Profile: shoecake

I am exporting using the Ebay File Exchange feed which outputs a CSV. I have noticed it is stripping out commas in my description.

Ideally, it should put quotes round the text so the commas will not be seen as the start of a new column.

I have already put the quotes round using the new plugin functionality, is there a way of stopping it removing the commas?


The feeds.xml entry is:

<FeedNetWork>
    <Id>173</Id>
    <Name>Ebay File Exchange Template UK (File Exchange Center)</Name>
    <Image>ebay.png</Image>
    <Schema>ebayFileExchangeTemplateUK.xml</Schema>
    <ExportMethodId>172</ExportMethodId>
    <DisplayOrder>26</DisplayOrder>
    <HasMerchantId>true</HasMerchantId>
    <ExportFileType>CSV</ExportFileType>
    <Documentations>
      <DocLinkValue>
        <Message>Products Feed Specification</Message>
        <HtmlUrl>https://securepics.ebaystatic.com/aw/pics/uk/pdf/file_exchange/File_Exchange_Basic_Template_Mini_Guide.pdf</HtmlUrl>
      </DocLinkValue>
      <DocLinkValue>
        <Message>Ebay Category Tree</Message>
        <HtmlUrl></HtmlUrl>
      </DocLinkValue>
      <DocLinkValue>
        <Message>File Exchange - Instructions and Resources</Message>
        <HtmlUrl>https://securepics.ebaystatic.com/aw/pics/uk/pdf/file_exchange/File_Exchange_Advanced_Instructions.pdf</HtmlUrl>
      </DocLinkValue>
    </Documentations>
  </FeedNetWork>  


Can I do this by changing ExportMethodId or ExportFileType ?

Thanks a lot for this, I have already used it in a number of places. Very usefull.

Yes, that is right

When I am creating default values for categories on my site, it would be great if the system looked at values from parent categories. At the moment it only takes values from the lowest category in the tree.

Fore example, I sell fabric of various types and sizes, my category tree looks something like:


Fabric
Fabric > Aida
Fabric > Aida > 14 Count


For an eBay feed for example, I wand to define the "Category" field at the "Fabric" level, the "Fabric Type" field at the "Fabric > Aida" level and the "Fabric Count" field at the "Fabric > Aida > 14 Count" level.

At the moment I have to define all of this at the "Fabric > Aida > 14 Count" level and repeat it for all categories in the Fabric section.

One other thought I had, this subplugin function for the whole row should run before the "post process action" on each individual field.

I think this because the post process actions are about formatting the data for the output file and so should happen after the subplugin has made its changes.

I think an external function is the best option and also will work in many other situations.

One way would be to have one function for the whole row of a feed. So code would send productid and an IList (or Dictionary) of KeyValue Pairs. The subplugin can then modify this collection and return it.

This would be better as one field may rely on calculations of data in other fields in the row.

Yes a badly coded subplugin could slow performance, but that is the subplugin authors responsibility. Also, generating a feed is a background task so if it runs a few seconds slower it does not really matter.

As a related issue, i can't get "Shipping price" to display anything. I have one shipping provider (Shipping by weight). This  does have multiple shipping methods, but only one for the default country.

Is there a way to get the shipping for the default country in this situation?


One other solution is if I could write my own "post processing action" function? If there was an API for adding my own post processing code that would add a whole new level of flexibility.

I am creating a feed for eBay using the FileExchange template and want to provide free shipping. To do this I wan to combine the product price and shipping price in one field. E.g. if the product costs £10 and thew shipping is £5 then the field would have £15 in it.

i.e. I want to add together the two field names "Price" and "Shipping Price". I have looked into the new formula token in 1.52 but I don't think it will handle this.

I've re-downloaded from the https://www.foxnetsoft.com/customer/downloadableproducts page and it apears to be the same files (i did a file comparison).
Can you check if it is available.

p.s. I am busy for most of tomorrow, so I may not get time to look until Monday.

Thanks for such a quick turnaround. I have done some initial testing and have come up with the following. Note, I have not tried an upload yet but I will do that this afternoon.

In the child items there is no distinction for key fields. i.e the product name, description and image are all the same.

Product Name
Could you append the product attribute value to the product name (e.g. “Jute Bag – Large (pink)” where pink is the attribute value). Is there some way of creating composite fields? Then I could do this in the feed definition.

Picture
Currently the main product picture is used for all, can the link be to the picture specified in the product attributes value record.

Description
I don’t think there is anything to be done about the description field as this would have to be hand written. It would be nice to be able to edit the overridden feed values at the product attribute combination level as well as the product level but I can see this would be a lot of extra work.

The parent_child and relationship_type fields
I have always left these blank when a variation is not being created (i.e. simple products). From the spreadsheet docs on parent_child - “If the product does not participate in a variation relationship, use the value child.” At the moment, parent is the default.
I am not sure if the relationship_type field will be accepted as variation with no parent record, I will test this.

Bug
The quantity field is being populated from the main product (even though it is set to track by product attribute combination) so this value is invalid. Although I do not use it, the inventory export also has this issue.


One final suggestion, the default of the update_delete field is “Update” which is the default Amazon have. I find this highly dangerous and always thought it should default to “PartialUpdate”. I have wiped key data for a large section of my listings in the past because of this simple error (not with your plugin) and there is no way to get it back from Amazon.