeds based on this).

Are they right, is the quoted field flag set on the feeds for people that are having problems.

Regards,

[TraceyHand]

nope. they're wrong.
I have had that field checked from the start.
HOWEVER, when I checked my merchant centre yesterday, I no longer had the "invalid URL" errors coming up... and I've done nothing to it since I did!
So, I think you were right first time, Jan, Froogle *was* busted!
And now someone, hopefully, has fixed it!
Tracey

[Jan]

What a result. Has anyone else seen an improvement at all? Or had a reply from froogle for that matter.

Regards

[dscontroller]

Hi Jan,

I emailed Froogle, but am still awaiting a reply.

I have looked at your previous post regarding the "Quoted fields box" which I did not have ticked. Have amended the entry so now wait with baited breath for some movement!

Regards,
David

[dscontroller]

Hi Jan,

Have just checked back with Froogle and find that it has accepted 99 products to be approved and 6 not yet approved because of product name missing. I have amended the product name so expect this to be passed before too long.

Thank you for your help and of course your Mash program!

Regards,

David