Google Base and photo URL issues

[PlanetSportsTeam.com]

I have a very large catalog (btwn 12-16K skus) at any given time. We use URLs for our photo image location on each product. Google is rejecting our file after a day or two since we dont have an image on every single link. In SS there is no option on the image field configuration for the Google Base to leave the photo URL out of the feed.

Given we do not file name our products as the feed/spreadsheet we upload changes daily (based on inventory in stock or not), the product links are never the same for each sku. There is also no field option when you download products to obtain the current product link URL. Uploading 16K images isnt a feasbile solution either.

Any ideas on how to either 1)download a list of current products URLs from SS 2)send a manual sheet (but you need the product URL) 3)send a SS file to Google without the image field included???

Thank you!

[loren_d_c]

You could get the XML to manually upload to Google Base by putting in bogus FTP username and password in your ShopSite settings, then ShopSite will generate the feed file when you submit the feed, but will error out when it gets to the step to send it to Google Base. But then you can go back to the Google Product Search menu in ShopSite, click on the date of the last submission attempt, and then click the link on the subsequent page to see the feed data. You could then copy the XML into your own text document, remove all of the image elements, and then FTP it (or upload it) directly to Google Base. Note that I am not sure if they will accept a product without an image, but you can give it a shot.

-Loren

[PlanetSportsTeam.com]

Thanks for the suggestion. This issue would be easy to correct had SS created an option in their image field configure dropdown for "no image" vs using product or more info which ensures you HAVE to send an image in your GBase feed. Even SS says it wouldn't be wise to upload 12-16K images to the media directory (hence why we use URLs).

Yes, Google will take it without that attribute (according to Google as they are saying either all have images or none have images). Difficult to do with 12K skus so we must find a way NOT to send them but not spend an hour a day redoing feeds to get around this issue.