Is there any plan to add categories?
i imagine this could work in a similar way to merchants, where an A - Z is created based on the category names in the category field in the products table
and a search of something like category:televisions
I can see mileage in development of user administered categories; where you import each merchant (and therefore all their products) into a specific category; however because of the poor quality (and numerous different ways of representation) of category information within product feeds it will be almost impossible to create categories automatically.
If those interested in categorisation could work out what sort of features you'd be looking for in this thread I will have a look at creating a secondary distribution with categorisation. It's quite simple to code up; but it becomes a completely different matter to administer; which is why I haven't included it so far...!
David,
Fair point and I was going to post that info!
What I would like is something where I know that most of the feed is of a certain categories:
e.g
CAT= mp3players [AdvancedMP3Players, Mp3players, etc]
CAT= Gadgets [Firebox, iwantiwant, etc]
Whilst I am on this it would be good to also then have:
all products under £99
100 - 199
200 - 299 etc
Oh one more......
On the page that shows the merchants products ( to the right ) you have the price and the words "compare Prices" - can we make it show how many (if more than 1 price ) they can compare
http://www.ukmp3.co.uk/mp3players_compare/merchants.php
(UG) sorry David - you know what I am like!
Any chance of some more detail in the head tags - something from the SEO point of view is better than nothing.
Also a google site map bolt on ;-)
Any chance of splitting everything down in to 2 colums ?
Some feeds from AW have reasonable categories, other have none
so what i figured was, import the category in the feed, you could then create filters to do what you want with the
for example if you want televisons, and one feed has TV you could run a search and replace on TV
again, if you have a feed that has no category, and the deal mostly with MP3 players you could just put a filter of text before of 'MP3 Players'
i think that is a better option than putting everything from 1 feed into a single category
for example Comet where would you put it, kitchen appliances, TV and Audio?? it covers a wide range, and a single category would not cover it, but the AW feed already has a reasonable set of categories applied!!
It's a fair point and the biggest problem with the feeds (always has been).
Untill intelligent mapping comes out (when someone invents it) or when the mechants start using MPNs we are all stuck
It would be nice where the merchant provides them to work with brand
eg
sony
phillips
hoover
etc
Just an idea:
When the feed is generated it would be *nice* if a set of links were generated (cut and paste) for the Brand
FIELD3 Creative Labs = http://xxxxxxxxxxx
so the search.php?q=merchant:Advanced+MP3Players:
would be
search.php?q=brand:xxx:
You would need to know which ones were possible - maybe in a brand.php file?
If this is possible it would be good to have a tick box selection to make each brand active as required.
As i say, some feed have it, and i am sure in the future more will if people demand it..
There will always be differances, but the search and replace filters are quite powerful, and only need to be setup once
so i figued import from the feed, modify with filters then just have a page similar to the merchants page that creates a map automatically
obviously there is no reason you would have to use the category page, you could create your own set of hyperlinks for the front page or nav menu..
One problem i have found particularly with electricals is just the model number is used for the product name, so if someone searches television, many wont show as the name does not contain it, at least if i were able to have a nav menu based on category, i could ensure all televisions get shown!
[please start a new thread with unrelated feature requests - Thanks!]
I am only going to have 2 feeds, one for indoor funiture and another for outdoor furniture. There I really need the script to use the categories that come in the feed to drill down the products in the right area and make the script useable rather than just relying on a search facility that cannot do the job.
Would it be possible to pay for a modified version of the script so that I can get this done in a shorter timeframe?
Ok, I quite like the way this works now i've had a play around with it. The automation scripts also need updating before I can merge this into the current distribution.
Yes i like that
the only thing that i would also like is a filter on the category..
Only because i guess some feeds will have 'televisions' some will have 'television' this would create 2 categories, but with search and replace on one of the feeds would ensure it could be made into 1
Well spotted - i've now added the category field to the drop down on the add filter form. The category is taken "post filtering", so you can do exactly as you describe and create a search and replace filter on, for example, "Television" and make it "Televisions" to match other feeds.
Very good, will cover the needs of those who want to put all of a feed into 1 category, or those who want to take it from a feed
I guess something that could be handy is a drop select box with the categorties in.. one for merchants too..
you can currently do searches on:
merchant:product and i guess now cat:product ie: category:Audio Hi Fi:ipod
what might be handy is merchant:category:product
It would be useful to have the category's already in use to be echoed here so that I know there is a television category in exsistance before I start on feed 2 for example.
Whilst your doing this bit can you also add in another selection for Brand - So that the results can be filtered to create a brand list as well as category list.
Again having the brand echoed as a pre- selection (where used before) would be useful.
Any news on the product cross linking as described above ? Would be very useful to associate products at will (esp with the loose matching at present)
Just another "quick" idea
Will it then be possible to list (where Availible) the categories under each merchant?
For example B and Q have loads of different categories and I wiould like to list them as "merchant dependant" as well as in their own right. (see menu on left hand side of shopsort.co.uk)
B and Q
---- Garden
---- Plants
---- Kitchen
Joe Bloggs Demo Store
---- All Products
etc
If they dont have categories or you didnt want to use them then "all " could be the default setting.
Eddie - there's nothing stopping you selecting a BRAND field as the category...
Ok David, but then I would have to run it against the feed improt and filter twice?
Once for the Brand
Once for the Category
You just need to add another box like you have for Category for "Brand" (and maybe one under that called "user defined" - might stop people asking for more sections)
Are there any other common fields against which a separate index would be desirable?
The current indexes are:
merchant
category (beta site only)
brand (requested)
..any others?
Not Really.. that certainly covers most of what i could want
What might be nice is some generic 'other' fields that you can import anything into
as some feed have other useful details such as lead time, delivery costs (just a thought)
Similar could go to the merchants table, might want to add a merchant logo, etc
i have been looking around for a merchant 'rating' system that could be integrated..
all sort of things, but how much falls within the scope of what you wanted this script to do?
The things i see as important are
categories (as above)
better search
some means of tieing products together allowing better comparison
the rest i see as 'nice trimmings'
Thats a great idea an one I was going to ask