Google Base Upload Question

[VinceS]

My understanding is that the Google Base Product Type is equivalent to a category. I also understand that Google does allow multiple categories for a product - stands to reason.

Here is my question:
What is the SS/Google format or syntax for multiple categories used in the Google Product Type field?

My goal is the following:
to format my product category field (I use Product Field 7) the same way as the SS Add To Pages & Product On Pages database upload field - ie Page Name|Page Name|Page Name.

If my Page Names and my Category Names are the same then I only need to assign categories in one place, in this case Product Field 7. I can then copy that to the Add To Pages and to the Google Product Type fields and not have to maintain three separate list/entries.

With 15000+ products on the site now and plans to add at least 10,000 more this month, you can see why I want to minimize this effort.

So. Getting back to my original question: Can I populate the Google Product Type field in this format ==> Category|Category|Category ?

[Jim]

As far as ShopSite is concerned you can enter the Categories separated by | in the field either manually or in a tab delimited upload file. However, what information is allowed for the Product type on the Google side would be set by Google so check their docs.

[VinceS]

Hi Jim

I actually found a very good page on Google shortly after I posted (of course).

http://google.com/support/merchants/bin ... oduct_type

It explains the format etc. It says the Categories should be separated by a comma. Does this jive with your understanding?

[Jim]

Note that with a feed of more than a couple hundred products you will be using the FTP feed method. With that method the export file that ShopSite creates is in XML format not text so the comma would not be a consideration. Make sure that if you use characters that are restricted in XML in your category names that you use the escaped version of the character in your category name. i.e. & should be & etc.

You should be looking at this section of the doc for ShopSite generated feeds.
++++++++++++++++++++
Formatting (XML)

The category names contain the > and & characters. Since these have special meaning in XML, they must be escaped as > and &. You may also use CDATA to escape the entire string.
<g:product_type>Arts &amp; Entertainment &gt; Musical Instruments &gt; Keyboards</g:product_type>

To list multiple product types in an XML feed, simply include multiple occurrences of the <g:product_type> attribute.
++++++++++++++++++++++

Note that since the data is in a single field in ShopSite it will only be submitted in a single <g:product_type statement and not multiple ones as the suggest. ShopSite does use the CDATA format for the product_type
<g:product_type><![CDATA[Category|Category|Category]]></g:product_type>
so you don't necessarily need to escape the < and & characters but it is still a good idea.

[VinceS]

Thanks Jim
I'll give this some serious think time before trying an upload.