Google Feed Doesn't Work Properly

[kwikstand]

I can't understand why my Google Feed is always messed up. It is full of errors. It doesn't include color, even though those products ARE checked to "Publish Feed as Variants". Products that are Unchecked for "Include in Feed" are included anyway. I have "Too few column delimiters (1310 errors)", and the list goes on and on. What is the problem with Google Feed in AC Gold build 5731?

Thanks,

[Katie]

This is a new feature in Gold R5, and there are very specific requirements when using product variants.

To submit variants for your "Apparel & Accessories" products in Google feed:

1.Set the product's Google category to "Apparel & Accessories" or a subcategory.

2.Mark the product to publish it as variants by checking the checkbox "Publish Feed as Variants" at product edit page.

3.Create options with names "Color", "Size", "Material" or "Pattern" to match the respective Google attributes as required.

4.Google feed requires you to submit specific images corresponding to each of variant that differ in ‘color’, ‘pattern’, or ‘material’. You can specify image url's from manage variants page.

5.You can also specify other details like availability, price, weight, inventory details and GTIN for each variant from the manage variants page.

We did have one issue reported a few weeks back. Please make this change:

Feed was rejected because of parenthesis around part of the variant name. Take the parenthesis out and just leave the dash, but you will want to change your feed

Code line 628 in App_Code/GoogleFeed.cs

variant.Name = string.Format("{0} - ({1})"

If your feed is being rejected after making this change and confirming the requirements above, then please get us the full errors. These should be available from Google.

Thanks
Katie

[kwikstand]

Yes, I know. I have the first 3 steps done correctly. The only thing is, I don't always have an image for each color. Images are not always available.

I need to know a few things. One is why do the columns jump over sometimes? For example, line 56, the image link is in the condition column. If you look back, google_product_category is divided into 2 columns, pushing part of it into the product_type column. That is where everything after that is shifted to the right.

[kwikstand]

Also, I have many errors for no color and no size. I DO have "Publish Feed as Variants:" checked.

Why would this error occur?

Thanks,

Scott

[kwikstand]

So, I guess AC Gold just doesn't compile a Google Feed very well at all. I had to do it manually. Many hours of work, and I need to do more.

This is disappointing.

[jmestep]

Able's code also looks at the category a product is in to determine whether to publish as variants or not. You can tweak the code to not do that.