As the options for feed registration are becoming more comprehensive in the forthcoming update to Price Tapestry, I am considering an alternative mechanism for feed registration that I think would save time when registering feeds; and also make it easier to use the register.php automation script.
The plan is to specify a simple XML vocabulary that describes the registration and filter configuration for various affiliate networks. Then, when registering a feed, you can choose one of the predefined configurations as an alternative to completing the registration form manually every time. The same predefined configurations can then also be referred to from the register.php automation script.
Registration profiles would live in a directory called profiles/ relative to the Price Tapestry installation directory. An example file might look like this:
AffiliateWindow.xml
<registration>
<format>XML|PRODUCTS/PRODUCT/</format>
<fields>
<productName>PRODUCTNAME</productName>
<description>DESCRIPTION</description>
<imageURL>IMAGEURL</imageURL>
<buyURL>DEEPLINK</buyURL>
<price>PRICE</price>
<category>MASTERCATEGORY</category>
<brand>BRAND</brand>
<fields>
</registration>So, in addition to using the above registration profile within the adminstration interface, the same file could be referred to from register.php as follows:
$./register.php --merchant="Advanced MP3 Players" --profile="AffiliateWindow.xml" advancedmp3.xmlThe distribution could include a number of registration profiles for the major affiliate networks, and then users can contribute new profiles through the forum. Any thoughts?
Yes, the normal registration form will be more or less as it is now.
when will we get preview of 'work in prgress' ?
Yes... I'm going to start asking for feedback on the way some of the new features have been implemented in the next week or so.
I think there will be an opportunity for an interim release before I work further on the "theming" capability. I don't want to drip feed too many new features because I know a lot of users are making quite substantial visual changes to their site; and the lure of a new feature makes them have to go through all the changes again, or at least try and work out what's changed.
So yes - we'll have a release shortly with the new technical functionality; and then a "final" release after that which will incorporate the theming and plugin architecture.
The idea of automatic registration based on network is great - however as (with the exception of Affiliate Window and Clixgalore) most networks require anatomical maps to discern the difference between their collective arses and elbows I would add the option, but ensure that the templates are user definable - i.e. if possible automatically populate the form fields in "feeds_register_step2.php" based on a "standard" network feed, but allow them to be changed.
Incidentally, the non-UK characterset sites are going really well (have now added Germany, Holland, Spain, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Italy in addition to the French site), thanks again for all of your help.
Duncan
The current method works well. Personally I think I would stick with the current method as it is what I know. Perhaps both should be included as standard?
Yes - just to confirm, the current method isn't going anywhere; this is in addition; and primarily to easy automatic registration.
Hi David,
Hope all is well...I've been looking through the forum for a solution which will allow me to store a default network feed structure/mapping so that I can quickly register new feeds. I just wondered if there is a successor to the solution discussed above?
Thanks in advance.
Best regards
Chris
Hi Chris,
The above is from a very early distribution prior to the auto-selection of fields on Feed Registration Step 2 - so what you can do today is add the field names of any that are not automatically selected to the $config_commonFields array starting at line 21 in config.advanced.php, for example for the Price field;
$config_commonFields["price"] =
array("PRICE/PRICE","PRICE/BUYNOW","price","PRICE","Price","search_price","online_price","our_price");...so if you have a network for which the price field is not auto-selected and the field name is "OFFER/PRICE" you could add this as follows:
$config_commonFields["price"] =
array("PRICE/PRICE","PRICE/BUYNOW","price","PRICE","Price","search_price","online_price","our_price","OFFER/PRICE");Hope this helps!
Cheers,
David.
--
PriceTapestry.com
Hi David,
Thanks as always for your quick reply. The above works perfectly (even for extended fields) and will certainly save me a load of time when registering new feeds.
Best regards
Chris
Would the old method also be available??
Whilst the AW xml feeds are quite good and remain uniform
AF feeds are terrible, some are csv, some are tab seperated, and in some prices etc are in different fields, nothing uniform about them
i personally dont mind registering the feed the current way, as once registered and imported, i can the go test it is all correct
and it only needs doing once per feed, so long as i dont need to do them all again for the upgrade :-)