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Mole End Software
News July 2011 |
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We have just released a new version of the Product Mash. There are 2 new feeds, Twenga and eBid, support for Google's new Shopping format as well as other changes, shown below.
To use the new version of the software use the upgrade button in the Product Mash's about box or download the software from the downloads page on our website. If you currently have a Product Mash 12 Month license you will automatically get the new feeds when your software is updated. If you wish to buy separate licenses for the new feed formats, the new Twenga feed costs £39.95 (+ VAT). If you signup to Twenga using the supplied code you will receive 500 free clicks from Twenga. The new eBid feed costs £29.95 (+ VAT).
If you have an existing Googlebase (or Product Mash) license this will give you access to the new Google Product Search format.
If you have an Amazon (or Product Mash) license you will automatically get support for the new selling formats and Stock update feed.
These new features are described below.
Google Feeds
A new google shopping feed is available that conforms to the google requirements.
This feed is initialised with settings from the google base XML feed. Manufacturer
code. Shipping options can be selected. Root to path is now available
when specifying the details for the server upload.
Ebid Feed now available
Ebid is an eBay style selling platform. A new feed has been added
to the product mash that allows eBid Seller+ members to list their Actinic products
easily on eBid. eBid Seller+ members pay a one of feed of between £50 and
£75 and can list then their products without listing or selling fees forever.
Twenga Feed now available.
Twenga is a shopping search engine and price comparison site. Shoppers
can search for products at www.twenga.com and the site often receives good results
in standard search engine results. Mole end customers can list their products
on Twenga on a pay per click basis and will receive 500 free clicks so that they
can check the feed out for free.
You can find out more information about Twenga by clicking here
Amazon Seller Central Feed
Amazon seller central now supports the following additional listing formats
:
Changes to Macros
| !!SectionImage!! | The URL for the image of the products parent section |
| !!ExtInfoImage!! | The URL for the image specified in the extended information details for the product |
| !!ExtInfoImageOrImage!! | The URL for the image specified in the extended information details for the product OR the products image if an image is not specified in the extended information section |
| !!PriceForMinQty!! | Price based on minimum orderable quantity, as set up within Actinic (ie price x min qty) |
| !!ExtendedInfoURL!! | The URL for the extended information page |
| !!InfoLink!! | The link URL as set up within Actinic on the “Links” tab |
| !!AltWeight!! | The product's alt weight (as defined within Actinic) |
| !!AltWeightIfDefined!! | The product alt weight if defined, otherwise the product weight |
| !!InStockYN!! | If the item is in stock use the valueY1, otherwise use N |
| !!ParentSectionTree!! | Uses the section hierarchy of the parent section (e.g. VIDEO->VHS-> ) |
Product Mash Batch Options
A new option has been added to batch mode to allow you to specify whether
tax should be added to prices when the feeds are created.
-T <option> Specifies
whether to add tax to the prices in the created feed, Y = add prices, N = do not
add prices.
Three new feeds have been enabled in batch mode :
| Googleshop | - specifies the google shopping feed |
| Ebid | - specifies the ebid feed |
| Twenga | - specifies the twenga feed |
-O <option> The output filename for the feed produced to be stored in - only use this if you are exporting a single feed.
-A <amazon feed type> The amazon feed type to use for this run (only used if an amazon seller central feed is being produced. Enter the keywork in the left hand column to produce a feed for the category shown in the right hand column.
| ELECTRONICS | Consumer Electronics |
| HOME | Home and Garden |
| TOYS | Toys and Baby |
| WATCHES | Watches |
| JEWELLERY | Jewellry |
| SOFTWARE | Software and Video Games |
| SPORTS | Sports |
| BEAUTY | Beauty |
| HOME | Home Improvements |
| OFFICE | Office |
| APPAREL | Apparel |
| LIGHTING | Lighting |
| AUTOMOTIVE | Automotive |
| FOOD | Food and Beverages |
| INSTRUMENTS | Musical Instrucments |
| PETS | Pet Supplies |
| VIDEO | Video |
| MUSIC | Music |
| BOOKS | Books |
| PRICES | Price and Quantity (update feed) |
-D <option> Include duplicates, Y = include duplicates, N = do not include duplicates
Actinic flat file format export
You can now include details of extended information fields in the export.
Kelkoo Feed
The Kelkoo free format has been removed as an option because kelkoo free is
no longer available.
Ebay Feed
The spoonfeeder format has been removed as an option because spoonfeeder
is no longer available.
Bug Fixes
| Shipping | The 'Professional Computer Bundle' and 'Multimedia PC' products in default site now show the correct shipping costs in feeds |
| The shipping details are now correctly initialised, in the Price grabber feed | |
| Changes to shipping zones in Actinic now take effect immediately in the product mash | |
| VAT exclusive price is now always used when checking for the free postage due to the 'free over' amount | |
| Default weights are taken into account when calculating the shipping weight. | |
| Properties | Problems with editing and removing properties have been fixed. |
| Excluding Products | Use parent is now honoured for the exclusion variables. |
| The user interface for excluding products from feeds is now clearer | |
| Actinic Flat File Format |
If a custom variable is used to specify which image should be used in the feed the full filepath of the image is now added to the filename. |
| Ebay Mash | A spelling mistake has been corrected in the options for the 'site' property. |
| General | If you choose to link to the extended information page, the product page is now automatically used when an extended information page does not exist. |
| HTML is now correctly removed when the !!ExtendedInfo!! macro is used | |
| Quotes are now correctly output, some feeds were outputtng more than required previously. | |
| The extended information page URL is now correct for duplicates. | |
| Channel Advisor | The mandatory fields are now displayed immediately when you define the options a new channel advisor site. |
| Amazon | Quantity is now output correctly in the home improvements feed format. |
| The 'product_type' is now exported correctly for all feed types |