microsoft live search cashback

[2CDev]

Re: microsoft live search cashback

I had wondered if you could do the cat export or something and just cut and paste, but was also worried if the line count was off by even one, we would be in big trouble, so it will be interesting to see what the official word is on this.

[Meander]

Re: microsoft live search cashback

Holly,

I opened both files in a tiled view and then paged down both windows to make sure I could do a straight C&P. This was the case in my exports, so the C&P was straightforward.

I'm just guessing here, but I'm betting there is a hidden (from us at least) field with some sort of sequence number whenever a product is added to the database. When it comes time to export, it automatically orders along this hidden field and thus I would expect it to remain in sync between the two exports each time. Just a guess here, YMMV.

[2CDev]

Re: microsoft live search cashback

I will try that and see what happens. When you are on deadlines, you hate to take up so much time trying things that might not work, when you really need to be getting things done. Was hoping for a word "from on high" to settle the steps needed.

[Mark Johnson]

Re: microsoft live search cashback

Holly,

I opened both files in a tiled view and then paged down both windows to make sure I could do a straight C&P. This was the case in my exports, so the C&P was straightforward.

I'm just guessing here, but I'm betting there is a hidden (from us at least) field with some sort of sequence number whenever a product is added to the database. When it comes time to export, it automatically orders along this hidden field and thus I would expect it to remain in sync between the two exports each time. Just a guess here, YMMV.

Your guess is correct, the two different export modules both scan the database in the same way. So they will return products in the same order. This will allow you to do the copy and paste as you describe.

Because products can be in many categories, the Microsoft Live Search cashback module stores the Miva Merchant category that you have chosen to represent your product on Live Search. If you haven't yet chosen one then none is exported. The philosophy was, "better to export nothing instead of something that is wrong".

However by following this thread it's becoming apparent that maybe the philosophy of "better something rather than nothing" would work better, especially for people with large stores. So I'm thinking that in our next module update, we should have the export guess a category for products that haven't had one chosen yet. Feedback would be appreciated.

[Meander]

Re: microsoft live search cashback

Mark,

Yes, I think the "something rather than nothing" approach would be better.

It would be absolutely wonderful though if we could get advance notice of "unmappable" MIVA CategoryCodes to Cashback Merchant'sCategory codes (my previously referenced CategoryCode "BagTags" is one example). Perhaps a 'MS Cashback Exceptions' page where we could see a list of all products with unmappable CategoryCodes and then a drop down box with the MS Cashback Category Code list so that we could choose which MS Cashback category the item would go in to and then have that choice populate the appropriate field for the Cashback publish.

Yes, I realize that for stores with a large number of "unmappable" CategoryCodes, there would be a large amount of manual effort required, but that would only need to be done once. Once a Cashback Merchant'sCategory code is selected, that item would not appear on the "Unmappable" screen any further.

And yes, I realize that this would require a great deal of coding effort on your end Mark, but that's what makes MIVA so wonderful: the effort you put into making the best shopping cart software around!

[2CDev]

Re: microsoft live search cashback

Two bits of feedback here:

A) Certainly mention in the PDF that that step of copying and pasting needs to happen and how to do it...or

B) A Something Rather Than Nothing approach.

Appreciate all your hard work in following all our feedback on this new module. It is nice to feel like the issues are being heard and addressed.

[2CDev]

Re: microsoft live search cashback

Using the above techniques for importing category codes, I edited the data, saved it, uploaded and overwrote my previous attempt, chose the 'update products' method and it cameup with somewhat confusing rsult:

4314 products in file, 0 replaced, 305 updated, 4009 not processed

Not sure why it didn't update all the items as all of them had the cat code added.

So now tried to publish the items and Live Search is telling me that i cannot log in.

Grrr...okay, back to their rep to find out why...

Also, unclear on how many items actually made it into our final LS file now.

[2CDev]

Re: microsoft live search cashback

Update - redid the upload/overwrite process, having click logging this time, and replaced items, just in case, and came up with the same numbers in my results as above.

Hit the publish button to see what would happen and it did its little progress bar showing that it published 3908 of 3967, which would be the difference of non-active items.

So, still confused about the upload results not looking right, and (wink) have no idea how to harvest the log file it told it to create to give me any clues.

I guess i might have to wait until Monday to see what the rep sees on her end.

Thanks Mark for the personal call to help out...really grateful for the attention to these issues.

[2CDev]

Re: microsoft live search cashback

The idea to cut and paste the Cat Codes from the Product Export file to the Live Search file doesn't work.

1) the product file is exporting more products than the Live Search one, thus the need to manually figuring out where the line count gets off.

2) it exports multiple cats if your product is assigned to multiple cats, thus creating a need to go in and manually edit each line.

For stores with 1000's of products, this is not useful. So back to the original question - since all of these methods currently require so much manual work, if the staff is unable or unwilling to do this manual work on such a large database, are we pretty much stuck not using the module at all until Miva streams the next installment?

My suggestions would be to have it export cats from the module without the added step of combining other data and only the highest level cat as the default, or if we could have our druthers, a radio button that tells it to export:

a) top level cats only (default)
b) top level unless second level is assigned (option)
c) top level unless third level is assigned (option)

Or something like this.

[2CDev]

Re: microsoft live search cashback

Mark, some final feedback:

It took us over 12 attempts to come up with a workable data set with one client that has 1000's of items. It exported $0 priced items. It didn't map or properly export the cat codes for each item. Then the pixel didn't get put in place while activating the module. Or documentation on how to install it was missing from the instructions.

At this point the client was near near quitting after having to spend so much time and money to get this working and pretty much wants to vomit at the thought of having to go through that much work again in a week when prices or inventory change.

So, what is the current ETA on fixing these sorts of issues so that I can reassure clients that have gotten this far and want to quit, or for clients that want to do it for the first time?

Appreciate the updated status!

[Matt Cotten]

Re: microsoft live search cashback

Are there some instructions in the works for this?

Or another update the the module coming?

I had previously tried to implement this for a client using instructions from Microsoft and then using the Miva Merchant module but I didn’t have success with either. My client is trying to submit a feed but we had trouble with getting the tracking to work.

[Mark Johnson]

Re: microsoft live search cashback

Holly,

Thanks for the feedback. We are having a meeting Friday with Microsoft to go over the issues that their reps have had in implementing the program. At that time we will finalize what changes need to be made to the module based on the feedback from this thread and the input from their reps.

One thing I know will be in the next release is some kind of default handling for categories. I expect that we will finalize the feature set on Friday and then make some progress on implementation early next week. Then the Miva Conference at the end of the week will mean the development effort won't finish until the following week. Then we will need a couple of days for testing.
So I would expect the update to be available late that week or early the following.

The updated document has been completed and approved by Microsoft. So it should be available either right before or right after the conference.

[Mark Johnson]

Re: microsoft live search cashback

I found that the instructions are actually ready to go now. So with no further ado, here they are.

[Meander]

Re: microsoft live search cashback

OK, I've gotten my items published successfully and now have one other question...

I noticed when looking for items on search.live.com, some items (from other stores) have images displayed but mine do not. Did I miss something in the settings that should have been included or what do I have to do to get my images displayed with my products?

[Mark Johnson]

Re: microsoft live search cashback

OK, I've gotten my items published successfully and now have one other question...

I noticed when looking for items on search.live.com, some items (from other stores) have images displayed but mine do not. Did I miss something in the settings that should have been included or what do I have to do to get my images displayed with my products?

If your products have images in Miva Merchant, they are automatically sent as part of the data feed. If they are not showing up on the Microsoft search site you should check with your Microsoft rep to find out why.